Following a number of false starts, the ACPO Council has finally approved the draft version of its policy on alarm response which is due to take effect next month.
The new policy states that police response to Type A systems (remote signalling systems terminating at BS 5979 recognised ARCs and monitoring centres) will be reduced after two false calls in any rolling 12 month period and moved to Level 2 response. If there are five false calls in any 12 month period, police response will be withdrawn altogether with the service moving to Level 3. Following withdrawal of response, police response will only be restored if there are no false calls for a three month period and the system is upgraded to provide confirmed activation.
The policy was delayed for months following confusion over the use of confirmation technology and over deviations to the existing policy by some Police Forces including West Midlands, West Mercia and South Yorkshire police.
ACPO has now recommended that from 1 October 2001, all new alarm systems will have to provide confirmed activation in order to secure a response by police. Forces will also be able to administer charges for setting up new systems requiring police response.
While there is concern that the new requirements could reduce the number of new domestic alarm installations due to increased costs, the BSIA welcomed the unified alarms policy for England, Wales and Northern Ireland. However, Chief Executive, David Fletcher, said: "We are not happy with all aspects of the policy and it still remains to be seen if all Police Forces will comply with it." BSIA member companies have been asked to report any regional variations to the policy. The Association is also negotiating with ACPO’s Scottish arm in the hope that Scottish forces will adopt a similar policy.
The three levels of response identified in the ACPO alarms policy are as follows: Level 1 gives immediate response, Level 2 states that attendance may be delayed due to resource available, and Level 3 will attain response only by keyholders.
A full version of the draft policy can be found on the BSIA’s website.
www.bsia.co.uk
