We’ll be battening down the hatches over Christmas and New Year’s, so we wanted to close 2011 with a strong THANK YOU to all our contributors and sponsors. You are the reason we’re able to serve the electronic security industry so effectively year-in and year-out. We...
As we close in on the end of the year, you start to pull together thoughts, some general and some specific, on how things have gone. With the California Alarm Association meeting just concluded in San Francisco, it always gives a touch of finality to the year, and...
When it comes to false dispatches, user error continues to be a thorn in the side of electronic security companies, and our relationships with law enforcement. Because user error is a major contributor to false dispatches, it is something that we can improve upon and...
Web sites become stale. It’s a fact of life. Keeping them relevant and compelling is the best way to keep people visiting. We plead guilty to not being quite as diligent as we could about posting new information, ideas and solutions that can help our industry do a...
As the number of calls increase that go to the Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) in cities across North America, it is becoming more and more clear of the need for new ways to refine the process to protect public safety. SIAC has become very involved in this issue...
No one wants their fees or taxes to rise, no one! That being said, given the current economic difficulties facing most municipal governments, the rationale driving increases must be powerful. In Los Angeles recently, the city council approved increases in fines for...
You have to wonder if “Robocop” is far off when you read a news account that the Virginia Port Authority plans to replace the majority of its 71-officer sworn police force with contract security guards. For those whose memory doesn’t go back to 1987, the film stars a...
This week, the Pueblo City Council in Colorado will vote on their alarm ordinance. Without going deeply into the particulars of what we hope will emerge, we want to talk with you about that dreaded word – “process.” In this case, it’s the process of how we’ve gotten...
In the Electronic Security Association’s (ESA) newest issue of Newsline, their quarterly publication, fire compliance issues are addressed by Mark Matlock of United Central Control. While his guest column does not specifically address inadvertent fire alarms, his...
In the public arena field SIAC operates in, we can’t ramrod our positions into policies or laws. Unlike operating a business, where you can stake a claim through a better service or product, decisions involving multiple parties at the table require persuasion. Getting...