Re: Commercial Alarm - help

[<thesatguy1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Does anyone is this group ever listen to Police radio traffic?
I have radios on continuously so I can track what is going on.  I have the
scanners in my truck on all day long too so you know if something is going
on in a certain area or if somebody is actually responding to your alarm
calls.  Around here more than 2 hours is normal response although there are
cases where a unit arrives in about 30 min.  No response could be classified
as quick or fast or prompt.  Alarm calls have a low priority while 911
hangup calls get a higher priority.  At least 99% of the 911 calls are no
good yet nobody wants to charge those folks a false call fee.

In this area many peeps try to call Mexico and either can't get through or
get wrong numbers or busy signals... the country code for Mexico is 91.
They dial 91 then 1 then the 10 digit number and surprise surprise they get
the 911 call center and then they hangup and the cops run these stupid
hangup calls 24 hours a day.

>
> I do, and believe me when I say "Burglar alarms are a LOW LOW LOW
> PRIORITY"... Response time is anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours... On a
> busy Friday night, your customer's alarm will probably be cleared out of
> the dispatch system without being assigned to a patrol unit.

The automated dispatch system they use here keeps flashing these 'held'
calls on the dispatcher's screen and after 2 hours they require a
supervisors' permission to continue holding calls.  However, the supervisors
routinely tell them to just keep holding them.  And 2 hours later they tell
them to do the same thing again and on and on.  Many times at 3 or 4 am you
will hear a cop say to the dispatcher to call the reportee back and see if
they still need the police out there as the call has been holding since 5pm
the previous afternoon.  People don't have any idea how screwed up things
are.

> I'm honest with my (I'm in a large metro area) customers, I tell them the
> best response is provided by a Private Patrol Service (A.K.A. Guard
> Service)... It ain't free, but at least the Guard will get out of the car
> and check the premises...

Costs $25. to send a guard unit - ain't nobody going to pay that.

Based on the data supplied by the police chief and fire chief to justify the
permit fees and false alarm fines my suggestion was to send the fire dept on
all burglar alarm calls but city council didn't see the humor.

The police chief reported that it costs anywhere from $3200,-$33,000. to
send 1 policeman in 1 police car to answer a burglar alarm signal and it
takes around 2 hours in many case.

The fire chief says it costs $1100.-$1400. to send 3 fire trucks and 7
fireman to answer a fire alarm signal and they arrive in less than 15
minutes in most cases.

So if we send the fire dept to answer the burglar alarms we would save tons
of money and get faster response and scare the hell out of any burglars.