Security Sales & Integration October 2021 - 8

INDUSTRY PULSE
IN DEPTH
Two decades into the
21st
century,
technological
advancement continues at an
unprecedented pace. Innovative business
and end-user applications continually
enhance the security services provided by
monitoring companies. One of the primary
enablers for these advancements is
the collection and use of data.
Security industry service providers, as
well as public safety organizations, are increasingly
leveraging data to enhance the
protection of life and property. Advanced
Automatic Crash Notification (AACN) is
a great example of public safety use of real-time
data. Telematics-enabled vehicles
involved in accidents transmit data that
is used to estimate car-occupant injury to
assist in determining the level of emergency
response.
The AACN model of using real-time
data to evaluate urgent situations is
naturally applicable to alarm activations.
Consequently, The Monitoring
Association (TMA) initiated work on
a new American National Standard,
TMA-AVS-01: Alarm Validation Scoring.
AVS-01 will use data applicable to
alarm activations at protected premises
to create an alarm validation score. The
score will be an important piece of information
provided when an alarm monitoring
center contacts an ECC/PSAP
to generate a burglar alarm call-for-service.
As with AACN, Public Safety will
use the information to assist with their
alarm response protocols.
The AVS-01 Committee, chaired by
STANLEY Security's Mark McCall and
co-chaired by ADT's Larry Folsom and
David Holl, director of public safety,
Lower Allen Township, Pa., has a broad
scope of professionals spanning various
sectors of the security industry from
monitoring companies, manufacturers,
consultants, to NRTL representatives.
8
AVS-01 will use data applicable to
alarm activations at protected premises
to create an alarm validation score.
Public Safety is represented by ECC/
PSAP leaders, law enforcement and fire
service professionals. As work has proceeded,
we have welcomed additional
members.
Two workgroups were established to
leverage the diverse capabilities of committee
members. The Public Safety group
is chaired by Holl. Its primary focus is
ensuring the standard is created so public
safety will gain true benefit when
they adopt it. It immediately established
guidelines for the recommended output
of the scoring algorithms. With the
output defined, the second workgroup
could start their efforts. The Public Safety
workgroup also established guidelines
for how the score would be provided to
an ECC/PSAP when monitoring centers
create a burglar alarm call-for-service.
Those guidelines emphasized adhering as
much as possible to existing ECC/PSAP
protocols, simplifying eventual adoption
of AVS-01.
The second workgroup, chaired by
Folsom and Rapid Response Monitoring's
Morgan Hertel, is focused on data.
Data is the heart of AVS-01. To create
a valid scoring methodology, empirSecurity
Sales & Integration OCTOBER 2021
NEWS ANALYSIS RESEARCH PEOPLE
How Real-Time Data Will Improve Alarm
Response by Celia Besore
ical data related to alarm activations is
essential. An initial collection of information
related to 1,502 actual alarms
and 18,595 false alarms was provided
by alarm companies for review. That
enabled a scientific look at patterns for
alarm incidents in both residential and
commercial properties.
This data is core to creating the scoring
metric process. Data indicators can
be singular information that indicates
a high probability of a crime in progress,
as well as a compilation of separate
datapoints that raise the alarm score.
Conversely, there are also singular or
multiple datapoints that lower the score,
as well as eliminate the need to create a
call-for-service.
Throughout the process, TMA has
continually sought input from the public
safety community. Holl and the Security
Industry Alarm Coalition's (SIAC) Stan
Martin led multiple efforts to survey law
enforcement and ECC/PSAP professionals
to determine what data was important
to them and what incident data provided
them with a level of confidence that there
was a crime in progress.
Once the initial draft of the standard is
finalized, TMA will follow ANSI guidelines
to move the standard forward. A 30day
comment period will gather public
input on the draft document. The comments
received will be evaluated to determine
if changes to the draft document
are warranted. Changes made as a result
of received comments would necessitate
a second public comment period. Ideally,
release would follow soon after.
For more info or to get involved, visit
tma.us/standards or email standards@
tma.us.
CELIA BESORE, MBA, FASAE, CAE, is
Executive Director of The Monitoring
Association (TMA).
securitysales.com
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Security Sales & Integration October 2021

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