Tag: Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs)
Mission Critical Partners, Amazon collaborating to support 911
June 25, 2024SSN Staff
STATE COLLEGE, Pa.—Mission Critical Partners (MCP) announced that it will collaborate with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to drive implementation of Amazon Connect into emergency communications centers (ECCs), also known as public safety answering points (PSAPs) and 911 centers, across the United States.
MCP noted that an acute staffing shortage is afflicting ECCs from coast to coast. According to the International Association of Emergency Dispatch (IAED), the average vacancy rate...
TMA-AVS-01 Alarm Validation Standard receives ANSI accreditation
January 31, 2023SSN Staff
MCLEAN, Va.—The Monitoring Association (TMA) Standards Committee has received confirmation that its TMA-AVS-01 Alarm Validation Standard has received official ANSI accreditation.
Initiated in 2020, the standard provides a method of creating an alarm scoring or classification metric for unauthorized human activity detected by alarm systems. The alarm scoring will assist law enforcement with resource allocation and Call-for-Service prioritization.
The standard is available...
Vivint latest big player to go ASAP
October 7, 2015Spencer Ives
PROVO, Utah—Vivint in late September started planning its ASAP to PSAP adoption.
“Vivint was told from this point it is typically four to six weeks before going live with the first PSAP,” Amy Becht, Vivint director of central stations, told Security Systems News. The ASAP program increases the speed and accuracy of transmitting alarm information by sending it digitally from the central station to the PSAP.
In the short term, the program does not affect much of Vivint's...
Guardian implements ASAP to PSAP in Richmond
August 27, 2014Leif Kothe
WARRENDALE, Pa.—When Jason Bradley was named director of central station operations for Guardian Protection Services in April, he said implementing the Automated Secure Alarm Protocol program would be high on the agenda. Just a few months into his tenure, that objective has been realized, with the company going live with the program in Richmond, Va., where the company has a strong account base.
It's a critical first step toward broader implementation in other PSAP-ready jurisdictions,...
PPVAR, SIAC talk verified alarm standards
June 11, 2014Leif Kothe
LAS VEGAS—It's little wonder that the topic of verified alarms tends to spark dialogue between those in law enforcement and the alarm space. Intended to reduce false dispatches while increasing apprehensions, verified alarms—and the policies that guide them—are of critical importance to both groups, and continue to shape the relationship between them.
And, given the ongoing conversation about standards for verified alarms, there's still much to be said on the topic.
That's...
Making money on mobile monitoring
May 28, 2014Leif Kothe
YARMOUTH, Maine—Whether the talk is about mobile PERS devices with geo-fencing, speed alerts and lone-worker monitoring, or about smartphone apps that better connect subscribers with central stations, the takeaway is that the monitoring space is going mobile, and the transformation is happening fast, according to central station executives who are using these newer technologies.
“[mPERS] is absolutely the fastest growing thing we see right now on the PERS side, with the emergence of...
World Wide Security changing the PSAP data model for mPERS
May 7, 2014Leif Kothe
GARDEN CITY, N.Y.—Since the inception of mobile PERS, central stations have faced the problem of getting the devices to cheaply and reliably identify the appropriate public safety answering point during an emergency situation.
World Wide Security, a full-service security company here, has developed a service for mPERS that seeks to address these challenges while creating a new RMR stream for central stations. The company's PERS division, Life Button 24, recently introduced an mPERS service...
NICE Systems launches PSAP tool
August 16, 2013SSN Staff
RA'ANANA, Israel—NICE Systems recently announced the launch of NICE Inform Version 6, which enables Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs) to evaluate the quality of service delivered across an entire emergency incident, according to a company statement.
The solution offers value to public safety organizations by supporting the evaluation of single calls as well as complete incidents, including the processing of multimedia input, such as GIS, video and CAD screen.
This helps PSAPs...
More mobility for UCC with new central station automation
June 26, 2013Rich Miller
SAN ANTONIO—United Central Control is switching to SGS' Stages for its central station automation, giving UCC dealers expanded access to mobile applications and improving efficiencies to reduce alarm-processing errors, company officials told Security Systems News.
UCC President Teresa Gonzalez said the wholesale monitoring provider, based here, took two years to determine which automation software would be best for its 500 dealers.
“We needed to look at where we are headed with...
PSAP problems in Illinois raise safety concerns
July 25, 2012Tess Nacelewicz
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill.—A PSAP that controls emergency communications for numerous municipalities around Chicago is reportedly having such problems with delayed response times that dispatchers recently voted “no confidence” in the agency's management.
The situation at Northwest Central Dispatch System serves as a good example of why cities and towns shouldn't shut central stations out of the fire monitoring business if they want the public to be safe, according to the...