Down with false alarms... again

Last year, having recently taken over the chair of the Association of Chief Police Officers’ (ACPO) Security Systems Working Group, I used the pages of Security Management Today (SMT) to discuss the overriding need for making a radical impact on the level of false alarm activations (‘An alarming situation?’, SMT, April 2004, p27).

The social value of intruder alarms lies in their ability to reassure, reduce the fear of crime, deter (and prevent) crime and to provide opportunities for detecting it. Of course, their other value lies in mitigating high insurance premiums. The social cost of alarms, on the other hand, is manifested in the wasteful deployment of emergency services resources to attend false alarm activations and, on occasion, in the injury (or worse) and damage which can occur accidentally owing to the efforts of the emergency services’ personnel attending activations as a matter of urgency.

Pleasingly, the ACPO statistics just published for 2004 show that false alarm activations have fallen by around 20%, indicating that the security industry, its clients and the police service are together making that aforementioned radical impact (while at the same time increasing the number of remote systems). Proof – if indeed any were needed – that there is no conflict between producing better social outcomes and maintaining and developing a healthy industry.

The other good news is that, nationally, burglary rates have fallen during the past calendar year. I’m sure that security systems, together with innumerable other factors, deserve a fair share of the credit for this.

Pressure on police resources

Overall, then, 2004 was a hugely positive year for the Security Systems Working Group. However, there is further work to be done. Continuing pressure on police resources creates a further impetus for tighter demand management. In some quarters, this has led to the downgrading of police response, reflecting the continuing unlikelihood of alarm activations signifying the commission of any form of crime.

Fortunately, we have managed to retain a good level of cohesion within the service concerning alarm response. That said, let us not be under any illusion that the grounds for challenging the need to provide urgent response to alarms have suddenly disappeared, despite the latest statistics.

In most cases, connection to an Alarm Receiving Centre (ARC) depends rather more on the relationship between the installer and the ARC than on any conscious consumer choice

One of the most positive developments of the past 12 months has been the increased linkage between ACPO and the Chief Fire Officers’ Association (CFOA). If you think the police service has a problem with false alarms, I can only imagine how the fire and rescue services feel when such activations constitute approximately one third of their entire reactive demand. It makes sense for the CFOA and ACPO to work together. In many instances, what we need from the industry is identical.

Another area for development in the security industry is increased representation of the interests of the customer (domestic as well as corporate). At present, clients seem to exercise limited choice when purchasing security systems, based on a paucity of useful information. The ‘badging’ of one of the two inspectorates – the National Security Inspectorate or the Security Systems and Alarms Inspection Board – is taken as an emblem of quality without there being any independent way of validating this assumption.

In most cases, connection to an Alarm Receiving Centre (ARC) depends rather more on the relationship between the installer and the ARC than on any conscious consumer choice. Are all ARCs the same? Do some provide better value than others? Nobody seems to know.

Over the next few months, of course, we’ll witness the introduction of new European standards together with the renewal of existing British versions. I’m not sure if anyone in the security sector can fully predict the impact of European legislation. Change is certain.

We in the police service continue to see ourselves as partners of the security systems sector when it comes to delivering the beneficial social outcomes of alarms. In the coming year we will be taking a closer look at some of the issues outlined here and, where appropriate, we’ll be seeking to influence events in a bid to achieve joint objectives.