Video verification a priority for new CSAA president Hauhn

VIENNA, Va.—Establishing the Partnership for Priority Video Alarm Response as a standing committee within the Central Station Alarm Association will be a top priority for recently elected CSAA President Jay Hauhn.�

“It is my intention to work with the PPVAR leadership and hopefully bring PPVAR into the CSAA,” Hauhn, CTO and VP of industry relations at TycoIS, said. “That is the No. 1 thing that I will be focusing on for the first several months of my tenure.”

Hauhn, who was elected president by CSAA members at the group's annual meeting in October, says bringing an organization like PPVAR into CSAA could help provide a “single common voice” for the monitoring industry.

While there's no timeline set for when such a move might be finalized, the wheels are in motion. At its annual meeting, the CSAA board voted to initiate a discussion. Leaders for both associations still need to determine how PPVAR will be structured under the CSAA, and to hash out a sensible way to merge PPVAR with CSAA's existing video monitoring committee, Hauhn said.

Don Young, president of PPVAR, and chief information officer at Protection 1, agrees that the move is beneficial for the industry. “Probably the most important thing is having that unified voice on video verification,” Young said, adding that CSAA's membership has a ”very high interest in what video verification is going to do to the future of the monitoring business.”�

In addition to presenting a more unified front, the move also makes sense based on the common challenges faced by each group, according to Young.�

“We're challenged even more these days to explain the value of our central station monitoring,” he said. “Why do you want an operator to be there to answer that alarm signal? Why do you want an operator to handle the dispatch with the 911 center versus having things go to your cellphone to do it yourself?” He said that PPVAR thinks that one of the best ways to show the value of monitoring “is by having an operator be paid to look at the video and review that video to determine what action is appropriate.”

Some believe the move would allow each body to play to its strengths. Keith Jentoft, president of RSI Video Technologies and Videofied, and an industry liaison of PPVAR, believes establishing PPVAR as a CSAA committee would allow each organization to assume very clearly defined roles, which he believes is conducive to progress.�

“If this moves forward like we're hoping it will, then the standards would move into CSAA's process, and they would manage that side of it,” Jentoft said. “PPVAR isn't going to try to be a standards-creating body. What we want to do is provide the basic material for standards to be driven forward.”

Besides PPVAR matters, Hauhn plans to pursue several other key objectives over the course of his two-year term as CSAA president. One of these pursuits, he said, will be driving the progress of the Automated Secure Alarm Protocol. Hauhn plans to continue working closely with ASAP's co-chairpersons, Pam Petrow, president of Vector Security, and Ed Bonifas, CEO of ADS Security, toward broader implementation of the program.

“That is a major program with us,” Hauhn said. “Not only does [the ASAP to PSAP program] reduce manpower required, it also reduces time needed and it also eliminates human error.”

Another priority for Hauhn is having strong existing relationships with first responder associations, such as the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the International Sheriff's Association and the International Association of Fire Chiefs. Those relationships, Hauhn noted, were forged through the CSAA's public sector liaison committee. “We meet with the heads of those associations at our annual meeting and go through the issues that are impacting our industry,” he said. “They are really looking forward to the further implementation of the ASAP program."