It was standing room only at the first ACPO Unscrambled forums at Windsor and Stansted.
More than 260 readers of Security Installer attended these first two events … an indication of the huge amount of concern – and confusion – there is over the new ACPO Security Systems Policy.
Said one delegate: “I never go to exhibitions or seminars. I get all my information from Security Installer – but I felt I had to come to this.” The forums, organised by Installer in partnership with BT RedCARE, took a complete and independent look at the policy. Speakers represented ACPO, the BSIA and BT RedCARE … and at each event (and at future events) an independent installer from the area explained how he was tackling it.
Criticised and defended
Forum chairman, Alan Hyder, Editor of Security Installer told delegates:
The majority of readers had criticised the controversial policy and its demand for confirmation systems, the police charges for URNs and the reduced threshold for police response. They felt there had been a “lack of consultation” with them.
Others thought confirmation was the best route to take to reduce false alarms and thought it would create business opportunities. He said that, while recognising the legitimate concerns of readers, the idea of the forums was to help installers get to grips with the policy and give them practical advice on how they can work profitably with it.
Answers before questions
Kevin Mann, the Secretary of the ACPO Security Systems Group, quoted damning national statistics of 91 per cent false calls in 1999. There were 85,079 genuine calls but 875,519 false calls. Only 4,868 activations had resulted in arrests.
He explained what was new for installers in the policy, the differences in alarm categories, the thinking behind the police response policy and the reason police were charging for URNs. He anticipated a number of questions from installers before the Q & A session.
On crime prevention: “Why don’t you retain the Police List?” He said when CPOs had a list there were allegations of corruption and it created a no-win situation for them.
Installers deluged
Alex Carmichael, Deputy Technical Manager of the BSIA, spoke on the theme: “Help … I’m an installer!” He highlighted all the other legislation and structures installers also had to work under: The Working Time Directive;Stakeholder Pensions; ISO9000/2000; Health & Safety; Human Rights Act; British Standards; European Standards; Environmental Standards; Data Protection Act; Inspectorates; Minimum Wage.
He showed the current status of the switchover from BS to ENs (European Norms). He said installers needed to know the contents of the important document BS DD243 which was in force now. This covered alarm confirmation, design installation and configuration of systems and advice to installers.
But he emphasised that this was being updated and installers should obtain the Euro Standard PD6662 which included more details on design & configuration and filtering.
He added that the BSIA had been in “long and hard discussions” with the police via the ACPO Review & Monitoring Group. The association wanted to help police reduce false alarms but wanted a unified policy.
Negatives to positives
Regional installers Andy Rees and Richard Hewes gave their views on how the policy had affected their businesses and how they were determined to make it increase their revenues.
Speaking at the Windsor forum, Andy Rees, the proprietor of Absolute Security, Surrey, based in Godalming, had a number of criticisms of the policy, particularly because his installations covered a number of police forces and the different implementation times caused a lot of confusion. He was writing to all his customers reassuring them that there was no change if they had an existing URN. He was assessing how to manage the payment of URN charges.
“If you don’t tell your customers what’s happening they’ll be angry.” He was concerned with the effect on new customers on October 1 when all new systems have to be confirmation systems. “This is bound to have a negative affect on sales when I have to explain to them they need to have confirmed systems”.
He had turned the negative to a positive by upgrading to confirmation systems before he needed to “and increased revenue by a substantial amount”. He had also taken on more admin staff and was training a surveyor.
Speaking at Stansted, Richard Hewes, proprietor of Hewes Security, Chelmsford, said he had been installing confirmation systems for a long time and he saw no difficulties with implementing the policy.
He explained how, in his confirmation systems, he had used detectors in close proximity in restricted spaces (such as single rooms in a house) and unusual locations.
He was convinced it would cut false alarms significantly. Installers had to change the way they looked at property protection. Customers should be made more responsible for their systems. He would be absorbing increased premium rate line charges with the extra business that would come in: “I can see my sales going up.” He believed most installers would use sequential signalling rather than video or audio confirmation systems.
He added: “I have got to educate my engineers as to why I am putting in all these extra sensors.”
Working with the policy
Scott Elder, Technical Sales Manager, BT RedCARE, detailed all RedCARE’s services that conform to ACPO 2000 and demonstrated how installers could work profitably within it. Using the example of a business owner whose premises are raided, he demonstrated the increasing confirmed alarm protection obtained by different RedCARE services: Normal or “classic” RedCARE which delivers an alarm signal to the ARC via a BT analogue line; RedCARE ISDN, a digital option capable of detecting hundreds of different alarm conditions and transmitting them to the ARC in text format or PIN alarms; RedCARE GSM, offering premium protection for higher security applications. It continues to deliver alarm signals to the ARC even after a landline failure by using BT Cellnet radio network back-up.
Installers take the floor
Key points emerged from the Q & A session with the panel. (Also answering questions were Chris Bridgwood, Head of Sales, BT RedCARE, representatives from seven regional police forces and the insurance industry.)
