Important Industry Update – New Threat of Verified Response

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We are seeing a sudden uptick in public safety agencies considering or implementing verified response policies. Seattle, Washington recently implemented this policy with virtually no warning to its citizens or our industry. We know that other cities have also been considering these policies which are detrimental to our ability to protect and service our customers.

The Security Industry Alarm Coalition (SIAC) is working directly with local and state alarm associations to combat these efforts providing expertise and background information that has convinced hundreds of agencies to avoid verified response in favor of the model alarm ordinance that reduces false alarms and continues police response to alarms.

SIAC also continues to work directly with the International Association of Chiefs of Police and the National Sheriff’s Association to promote the model alarm ordinance and best practices in alarm management.

The cost of fighting verified response on a local level can cost thousands of dollars in legal fees, lobbying costs and time investment. SIAC’s dual role of promoting the model alarm ordinance and helping communities oppose verified response is more important than ever.

SIAC needs your financial support to continue this vital mission.

Donate to SIAC:

  • By paypal: https://www.paypal.com/donate
  • By check: Go to https://siacinc.org/donate/ for more details on donating by check

Everon receives 2024 HIRE Vets Gold Medallion Award from the U.S. Department of Labor

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U.S. Acting Secretary of Labor Julie A. Su recognized Everon as one of the 839 recipients of the 2024 HIRE Vets Medallion Award during a virtual award ceremony presented by the U.S. Department of Labor. Everon earned the gold award after applying earlier this year. The Honoring Investments in Recruiting and Employing American Military Veterans Act (HIRE Vets Act) Medallion Program is the only federal award program that recognizes employers who successfully recruit, hire, and retain veterans.

“We’re extremely passionate about being a military-effective organization and showing our nation’s former servicemembers a long-term path to success as they reenter civilian life,” said Mike McWilliams, President & Chief Operating Officer for Everon. “Given their unique set of technical skills, a call to serve others, and valuable leadership experience, former military servicemembers are some of the best professionals in the security industry. We’re proud of all the veterans who’ve joined us at Everon and whose drive for excellence matches our own.”

In an effort to foster an environment that would attract former servicemembers to a civilian career in the security industry, Everon has championed a number of veteran integration assistance programs to ensure the inclusion and success of military employees within the organization. This includes dedicated mentorship and peer-to-peer communications channels, the opportunity to participate in service projects that benefit nonprofit organizations whose missions support veteran and military member communities, and inclusive company events to honor service members and their families.

“Our goal is to create a sense of community and connection among veterans and military servicemembers at Everon that opens them up to opportunities for sustainable career growth and development,” McWilliams continued. “We’re so proud of what this award means and the impact it shows we can have in transforming the security workforce.”

Everon joins 838 other companies from 49 states, plus the District of Columbia, who have shown a commitment to hiring veterans but also ensuring that they have a long-term career and growth plan that uses the diverse skills they acquired through their military service.

Recipients of the 2024 HIRE Vets Medallion Award meet rigorous employment and veteran integration assistance criteria, including veteran hiring and retention percentages, availability of veteran-specific resources, leadership programming for veterans, dedicated human resource efforts, and pay compensation and tuition assistance programs for veterans. More than 1,600 employers have earned a HIRE Vets Medallion Award since 2019.

The New DICE Revolutionizes Video Monitoring with Cost-Effective Cloud Solution

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Dice Corporation, a pioneer in alarm and video event management, announced a groundbreaking change to its pricing model for its interactive Video platform.

By eliminating per-camera charges and offering free camera connections, Dice is significantly reducing the cost of entry for alarm and video monitoring centers seeking to leverage cloud-based solutions.

This innovative approach takes advantage of DICE’s extensive infrastructure and expertise in developing integrated GPU farms. By optimizing cloud-based video monitoring, Dice is aligning the costs of video surveillance with traditional alarm monitoring, making it more accessible and affordable for businesses of all sizes.

“Our UL and ULC infrastructure as well as our North American carrier operations at IPtelX provide us with a substantial competitive advantage,” said Cliff Dice, President and CEO of DICE Corporation. “By owning the software, data centers, and fiber network, we can offer video monitoring centers and traditional alarm centers significant cost savings. Our new pricing model further empowers businesses to adopt video monitoring solutions, as they can now focus on subscriber-based revenue rather than per-camera costs. We believe this will greatly accelerate the adoption of video monitoring within the alarm and guarding industries.”

