The Chief Executive of the British Security Industry Association (BSIA), Mike Reddington, has been appointed to the ECHO (Electronic Call Handling Operations) Board of Directors with immediate effect. In related news, the Met Police has completed its test receiving of new ECHO automated alarm signal transmissions.
The appointment follows Dave Wilkinson stepping down in December, who alongside Martin Harvey founded ECHO in August 2017 and worked from the concept’s inception to bring it to the verge of full service delivery – planned for early 2021.
Martin Harvey explained: “Mike, with over 25 years’ commercial experience in the security sector, strengthens the ECHO Board with further business leadership expertise. His background including time at leading blue chip organisations such as Honeywell and ADI prior to joining the BSIA in January 2019, will be invaluable as ECHO moves into full service delivery.”
Upon his appointment, Mike commented: “I look forward to working with the other Board directors of ECHO in progressing the next phase of this project as we move into the implementation of this service to end users and the industry, realising the benefits of the improvements in confirmed alarm activation transfers to police authorities.”
Martin added “We would also like to take this opportunity to recognise our colleague Dave Wilkinson without whom the project might not have succeeded. His unwavering commitment and contribution over many years as a founding member in getting the ECHO project off the ground and bringing it to the point at which it is virtually launch ready has been immense. The industry owes him a great debt.”
In related news, ECHO has announced the Metropolitan Police Service (‘The Met’) successfully completed its first ‘end-to-end’ test receiving alarm signals via the new ECHO hub. The test signals, originating from Banham Security’s Alarm Receiving Centre, were successfully transmitted into The Met’s own Control Room.
This success follows on the heels of the test by Essex Police who in November 2020 were the first police force in the UK to have successfully received and verified confirmed signals in this way.
ECHO is going live early in the year, offering a full service to any UK police force ready and able to be ECHO-connected. It is expected Essex Police and the Met will be fully prepared to handle all their police response alarm signals via ECHO by the Spring of 2021.
David Mair, Manager – Security Systems Unit, Metropolitan Police Service said: “We have been developing our capability to receive automated verified alarm signals from ARCs for some time. This proof of concept means all alarms with Met police response could be ECHO-connected and in line for faster police response before the end of 2021.”
Martin Harvey, Director, ECHO, said: ”We are delighted to see yet another successful milestone test for ECHO. Connection to the MPS control room will enable a significant number of professionally installed and monitored alarm systems to be connected through the ECHO hub further demonstrating the capabilities of the ECHO platform handling signals from multiple Alarm Receiving Centres and transmitting them on to any number of ECHO-connected police forces. 2021 is set to be a busy year for ECHO, as more police forces are poised to connect to the service.”
The NPCC estimate ECHO-connected police forces will save between 1-4 minutes in responding to intruder and hold up alarm activations. In their experience ‘every second counts’ in protecting people and property, and time saved by the police being ECHO-connected could be crucial in arriving at alarmed premises, providing a faster response to confirmed alarm activations from approved alarm installations.
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