911 Security Alert Standard Coming?

The Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) will soon announce the fate of a proposed national security standard for automatically routing alarm company alerts to 911 centers.

Alarm companies typically place a phone call to 911 centers when an alarm sounds, but the new standard would send them automatically. 

An automated standard could eliminate 32 million calls nationally from the alarm companies to the 911 public safety answering points, erasing the two to three minutes of processing time call takers need for obtaining information from alarm company operators, according to Bill Hobgood, public safety team project manager of the Richmond, Va., Department of Information Technology.

"That means police, fire and emergency medical services (EMS) will get to the scene of an emergency two and a half to three minutes faster," Hobgood said. "That will increase the likelihood of police apprehension. It increases the chances that fires will be extinguished faster, possibly avoiding a structure being completely engulfed when they arrive. Of course a bunch of lives will be saved from an EMS standpoint."

Hobgood led pilot testing of the standard in Richmond, prompting APCO's consideration for a national standard. APCO's 45-day public comment period - a peer-review process within the organization - ended Dec. 22, 2008. APCO should announce whether the standard prevailed by no later than mid-January.

Richmond's pilot involved one alarm company and two 911 centers and eliminated 5,000 calls during the two-year time span. Richmond is making the standard a law for all its 911 centers.

Hobgood predicts alarm companies won't have trouble adopting the standard if APCO endorses it. "The standard is XML-based. A complete package has been laid out for all [the companies]," he said.

Would the new standard prompt 911 centers to cut staff because there would be fewer incoming calls? Hobgood said he doubts that would happen. Fewer calls from alarm companies would free the call takers to answer the remaining calls promptly, he said.

"The problem today is there is a de facto standard within 911 centers that all calls must be answered in 10 seconds or less. 911 centers are not meeting that because the volume of calls is increasing, yet their level of staff has remained the same," Hobgood explained, blaming funding shortages and high turnover.

"We want to make sure these 911 call takers are charged with a manageable level of calls and have more time to spend on the true emergencies," he added.

Photo 911 Call Center, 2001 - Seattle Municipal Archives. Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic