The truth about alarm monitoring and response

The reliability of your security system is dependent on who monitors it, and how they respond to alarms. The internet is full to bursting with companies offering an alarm response within seconds. Is that as good as it sounds? 

In short, no. Here’s the truth about alarm monitoring and response, starting with response times.

A response isn’t always a response

When alarm companies make claims about response times, the `response’ probably isn’t what you’re assuming it is.

The fact is, they’re telling you how long it takes to acknowledge an `alarm event’. An alarm has been triggered, the signal has reached the alarm receiving centre (ARC) and an operator has acknowledged it. That’s when the clock stops.  

Obviously, rapid acknowledgment is a good thing. If there’s a genuine threat, the sooner the emergency services can be dispatched the better. 

However, `response time’ does not tell you how quickly help will arrive. The answer to that depends on several factors. Chief among them is what happens after the alarm signal has been received. 

The actual response 

Once an alarm signal has been received and acknowledged, this is when the action starts. The first step is verification. What has triggered the alarm? 

Now, the vast majority of alarm triggers are false alarms. According to emergency services statistics, 80% to 90% of activations are unnecessary. Nevertheless, to trained operators at a premium ARC, every alarm activation signals a potential threat. They respond instantly. 

This is a shortened summary of what happens: 

• Threat assessment: Operators filter for false alarms. They look for specific verifications such as a `confirmed alarm’, where more than one sensor has been tripped in sequence. If CCTV is available, they’ll view the footage.  
• Emergency dispatch: If the threat is verified as genuine, operators will call the emergency services.
• Keyholder notification: They make live contact with on-site security officers, designated keyholders or a mobile patrol unit.
• Audit logging: Every alarm trigger and response action is documented in real-time for insurance claims and police investigations. 

As a client, how much say do you have in this sequence of events? Quite a lot, depending on the circumstances. 

You’re in control (up to a point)

The response policies can be customised, although bear in mind that the core emergency procedures are highly regulated. For example, you can’t demand an immediate blue light response based on a single, unverified sensor trip.

Having said that, when it comes to the escalation process, you have a great deal of control over: 

• Who’s contacted first. You can ask operators to call designated keyholders first, or bypass this entirely and get a mobile patrol unit dispatched straight to the premises.
• The time of day. For example, if a personal alarm is triggered during business hours, operators might call a manager. At midnight, the same panic alarm trigger can initiate an emergency response.
• How you’re notified. For non-critical alerts, false alarms or minor faults you might not want an immediate phone call. Instead, you can opt for SMS or an email summary of the fault. 

• Remote action: With your specific consent, ARC operators can activate on-site countermeasures against intruders — audio warnings such as a voice challenge, fog or smoke screens, access point lock-downs and so on. 

The emergency services won’t necessarily respond

If you’re trying to choose between different ARC monitoring services, the emergency services response is what sorts the wheat from the chaff. 

Because here’s the problem: 

To guarantee a blue light response, an ARC must be officially recognised by the relevant police authority. Not all ARCs in the UK are recognised or approved. 

Why is this important? Only recognised ARCs are granted a Police Unique Reference Number (URN). Operators must quote the URN when contacting the emergency services. 

Here’s the difference in response between a recognised and non-recognised alarm receiving centre: 

• Un-recognised ARC: The emergency services outright reject the request because there’s no URN. It’s treated as a low-priority call from a member of the public.
• Recognised ARC: URN is quoted and the incident is granted a Level 1 response. Police or fire services are dispatched with the highest urgency. 

How ARCs achieve police recognition 

The only way for an ARC to achieve police recognition is to pass continuous audits from specific quality assurance bodies — the NSI (National Security Inspectorate) or SSAIB (Security Systems and Alarms Inspection Board). 

This isn’t easy. It involves strict compliance with multiple British and European standards. For example: 

• The centre itself must have air-locked entry doors, independent backup generators and fire protection.
• It needs to be blast-resistant and secure enough to withstand both physical and cyber sabotage.
• The ARC needs to be technically integrated into ECHO (electronic call handling operations) — the specific communications infrastructure used by the emergency services. 
• It needs a dual-path monitoring infrastructure so that if one communication network goes down, alarm signals are immediately re-routed through another network.
• Every employee must undergo BS 7858 security screening. 

As you’ll have gathered by now, the efficiency of fire and intruder alarms is completely dependent on the technology, staff, communication procedures and overall competence of the ARC which monitors them. 

Done well, alarms provide the best possible protection, and you’re shielded from the nuisance of false alarms. Done badly, criminals can be in and out before the police are even aware there’s an issue. 

At CSG, our alarm receiving centre is NSI Gold Category 1 — the highest achievable benchmark in the UK for ARC monitoring. Get in touch for a no-obligation chat. We’d love to hear from you.