Florida city ‘going forward’ with alarm monitoring

GULF BREEZE, Fla.—A proposal for the City of Gulf Breeze to begin monitoring security alarms was met by skepticism from members of the Alarm Association of Florida (AAF) at a Jan. 7 city council meeting. “We as a state association, along with local members operating in the area, attended the meeting to express our views as to why this may need to slow down before it moves forward,” said Bob Worthy, legislative committee chairman for AAF and president of Secur Technologies in Coral Springs, Fla. “We brought to the council’s attention issues about technology, safety, procedure, codes and laws that they may violate.” The city council proposed monitoring alarms as a way to increase the city’s revenue stream, according to a news report by the Gulf Breeze News, but Worthy said he doesn’t think the city knows all that’s involved with monitoring alarms. “The city says that they already have the building and staff in place with their 911 center, but what they don’t realize is how much alarm traffic is generated by each account,” he said. “Central stations, through state law and company procedures, take care of 70 to 80 percent of alarm traffic that the police never see.” Although no time line was discussed, Worthy said the city has sent out proposals to purchase alarm equipment and “apparently their minds are made up to go forward with this.” For more on this story see the March issue of Security Systems News.