Tag: Maria Malice
Education answer to alarming problem of user error
February 27, 2013Tess Nacelewicz
MESA, Ariz.—“Alarm schools” run by law enforcement agencies—where repeat false-alarm offenders go to learn about their systems to avoid more false dispatches—have been found to work very well.And now the Arizona Alarm Association (AzAA) is considering a new approach that could make them even more effective: encouraging alarm owners to take such classes before they ever offend—to help make sure they don't.“Several of the residents going to the schools have...
Maria Malice: Respect, decision by decision
November 19, 2012Rich Miller
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.—She is president of the Arizona Alarm Association, a state board representative in the Electronic Security Association, and vice president of special projects at COPS Monitoring. But before becoming one of the most prominent women in the alarm industry, Maria Malice had to prove to her male colleagues that she belonged.It wasn't easy. When she started her career in security in 1985, women rarely moved beyond the receptionist's desk. That was her first position at ACM UL Monitoring...
SIAC, AzAA praise Phoenix alarm program
June 27, 2012Rich Miller
FRISCO, Texas—Nearly 85 percent of alarm users in Phoenix did not have any false alarms in 2011, the result of a cooperative effort by the city and the Arizona Alarm Association that saved the city more than $2.8 million, according to the Security Industry Alarm AssociationThe city's alarm management program includes education about best practices, along with a $17 per-panel registration fee and fines for alarm owners who generate multiple false alarms. The city also holds alarm schools to...
SIAC honors Mahler, Malice for service and perseverance
June 12, 2012Rich Miller
Longtime alarm industry leaders Mel Mahler and Maria Malice padded their laurels last week with SIAC's 2012 William N. Moody Award, which pays tribute to those in the industry who exhibit “integrity, fairness and perseverance in the face of adversity.”
Mahler, chairman and CEO of Nashville, Tenn.-based ADS Security, was a charter board member of SIAC and is currently co-chairman and treasurer. He oversees daily operations and has helped the group clear a hurdle that long defied it: establishing...
Arizona enacts statewide alarm licensing
May 23, 2012Rich Miller
PHOENIX—Statewide alarm licensing has been enacted in Arizona, replacing a web of local regulations that subjected many alarm companies to duplicative background checks and paperwork.H.B. 2748, passed by the Legislature on April 30 and signed by Gov. Jan Brewer on May 11, pre-empts the licensing requirements in 22 cities. Alarm companies doing business in more than one of those cities had to submit to the licensing process in each of them, with 13 of the municipalities requiring fingerprinting...
Tucson council OKs permit fee for alarm users
March 7, 2012Rich Miller
TUCSON, Ariz.—The City Council approved a revised alarm ordinance on Feb. 28 that allows end users to opt out of paying a new $20 registration fee, but opponents say the provision is a “sham” and that the fee is an unnecessary burden on their customers.The new ordinance and fee drew public opposition from the owners of three local alarm companies—Tucson Alarm, Young Alarm and Advanced ProTechtion—who also expressed privacy concerns about being required to provide customer...
Three alarm companies fighting Tucson disclosure plan
February 1, 2012Rich Miller
TUCSON, Ariz.— Three local alarm companies are protesting ordinance revisions that would require them to provide their customer lists to city police, calling it an invasion of their clients' privacy.The owners of Tucson Alarm, Young Alarm and Advanced ProTechtion have taken Assistant Police Chief John Leavitt to task for his proposal, which the City Council is scheduled to consider later this month. The revisions would also require every alarm holder to pay a $20 annual registration fee and...
Cox at home with security in Arizona
December 21, 2011Tess Nacelewicz
MESA, Ariz.—Cox Communications, one of the largest cable entertainment and broadband service providers in the country, has been offering a home security/home automation product in Tucson, Ariz., since last summer, and expects to launch it in additional markets in the new year, a company spokesman said.“We're still going through the single-market launch and evaluating the product and the customer response and interest and sales … [and] we expect to continue in additional markets sometime...
Reversal of Avondale ordinance possible
November 17, 2011Rich Miller
AVONDALE, Ariz.—A city provision to shift the fines assessed for false alarms from consumers to alarm companies could soon be rescinded due to concerns about the measure's constitutionality.Avondale's false alarm ordinance was amended in January to include the provision, with the city outsourcing enforcement to CryWolf False Alarm Reduction Solutions of Waldorf, Md. A meeting in March between city officials and representatives of SIAC and the Arizona Alarm Association, who had expressed concern...
C.O.P.S.' Malice honored again
October 7, 2011Daniel Gelinas
C.O.P.S.' vice president special projects Maria Malice recently won the 2011 Arizona Alarm Company Person of the Year honor for an unprecedented fourth straight year. I've spoken with Maria before when she won the honor in 2009 and spotlighted her seemingly bottomless well of energy when it comes to working for the industry in her home state of Arizona.
First of all, congrats to you Maria--again.
I had a chance to chat with Maria via email about her fourth year being honored. Maria found out about...