C.O.P.S. ready for 24/7/365 coverage with Arizona central

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.—C.O.P.S. Monitoring, based in Williamstown, N.J., is getting ready to increase its reach with increased operational hours at one of its four central stations, according to C.O.P.S. EVP Don Maden.

Maden said around the clock operation in Arizona was right around the corner. “It will be sometime in the mid-fourth quarter of this year,” he said. “In an effort to increase our presence in that region we'll be going from part-time operation to full time operation. It will improve the load balancing scenario, so the net result is improved response time and consistent response time” for all C.O.P.S. monitoring accounts.

Previously, the Arizona facility operated on a 10-hour shift, from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m., seven days a week.

Maden also said as a result of the increased operation time, C.O.P.S. would be bulking up its work force. “We'll be—at minimum—tripling staff and adding management in each shift,” Maden said. “We put April Cannon in charge of the Arizona facility. She has 15 plus years in the industry.”

Of the tripled workforce and the upgrade to 24/7/365 operation, Cannon said C.O.P.S.' dedication to service was evident. “Jim McMullen has amazing foresight, so everything was already in place and ready to go. We've always been ready to staff a full station here … when they built the building it was built with this future vision in mind. All we need to do is train the people and put them in place,” Cannon said. “C.O.P.S. has what we call a 'light switch' philosophy—you turn on the light switch and the lights come on and there's no other thought except that you just know the lights are going to come on. And that's the same thing here—there'll be no degradation of service, and in fact we anticipate there'll be an improvement in service. Dealers here in our time zone will see better service because departments that were closed before will now be opened.”

C.O.P.S. is a third party monitoring company that provides services to 3,100 independent alarm dealers who represent more than 500,000 accounts nationwide. All of C.O.P.S.' centrals—two in New Jersey, one in Florida, and one in Arizona—are UL listed, and the Arizona facility is CSAA Five Diamond certified, an accreditation Maden said is “fairly new and something we plan to maintain” at all the facilities.