ASAP® Network Widens with Addition of CMS

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Implementation of the “Automated Secure Alarm Protocol” is Building Nationwide

VIENNA, VA (November 3, 2015) — Criticom Monitoring Services (CMS), one of the largest wholesale alarm monitoring companies in the United States, went live with ASAP® in the city of Richmond, VA on October 21. “Awareness of ASAP’s very real benefits to PSAPs is spreading,” said Jay Hauhn, executive director of CSAA. “The program gathers momentum with each prestigious national monitoring company that comes on board. Having CMS go live is a big step in the process of implementing this service around the nation.”

“CMS is now live with its ASAP-to-PSAP adoption,” commented Tony Wilson, President, CMS. “Our hope is that the ASAP program will increase the speed and accuracy of our dispatches.” CMS serves more than 3,500 alarm companies and their 800,000 customers. Their broad range of monitoring services includes response to security, fire, Personal Emergency Response Systems (PERS), environmental and interactive services such as two-way voice and remote video.

“It took about a year to launch the ASAP program,” continued Wilson. “We did this intentionally so that we could minimize the impact to our dealers. ASAP-to-PSAP is currently implemented for our 21 dealers located in the city of Richmond, VA; this affects approximately 500 subscriber accounts. Our Richmond contact, Bill Hobgood, was an excellent resource and helped to make this project easier. Our operators are excited for this new technology to communicate dispatches electronically and can’t wait for more and more PSAPs to follow suit. Over the next few weeks we will begin working on expanding our ASAP implementation to include our dealers located in Henrico County, VA and Washington, DC.”

ASAP was launched in 2011 as a public-private partnership, designed to increase the efficiency and reliability of emergency electronic signals from central station alarm companies to Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs). ASAP utilizes ANSI standard protocols developed cooperatively by the Association of Public Communications Officials (APCO) and the Central Station Alarm Association (CSAA).

With ASAP, critical life safety signals and accurate information is processed more quickly, through the Nlets system of state-to-state PSAP communication, insuring that complete and accurate information is transmitted to the PSAP every time. The ASAP program has the potential to save PSAPs and emergency services millions of dollars.

Bill Hobgood, Project Manager, Public Safety Team Department of Information Technology City of Richmond, Virginia, has noted that “The percentage of alarm notifications transmitted to Richmond using the ASAP service has increased exponentially with the addition of each new central station to the ASAP program. In contrast, the Richmond Emergency Communications staff are receiving fewer telephone calls from central stations, which is one of the ASAP goals.”

For more information on ASAP or to access ASAP resources (videos, webinars, training and outreach materials), contact CSAA at asap@csaaintl.org or 703-242-4670, or visit csaaintl.org/asap.

 

About CSAA International

The Central Station Alarm Association International (CSAA) is an internationally-recognized non-profit trade association that represents professional monitoring companies that are listed by a CSAA-approved Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratory, such as FM Approvals, Intertek/ETL or UL. CSAA is legally entitled to represent its members before Congress and regulatory agencies on the local, state and federal levels, and other authorities having jurisdiction (AHJs) over the industry. Since its incorporation in 1950, CSAA has served its members’ interests through education, online training, meetings and conventions, certification, insurance, and industry standards. www.csaaintl.org. For more information, contact Elizabeth Lasko at CSAA, 703-242-4670 x 16.

Diebold is Latest Central Station to Go Live with ASAP®

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Implementation of the “Automated Secure Alarm Protocol” is Building Nationwide

VIENNA, VA (October 20, 2015) — Diebold, Incorporated, a global provider of integrated self-service solutions, security systems and services, went live with ASAP® in the city of Richmond, VA on September 9. “The momentum with ASAP continues as we add another national provider,” said CSAA President Pamela J. Petrow. “We are excited to have Diebold now transmitting alarm activity through the network and look forward to their expansion into additional cities.”

“With ASAP, priority alarm signals are processed within seconds, not minutes, ensuring that complete and accurate information is transmitted from the Diebold Monitoring Center to the PSAP every time,” said Damon Kanzler, Diebold electronic security, vice president, centralized services and business processes. “This time savings will improve dispatching services for Diebold customers while reducing the volume of time-consuming alarm calls to local PSAPs and increase our dispatcher productivity.”

ASAP was launched in 2011 as a public-private partnership, designed to increase the efficiency and reliability of emergency electronic signals from central station alarm companies to Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs). ASAP utilizes ANSI standard protocols developed cooperatively by the Association of Public Communications Officials (APCO) and the Central Station Alarm Association (CSAA).