DICE’s advanced AI-powered solutions are designed to streamline operations and reduce reliance on human intervention. By automating many aspects of video monitoring, Dice is driving down costs and improving efficiency.

For more information on DICE Corporation, visit www.dicecorp.com or call 989-891-2800.

The IACP Ratifies Resolution for ANSI/TMA-AVS-01 2023 Alarm Validation Scoring Standard

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The executive committee of The International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), the world’s largest and most influential professional association for police leaders, ratified a resolution encouraging PSAP/ECC operations by law enforcement agencies to use The Monitoring Association’s (TMA) ANSI/TMA-AVS-01 2023 Alarm Validation Scoring Standard. The resolution was prepared and submitted to the IACP’s Private Sector Liaison Sector by Security Industry Alarm Coalition (SIAC) and Partnership for Priority Verified Alarm Response (PPVAR). The resolution was ratified in late October at the IACP’s Annual Meeting in Boston.

As written in the final, approved resolution, “WHEREAS, IACP recognizes the need to focus on the credibility of alarms received by law enforcement/first responder call centers from alarm companies and private entities through the establishment of defined threat levels as contained in AVS-01, will allow for agencies to deploy limited resources efficiently and communicate situational information to responding officers for greater officer/community safety…”

“The AVS-01 standard introduces ground-breaking methodology developed to assist public safety departments with their alarm response policies and to increase law enforcement safety,” states TMA Standards Committee Chair Morgan Hertel. It provides a standardized method for calculating an alarm score, or classification level, that results in a repeatable metric that estimates the validity or potential threat level of a burglar alarm activation using historical and real-time data. The alarm scoring assists law enforcement with resource allocation and Call for Service prioritization.

Stan Martin, executive director, SIAC, commented, “I am thrilled that SIAC successfully facilitated the approval of this resolution. This accomplishment highlights the strong trust and respect we have cultivated with the IACP leadership throughout the years.”

Learn more about the AVS-01 standard online at https://tma.us/standards/tma-avs-01-alarm-validation-standard/.
Read the full text of the resolution HERE.

ESA – TMA 10/18/24 AVS-01 Webinar Available to Stream

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On Oct. 18th, ESA hosted “Selling and Installing for Escalated Response – The Benefits of Selling AVS-01.” TMA-AVS-01 (Alarm Validation Scoring Standard), a new TMA Standard, the defines how monitoring centers and 911 ECCs will communicate the alarm level of burglary signals during the dispatch process with the goal to increase the safety of first responders and drive escalated response to the highest priority alarms. This webinar explored the current state of this impactful standard and what the future holds for sales and installation companies.

SPEAKERS:

  • Jeremy Bates, Bates Security
  • Steve Butkovich, TMA President, CPI Security
  • Chris Denniston, Rapid Response Monitoring
  • Morgan Hertel, Rapid Response Monitoring
  • David Holl, Lower Allen Township (PA)

Stream the 10/18/24 presentation here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qP9a9NEC20s&t=4s

 

COPS Monitoring Makes Another Significant Investment In Technology

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COPS Monitoring has announced its latest significant six-figure investment in technology. The company’s data storage upgrade to NetApp’s newer state-of-the-art Storage Area Network (SAN) is a testament to COPS Monitoring’s unwavering dedication to technological advancement. This strategic move ensures reliable and secure services for our dealers and their customers.

“We understand that back-end upgrades may not sound exciting to most people, but we believe that making frequent and recurring investments is crucial to providing reliable monitoring services,” said Jim McMullen, President of COPS Monitoring. “With a focus on staying prepared for the future, we elected to upgrade our existing NetApp infrastructure. By doing so, we are confident that we’ll continue to meet our customers’ evolving needs and deliver the highest service levels.”

The new SAN incorporates advanced features designed to enhance fault tolerance and provide the latest data security. Equipped with dual power supplies, dual controllers, and hot-swappable components, the new NetApp SANs are widely regarded for delivering unparalleled reliability and resilience. Configured in a RAID format for added fault tolerance and employing AES 256-bit encryption, this new system also offers robust data security, a standard recognized as one of the most secure methods available today.

