Police update their policy on alarm systems

From Tuesday (1 April), the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) has changed its security systems policy (SSP), by outlining the measures necessary to reinstate police response withdrawn because of false personal attack alerts.

In recent years the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) has become increasingly concerned about the accidental or deliberate misuse of panic buttons. Most police forces now only allow two personal attack false calls before withdrawing their response.

Until now, when response has been withdrawn due to excessive false calls involving panic devices, there has only been a general requirement for procedures and training to be reviewed before applying for police response to be restored.

However, various alarm receiving centres (ARCs) and police forces have recently been testing different methods of so-called "intervention", with good results being reported.

"Intervention basically involves the ARC filtering out potential false alerts by trying to establish whether an emergency police response is genuinely needed," explained Norwich Union Risk Services (NURS) property security specialist Richard Underwood.

Intervention types

The updated SSP now requires at least one of three types of "intervention" to be implemented in order to reinstate police response arising from false panic alerts - call back, audio confirmation or visual confirmation:

Call back (also known as 'ring back'), requires the ARC to telephone the premises to establish the reason why a personal attack button has been activated - those receiving the call being required to give an agreed password to prevent the ARC calling the police.

Audio intervention involves the activation of a microphone fitted close to the panic device. When the ARC receives a panic call they can open up an audio channel to the premises and, by listening in, should be able to determine if a police response is appropriate. Some ARC's may use a 2 way system to ask those present whether they need assistance - again with a requirement for password confirmation.

Visual intervention operates in a similar way to audio intervention, but makes use of CCTV to allow the ARC operator to view images from the area where the personal attack signal originated.

While each method of "intervention" has pluses and minuses, Richard told us that with careful positioning of cameras, visual intervention had the dual advantages of not alerting attackers, and also of helping to provide useful information to police on the situation they might face when arriving at the premises.

Anyone with responsibility for an alarm system at a business premises should have at least a basic understanding of the full ACPO SSP. For a free two page NURS guide, click here. A further guide to Maintaining Police Response to Intruder Alarms is also available.