With ASAP, critical life safety signals and accurate information is processed more quickly, through the Nlets system of state-to-state PSAP communication, insuring that complete and accurate information is transmitted to the PSAP every time. The ASAP program has the potential to save PSAPs and emergency services millions of dollars.

“The city of Richmond is delighted that Diebold, one of the largest national central stations, has joined the ASAP program and is using ASAP to deliver alarms to the City of Richmond,” said Bill Hobgood, Project Manager, Public Safety Team Department of Information Technology City of Richmond, Virginia. “The percentage of alarm notifications transmitted to Richmond using the ASAP service has increased exponentially with the addition of each new central station to the ASAP program. In contrast, the Richmond Emergency Communications staff are receiving fewer telephone calls from central stations, one of the ASAP goals. This reduction in the 10-digit telephone number call volumes has generated greater customer satisfaction by allowing the 9-1-1 call-takers to focus greater attention on the citizens who dial 9-1-1. Diebold is a welcome addition.”

For more information on ASAP or to access ASAP resources (videos, webinars, training and outreach materials), contact CSAA at asap@csaaintl.org or 703-242-4670, or visit csaaintl.org/asap.

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About CSAA International

The Central Station Alarm Association International (CSAA) is an internationally-recognized non-profit trade association that represents professional monitoring companies that are listed by a CSAA-approved Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratory, such as FM Approvals, Intertek/ETL or UL. CSAA is legally entitled to represent its members before Congress and regulatory agencies on the local, state and federal levels, and other authorities having jurisdiction (AHJs) over the industry. Since its incorporation in 1950, CSAA has served its members’ interests through education, online training, meetings and conventions, certification, insurance, and industry standards. www.csaaintl.org. For more information, contact Elizabeth Lasko at CSAA, 703-242-4670 x 16.

ADT is Live with ASAP®

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Automated Secure Alarm Protocol Now Available to PSAPs around the Country

VIENNA, VA (September 16, 2015) — ADT Security Services, ranked as the largest central station in the nation, went live with ASAP® in the city of Richmond, VA on August 25. CSAA executives cheered the news as ADT’s adoption will cause a surge in the availability of the ASAP program to Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs) around the country.

“Having ADT go live is a milestone for the ASAP program,” said CSAA President Pamela J. Petrow, CEO of Vector Security. “With the size of their account base, ADT’s utilization of ASAP brings instant benefits to most PSAPs.  This is critical because it allows the PSAP to better position the deployment of ASAP among their many initiatives.”

“Launching ASAP is consistent with our commitment to provide superior customer service,” said Steve Shapiro, Vice President, Industry Relations, ADT, and a member of the CSAA Board of Directors. “As more PSAPs adopt the use of ASAP, we look forward to using this technology that improves their efficiency and communications operations productivity.”

ASAP was launched in 2011 as a public-private partnership, designed to increase the efficiency and reliability of emergency electronic signals from central station alarm companies to PSAPs. ASAP utilizes ANSI standard protocols developed cooperatively by the Association of Public Communications Officials (APCO) and the Central Station Alarm Association (CSAA).

With ASAP, critical life safety signals and accurate information is processed in seconds, not minutes, through the Nlets system of state-to-state PSAP communication, insuring that complete and accurate information is transmitted to the PSAP every time. The ASAP program has the potential to save PSAPs and emergency services millions of dollars.

“ADT’s implementation of ASAP is a win-win for ADT, the ASAP project, and the City of Richmond,” said Bill Hobgood, Project Manager, Public Safety Team Department of Information Technology City of Richmond, Virginia. “ADT will experience first-hand the benefits of using the ASAP program that so many other alarm central stations have experienced. This is the ASAP project’s biggest achievement yet. The city of Richmond’s Emergency Communications staff are thrilled about ADT joining the program and anxious for more alarm companies to follow.”

“ADT has supported ASAP thoroughly since its inception, and now that they are connecting, PSAPs throughout the country will take notice,” said Jay Hauhn, CSAA Executive Director. “With Protection One on line and other nationals at the doorstep, 2016 will be a great year for ASAP.”

In the August 2015 issue of APCO’s Public Safety Magazine (PSC), David Cutler, director of the Houston Emergency Center (HEC), reported savings of nearly $400,000 annually from reduced call volume following ASAP implementation. “These dollars were re-purposed within the department to expand training, supervisory and administrative positions,” Cutler said. He estimated that Houston will eventually achieve a 30% reduction in call volume as more alarm companies come on board with ASAP, for a savings of $1 million.

