ISC West session preview: How private response networks are combatting false alarms

LAS VEGAS — The prevalence of false alarms has led to law enforcement de-prioritizing or eliminating the investigation of incidents across the country, creating a security service gap that leaves dealers and monitoring centers holding the bag.

But private response networks might hold the key in revolutionizing alarm verification drawn from a plethora of raw data drawn from alarm responses. For insight into that process Security Systems News spoke with Mark Zimmerman, CEO at RSPNDR, ahead of his ISC West 2026 education session titled “When Seconds Count: How Private Response Networks Are Solving the Alarm Industry's 98% False Alarm Crisis”.

SSN: Mark, could you tell me a little bit more about what will be discussed at the session?

Zimmerman: The session will cover what we learned from looking at over a million alarm responses. What share of events were verifiable crimes or crime attempts? How do they fit into the AVS-01 categories? And more importantly in light of this data how should public safety professionals and the security industry rethink how we allocate police resources. 

SSN: How do private response networks improve residential alarm verification compared to traditional models?

Zimmerman: The industry has made progress by establishing a standard (AVS-01).  But the vast majority of incidents are and are likely to remain Level 1 (Call for Service with limited to no additional information) for the foreseeable future given the limitations of the installed technology. Budget constrained police forces (at best) treat these as low priority events and often won’t respond to them at all but to security customers each of these is urgent and important. That’s where private response networks come in.  We treat every incident as urgent and important. Once we’ve got a security professional on site, we can accurately assess the nature of the incident, resolve and report it in the vast majority of cases, and escalate it to police in the very small share that warrant it. 

SSN: What's the one impression/piece of information you want attendees to take away from this session?

Zimmerman: The industry has long thought of false alarm fines, verified response jurisdictions and overall police resource constraints as a problem to be complained about, lobbied against and kept quiet with customers.  This is both futile and foolish. Instead, we should recognize the problem and our part in it as an industry and turn it into an opportunity. RSPNDR and our partners have proven that customers want and are willing to pay for private guard response.