Recognized for its five nines (99.999%) uptime, exceptional performance, and scalable architecture, SAN technology ensures optimal storage solutions for data centers. By facilitating ultra-fast and reliable data transfers between servers and storage devices, SANs significantly boost application performance and availability, ensuring seamless operations in even the most demanding environments.

To leverage its geo-diverse redundancy, COPS Monitoring will deploy two identical NetApp SANs in its New Jersey and Texas facilities. Each SAN has a total storage capacity of 35 petabytes, roughly 1.5 times the storage capacity of the Library of Congress, or 13 years of HD video. With this massive amount of storage, these SANs will help to ensure that COPS Monitoring can effectively manage and safeguard the ever-expanding volumes of data generated by its business operations and partners.

A key enhancement in this upgrade is the shift from SCSI-based SSDs to NVMe-based SSDs, which provides higher data transfer speeds, reduced latency, and improved input/output operations per second (IOPS). These improvements significantly boost overall system performance, enabling COPS Monitoring to deliver even faster and more responsive services to its customers.

CPI Security Commits $1M to Support Hurricane Helene Relief Initiatives

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CPI Security has pledged over $1 million to assist those in need as Hurricane Helene’s devastation continues to affect communities in Western North Carolina.

Headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., CPI Security is sending crews of its own employees weekly, focused on helping its customers and employees in need. The crews are equipped with generators, Starlink satellite internet service, chainsaws and other much needed supplies.

CPI has already sent over 75 employees who have volunteered over 1,000 hours, according to an announcement.

“The devastation caused by Hurricane Helene is like none I’ve ever seen before,” Ken Gill, CEO and founder of CPI Security, said. “Many of our employees, customers, and neighbors are trying to rebuild from this storm, and we’re committed to standing alongside them.”

In addition to CPI’s direct engagement with its affected employees and customers, CPI Security has donated to organizations like Samaritan’s Purse, the American Red Cross, High Country Charitable Foundation, and the Community Foundation of Western North Carolina.

“There are many lives, homes, and businesses that will need to be rebuilt,” Gill said. “This effort will be ongoing for quite some time. Please continue to pray for those affected and give of your talents.”

SDM Magazine, October 24, 2024

Donate to Support Helene Victims in NC

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TMA Board of Director Caroline Brown, a North Carolina resident, shared information on two charities assisting communities in North Carolina that have been impacted.

Please consider making a donation.

https://givingtuesday.mightycause.com/event/Supportbannerelk

https://www.samaritanspurse.org/article/pray-for-those-in-helenes-path/?utm_source=Ggl&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=m_YGND-B24V&utm_content=HurricaneHelene&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwpP63BhDYARIsAOQkATb6wV68kcjmmT72m30gWkBJJ2er3cYDTbOappPIXtK0cVuaPHUW6poaAsQWEALw_wcB

Reminder – new TN 729 area code

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The Tennessee Public Utility Commission issued a news release about the new 729 area code that will overlay the existing 423 area code in eastern Tennessee earlier this year. Please be aware of the key dates for the overlay implementation:

  • August 5, 2024: Permissive 7- or 10-digit dialing began for customers with the 423 area code
  • February 5, 2025: Mandatory 10-digit dialing begins for customers with the 423 area code
  • March 5, 2025: The new 729 area code becomes effective, and mandatory 10-digit dialing is required in the new 729 area code too.

October is Cybersecurity Month – Stay Safe Out There

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Since 2004, the President of the United States and Congress have declared October to be Cybersecurity Awareness Month, time dedicated for the public and private sectors to work together to raise awareness about the importance of cybersecurity.

Over the years it has grown into a collaborative effort between government and industry to enhance cybersecurity awareness, encourage actions by the public to reduce online risk, and generate discussion on cyber threats on a national and global scale. October 2024 marks the 21st Cybersecurity Awareness Month.

Find free resources to support Cybersecurity Awareness Month activities on CISA’s website.

Download CISA’s Resources & Cybersecurity Awareness Month 2024 Toolkit

 

Register to attend:

Emerging Technologies in Cybersecurity
A TMA VPR hosted by OneTel Security

Thursday, October 24, 2024 at 1:00 PM