Security Sales & Integration July 2022 - 77

EXECUTIVE DECISIONS
Security Science by Jeff rey Zwirn
Increased Risks
From In-Home
Monitoring
What part
of in-home
monitoring
provides more
reliability
to the alarm
dealer and its
subscribers
than from
within the
four walls
of a central
station?
▶ IN A WORLD where peace of mind is mission-critical,
in-home monitoring is nothing short
of dangerous. Does it provide more safety and security
to subscribers? No. Does it provide the central
station operators with more redundant monitoring
capabilities? No. Does it provide a better
environment for no distractions to the operator?
No. So what's the rationale? You decide.
It is unclear, but in part, it's to allow central
stations to increase profi tability by walking away
from the core foundation of what the alarm industry
has relied on since the 1800s - being Th e
Central Station. What happened to life-safety
and security? UL-827's adoption of allowing central
station operators to monitor from their own
apartments and homes is a decision that has the
potential to create unheralded liability.
In the meantime, alarm contractors have already
agreed to indemnify central stations when
their subscribers use their services. Does the indemnifi
cation apply to the advent of in-home
monitoring? Central stations will take the position
it does. How many alarm contracting companies
have thought about this new legal exposure?
In other words, if the central station operator is
Jeff ery Zwirn, CPP, CFPS,
CFE, FACFEI, CHS-IV, SET,
CCI, FASI&T, MBAT, is a
forensic alarm expert &
President of IDS Research
& Development.
securitysales.com
working from their own apartment or home and
they receive signal(s), but no action is taken and/
or if there is a delay in retransmission by the operator
to the police or fi re department and/or if
there are other causes of action made by the plaintiff
against the central station, soon thereafter, the
alarm contractor will receive a demand and notice
from the central station's legal counsel/insurance
carrier seeking indemnifi cation in accordance
with the dealer agreement you entered into with
the central station.
Why would an alarm contractor want to increase
their indemnifi cation obligations as a result
of in-home monitoring? What part of in-home
monitoring provides more reliability to the alarm
dealer and its subscribers than from within the four
walls of a central station? Yet with " the approval "
jeff zwirn@alarmexpert.com
through UL-827 (I was the only standard technical
panel member on UL-827 who voted no) to allow
central station operators to monitor homes and
businesses from their own personal apartments and
homes, a dynamic has been created that instantly
changes the duties of alarm contractors forever.
At the same time, it signifi cantly increases
alarm contractor liability exposure as a result of
knowingly or unknowingly adopting this practice.
In fact, many alarm contractors using subcontracted
central stations have still not been
made aware of this change. In alignment with
this concealment is that there are no plans to disclose
in-home monitoring to millions and millions
of subscribers. Why?
Because central stations know that consumers
are not going to want their alarm systems monitored
from an operator's apartment or home, compared
to keeping central station operators where
they belong, within the protected, redundant, supervised
and no-distraction zone of the four walls
of the central station.
Do consumers and business owners have a
right to make informed choices? Where in your
contract does it state that you have the right to
provide in-home monitoring services instead of
central station monitoring? When you sell alarm
systems to consumers, how do you describe alarm
system monitoring? Do consumers have a right to
rely on your representations? If you were to call
each one of your subscribers and tell them that
from now on, their systems will be monitored outside
of the four walls of the central station and into
the personal apartments and homes of central station
operators, what would you think they'll do,
embrace this change?
From my interviews with subscribers, this is
not the feedback that I received. On the contrary,
the subscribers told me that they would cancel
their service and/or they would switch to an
alarm company that would not provide in-home
monitoring, or just as troubling, they wanted the
alarm contractor to lower their central station recurring
charges.
Anytime an alarm company makes fundamental
changes in the services contracted for, it needs
to be disclosed to each subscriber so that they can
make informed choices. Failure to disclose any
change in services, let alone ones that do not provide
consumers with more security, is a recipe for
disaster that many in the central station industry
are the architects of.
JULY 2022 Security Sales & Integration
77
http://www.securitysales.com
Security Sales & Integration July 2022

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