Police praise for alarm performance

The companies doing the most to help were honoured at the Met's annual Alarm Performance Awards at Scotland Yard.

The gold award winners were Chubb Electronic Security Ltd in the Large Company category, Spy Alarms Ltd in the Medium Company category, and Rampart Security in the Small Company category. There were also silver and bronze winners in each category.

Alongside the winners in the small, medium and large company categories, two special awards, created to recognise exceptional performance, were given for Most Improved False Alarm Rate and for Individual Contribution in False Alarm Management, in partnership with the MPS.

The Most Improved False Alarm Rate was awarded to Harris & Sandford Security Ltd. Over the past year the company has shown the greatest improvement in the false alarm rate per system per year of any company working within MPS area.

The Individual Contribution award went to Mike Banham of Banham Alarms, who has developed a callback system for personal attack alarms that has seen false alarm rates drop by 35 per cent. The system was the subject of a one-year pilot in cooperation with the MPS, and has now been in operation since July 2004.

Met Deputy Assistant Commissioner Ron McPherson said the cost of attending false alarms on monitored systems in London has fallen by an estimated £16.5 million in five years.

Over this period – the length of time the Alarm Performance Awards have been running – the Metropolitan Police Service has recorded a massive drop in the number of false alarms recorded by the 1,100 monitoring companies.

“Reducing the number of false alarms is good for everyone,” McPherson said. “The ever-improving performance of companies monitoring alarm systems means fewer false alarms demanding a police presence are being generated, freeing up officers to attend true alarms and incidents and providing greater safety to the public.

“At the same time reducing the number of false call-outs also produces more efficient use of public funds. The Met estimates the cost of officers attending false alarms has fallen from the equivalent of £25 million in 2000 to around £8.5 million in 2005.”

Chief Inspector Stephen Macdonald said the police relationship with alarm companies will get closer and more sophisticated in the coming years. “In the last decade in London we have seen a remarkable reduction in false alarm activations,” he said. “This year there were 272,000 monitored alarm systems in the Met's coverage area, which is around a quarter of all the monitored alarm systems in the UK. There were 71,000 total alarm activations last year, of which 57,000 were false alarm activations. This is down from 85,000 in 2003, and down from 290,000 in 1995. So that is a reduction of over 220,000 false alarms in a decade. This is indicative of a huge improvement in the alarm service industry in the capital over that time.”

Deputy Assistant Commissioner McPherson said: “I would like to extend my congratulations and thanks to all this year's winners. Through their commitment the Met is able to deploy officers to respond to true alarm calls where there is a real need for police assistance.”

The winners were chosen from 1100 alarm installing companies that work in the MPS area. The winners in the three main categories (small, medium and large companies) are those with the best false alarm rate per system per year as determined by the MPS's Alarm Data Management System database.

The winners in the two new categories are selected by the Security Systems Inspectorate.

And the winners are...

Gold: Rampart Security – Oxfordshire ARC: Custodian
Silver: Albany Alarms – Enfield, Middlesex ARC: Custodian
Bronze: Cox Security – Sidcup, Kent. ARC: Yeoman

Medium companies (managing between 1000-4999 systems)

Gold: Spy Alarms – Sevenoaks, Kent ARC: Custodian
Silver: London East Security Centre Ltd – Manor Park, London. ARC: Securigard
Bronze: Tara Burglar Alarms Ltd – Westminster, London. ARC: Banham

Large Companies (managing over 5000 systems)

Gold: Chubb Electronic Security Ltd – Sunbury-On-Thames. ARC: SMC
Silver: Banham Patent Locks & Alarms – Kensington, London. ARC: Banham
Bronze: Initial Fire and Security – Blackburn, Lancashire. ARC: Initial Monitoring

Most Improved False Alarm Rate:

Harris & Sandford Security Ltd – Beckenham, Kent. ARC: Custodian & Yeoman

Individual Contribution in False Alarm Management in Partnership with the Metropolitan Police Service:

Mike Bowman, Banham Patent Locks and Alarms – Kensington, London. ARC: Banham