Volusia County Sheriff’s Office to streamline 911 service with automated alarm calls.

Written by Kristen Schmutz

Belden Communications News

The Volusia Sheriff’s Office Communications Center is ramping up response time and freeing up more dispatchers to answer 911 calls with a new, automated system that responds to a burglar, fire, and medical alarms instantly, with no phone call needed.

According to a release, in its first month, execution of the Automated Secure Alarm Protocol system already resulted in about 1,200 fewer calls to Volusia Sheriff’s Office dispatchers. The dispatchers manage every 911 and non-emergency call for law enforcement, fire, and EMS service in Volusia County.

“If technology can help us provide better, faster service, we have to take advantage of it,” Sheriff Mike Chitwood said of the new system, which went live in May with the participation of alarm companies across the U.S. “This will speed up our response to alarms, and at the same time free up more dispatchers to take 911 calls that absolutely require a human being on the line.”

Alarm companies had to manually call the non-emergency line to report a burglar, fire, or medical alarm activation in the past. Meaning a dispatcher had to answer the call, receive the information, and enter it into the computer-aided dispatch system.

With the new system, the alarm notification is all electronic. All the information is populated automatically and entered into the computer-aided dispatch system.

The Volusia Sheriff’s Office was the 86th emergency communications center across the country to implement Automated Secure Alarm Protocol and the ninth in Florida.

The companies taking part include ADT, Stanley Security, Rapid Response Monitoring, Vector Security, Security Central, Securitas, Tyco (Johnson Controls), Quick Response, ADS (Nashville), Alert 360, Guardian Protection, Affiliated Monitoring, National Monitoring Center, AT&T Digital Life, Protection One, Vivint, and Brink’s Home Security.

No action on the customer’s end needs to be taken, with no added cost for residents or businesses. Alarm companies will continue to contact home and business owners to let them know of any alarms.

Any customers unsure whether their alarm service provider is taking part in the new system or not should contact their home security provider.