Also in PSC, Hobgood stated that “… all PSAPs currently using ASAP should experience a significant reduction in 10-digit call volume once ADT goes live with each agency. Those PSAPs will experience the luxury of having ADT’s alarm notifications delivered efficiently and accurately via the ASAP program. ADT monitors more than 6 million alarm systems, so the announcement is likely to [prompt] other alarm companies to step up and participate in the ASAP program as well.“

For more information on ASAP or to access ASAP resources (videos, webinars, training and outreach materials), contact CSAA at asap@csaaintl.org or 703-242-4670, or visit csaaintl.org/asap.

 

About CSAA International

The Central Station Alarm Association International (CSAA) is an internationally-recognized non-profit trade association that represents professional monitoring companies that are listed by a CSAA-approved Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratory, such as FM Approvals, Intertek/ETL or UL. CSAA is legally entitled to represent its members before Congress and regulatory agencies on the local, state and federal levels, and other authorities having jurisdiction (AHJs) over the industry. Since its incorporation in 1950, CSAA has served its members’ interests through education, online training, meetings and conventions, certification, insurance, and industry standards. www.csaaintl.org. For more information, contact Elizabeth Lasko at CSAA, 703-242-4670 x 16.

 

Bill Hobgood Presents ASAP to the PSAP at the IACP 120th Annual Conference

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Bill Hobgood presented an educational session at the IACP Annual Conference in Philadelphia on Saturday, October 19th. The session was titled “Automated Secure Alarm Protocol (ASAP) to the Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP): Reducing 9-1-1 Processing and Response Times by Minutes for Alarm Notifications Between Alarm Monitoring Companies and 9-1-1 PSAPs.”

Hobgood spoke of the ASAP program gaining momentum following implementations in Richmond, Houston, Washington DC and other localities. ASAP is proven to reduce 9-1-1 processing and response times, eliminate mistakes, miscommunications, and telephone calls.


Photo credit: Keith Jentoft

News for ASAP Program – June 13, 2013

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ASAP on Fast track

 The ASAP to PSAP program is moving at a fast pace.  In under two years, 30+ ASAP Charter members are contracted to participate in the ASAP program.

ASAP program opens specialized wiki

The ASAP Outreach committee has launched the Charter members only wiki link for participants in the ASAP program.   The wiki houses information from “how to get my alarm company ready” to “how do I get my PSAP to participate” as well as tips and contacts. To gain access to the wiki, log onto

http://wiki.csaaul.org/ASAP/

ASAP to PSAP: One Size Fits All

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The month of May has been a busy month for the Automated Secure Alarm Protocol (ASAP) program. Efforts are underway to migrate all Nlets directly connected alarm monitoring companies to the new Central Station Alarm Association (CSAA) managed Message Broker. In concert with this effort, CAD providers that have an ASAP interface solution have been upgrading their ASAP software applications to the 3.3 schema. Couple these efforts with new added security between the Message Broker and the Nlets Message Switch, three new CAD providers testing their ASAP interface solution, one new alarm automation provider testing its solution and the first of the next five alarm companies to join the ASAP program becoming connected to the Message Broker, and it has been a busy month indeed.

The ASAP ANSI standard is a one-size-fits-all solution: It is no secret that the ASAP to the PSAP program works well for the Houston Emergency Center (HEC), reported to be the fourth largest PSAP in the United States. It’s responsible for providing public safety communications to 2.3 million residents over an area of 634 square miles. Houston is a huge metropolis, so large that someone driving a vehicle could start from one end point on the interstate on the edge of Houston and continue to drive and still be in Houston one hour later. The HEC receives 2,600 police-related alarms weekly and 13% require no calltaker involvement because of ASAP. As more alarm companies begin their participation, this percentage will increase, and fewer alarm notifications will require calltaker involvement. Houston is preparing to begin accepting fire and medical alarms via the ASAP program in June.

The ASAP standard works well for the City of Richmond Virginia, a medium-size PSAP about one-tenth the size of Houston in both population (204,751) and land area (63 square miles). Richmond averages 250 alarms (police, fire and medical) weekly. Approximately 18% of these alarms are received via the ASAP program. Like Houston, this percentage will increase as more alarm companies are added to the program including the long-awaited, granddaddy of the alarm industry: ADT.

The ASAP program works for large cities/counties, medium-size cities/counties and small towns. Like Houston, the ASAP program will work for New York City; Chicago; Los Angeles; San Diego; Washington, D.C.; Boston; Dallas; Fairfax County, Va.; Atlanta; San Antonio; Denver; and so on. Like Richmond, it will work for Norfolk, Newport News, Charlotte, Virginia Beach, Savannah, Charleston, Portland, etc. ASAP to the PSAP can work for a one position 9-1-1 PSAP that receives only one alarm a day or perhaps only one a week. Many of the cities and counties mentioned above are actively working with their CAD providers to acquire an interface to receive the ASAP traffic.

The ASAP is an American National Standard that is not vendor specific or proprietary. It is based on open standards using the Extensible Markup Language and conforms to the National Information Exchange Model (NIEM). CAD providers and alarm monitoring automation providers need only develop the ASAP interface once and deploy it many times to their customers.

Some determining factors if the ASAP program will work for your agency (now or later): The logistics of the ASAP program requires that the PSAP have a CAD system capable of interfacing to the Nlets state control point. Typically, the transport path for alarm notifications is (1) alarm monitoring company sends to (2) CSAA Message Broker sends to (3) Nlets sends to (4) state control point sends to (5) PSAP’s CAD system. Responses from the CAD system to the alarm monitoring company use the reverse route. The travel time from the alarm monitoring company to the PSAP has been benchmarked in the 2 – 5 seconds range. This means that from the time that the alarm operator initiates the alarm notification to the PSAP, the data shows up within 2 – 5 seconds on average at the PSAP’s CAD system and the CAD will automatically create a new call-for-service alarm event instantly. Because the ASAP program bypasses the call-taker process, the first indication to PSAP staff of the new alarm event is upon delivery of the call-for-service event to the radio operator’s pending call queue. The CAD can be configured to automatically broadcast high priority law enforcement-related alarms to all Mobile Data Computers (MDCs) in the field to enable a rapid response by law enforcement resources sometimes starting before the voice dispatch by the radio operator.

If the PSAP does not have a connection to the state control point, often this may mean that the PSAP is a secondary PSAP. Sometimes a secondary PSAP may have an agreement in place with the primary PSAP and be able to make use of the primary PSAP as a message switch. When this arrangement is not practical, the statewide Emergency Service IP Networks (ESInets) hold promise for the future and may offer those PSAPs that are unable to connect to the state control point a viable alternative in receiving ASAP traffic. The APCO/CSAA Technical Committee will continue to monitor connectivity possibilities as the ESInets are deployed in each state.

For PSAPs that have a CAD system that is capable of interfacing to the state control point, the next obvious question is whether the PSAP’s CAD provider offers an ASAP interface solution. To make this determination, the practical method is to contact the CAD provider and ask. Even if the CAD provider does not have a solution, at least the PSAP has made its interest in the PSAP program known to the CAD provider. Some CAD providers have made business decisions to provide a solution for their most current CAD product line, but not for their older product lines.

The cost of an ASAP interface is surely another consideration for some agencies. APCO and the CSAA have encouraged CAD providers to absorb research and development costs, and then spread those costs across license fees for the CAD providers’ customers. While the ASAP to PSAP articles steer clear of mentioning license fees, the costs may be cheaper than you might think. Again, contact your CAD provider. If they have an ASAP solution, ask about the costs associated with implementing ASAP.

Reprinted from Public Safety Communications. Written by Bill Hobgood on May 30, 2012 in APCO, Calltaking/Dispatch, Codes/Standards, News, Operations, Tech

 

About the Author

Bill Hobgood is a Project Manager for the City of Richmond’s DIT Public Safety Team with 40 years of experience in public safety. He is also a Project Coordinator for APCO’s Comm Center & 9-1-1 Services Department and a Subject-Matter-Expert on the ASAP Project. Contact Bill via email at asap@apcointl.org.

ASAP Message Broker Goes “Live”

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On Monday, April 16, the long awaited CSAA message broker server—a critical component of the Automated Secure Alarm Protocol (ASAP)—became operational in the production environment.
The City of Richmond (Va.) Police Department’s Division of Emergency Communications and Vector Security, two of the three original ASAP pilot participants, migrated to the CSAA message broker officially at 1 p.m. EST on April 16. The migration was seamless and transparent for the end users at both Vector Security’s and Richmond’s 911 PSAP, according to Bill Hobgood, project coordinator for APCO and project manager for the city of Richmond’s Department of Information Technology Public Safety Team.
Anita Ostrowski, Vector Security’s vice president for central stations, says that operators at Vector Security received very brief, informal training that was required when Vector migrated to the production message broker. No formal training or in-depth training program was required for Vector’s migration.
The message broker is a combination of hardware and software intended to perform a middleware function between Nlets and the alarm monitoring companies that want to take advantage of ASAP. It performs error checking and ensures that the transmissions from the alarm monitoring companies are properly formatted before sending the message to Nlets for subsequent forwarding to the appropriate state control point and ASAP-participating PSAP.
Notes CSAA Immediate Past President Ed Bonifas, vice president of Alarm Detection Systems and co-chair of CSAA’s ASAP Steering Committee, “This sets the stage for the future participation of additional alarm monitoring companies. Stay tuned for more information as it becomes available.”