COPS Monitoring Bulletin Newsletter #28

UPDATES Did you miss something? Electronic versions of past issues of the Bulletin are available online at: copsmonitoring.com/bulletin You work hard all year long! COPS Monitoring invites you to play hard during ISC West in Las Vegas. Reward yourself and enjoy dinner, drinks, and dancing to a live band at our now famous Dealer Appreciation Bonanza on April 15th from 5:30pm to 10:30pm at Gilley's in Treasure Island. Alarm dealers also have a chance at great door prizes and can enter the mechanical bull riding contest. The first year attendance was 550. Last year, we reached over 700. Join us and help make the 2015 Dealer Appreciation Bonanza better than ever. Admission is free, but space is limited. Get your tickets and watch the highlights of our previous events on our website: copsmonitoring.com/bonanza You don't want to miss this premier event! HELPFUL HINT The Central Station number is 800-633-2677. Advising your customers and the people on their RP list to save this number in their phones will help ensure they know to answer when we call to verify an alarm or notify them of an event. THE PREMIER EVENT FOR ALARM DEALERS DURING ISC WEST ECV Works "It is no secret that responding to false alarm calls places an undue burden on police resources and affects agencies' responses to more serious calls," states an article in Police Chief Magazine. Since 2003, the alarm industry has been taking a proactive approach to false alarms by adopting Enhanced Call Verification (ECV) for burglar alarms. Also since 2003, many police departments across the country have been enacting laws that require ECV for burglar alarms. The reason? It reduces false alarms. Some studies indicate that false alarms can be reduced by more than 50 percent. ECV is a simple and effective practice where at least two numbers, such as the premises number and a cell phone, are called in the attempts to verify a passcode before dispatching on a burglar alarm. By making two calls before dispatching, we are able to significantly reduce false alarms (ECV only applies to burglar alarm signals). 2 ways you can take advantage of ECV: 1. Activate ECV for burglar alarms on individual accounts by adding an additional Call-to- Verify (CTV) number to your accounts. You can also designate responding party (RP / call list) numbers to be called before dispatching the authorities. With the proper approvals, we can call a total of up to four numbers before dispatching. 2. Activate ECV on your entire base in just a few minutes! ECV is the practice of making at least two calls before dispatching. Unless otherwise specified, ECV does not always require that the two numbers be different numbers. False alarm reduction can also be achieved by calling the same number twice. Customers often miss the first CTV when they are attending to the alarm system after an alarm. Activating Mandatory ECV on your account base will cause our monitoring system to instruct COPS dispatchers to call the single CTV number two separate times before dispatching on burglar alarms. • The simple technique of making a second call has a proven track record for making a real difference in reducing false alarms and improving overall customer satisfaction! • You can activate ECV on all of your accounts by activating Mandatory ECV. • Mandatory ECV only affects accounts with just one CTV number. Accounts with multiple CTV numbers and/or RPs designated as ECV numbers will be called as they are currently set up. The choice is yours. Whether you choose to enter different numbers to be called for ECV, or decide to activate it for your entire base with Mandatory ECV, you can make a BIG difference in reducing false alarms. For more information, contact Dealer Support or visit copsmonitoring.com/sc/mecv.html COPS Monitoring Promotes Melissa Hansen to Director of Training We are proud to announce that Melissa Hansen was promoted to Director of Training in December. Melissa started with COPS as a dispatcher 19 years ago and she has continually proven to be instrumental in various positions such as floor supervisor, shift manager, and training manager. As Director of Training, Melissa will oversee the entire spectrum of COPS' training program across our six central stations including: initial training of new employees, CSAA Five Diamond certification, our rigorous proprietary "up-or-out" training program for dispatchers (called Gradation), customer service and disaster preparedness instruction, and coaching of central station managers. "What we do is extremely important and a properly trained dispatcher can help prevent a significant loss to a customer and evenmake the difference between life and death," says Melissa. "We run a tight ship, and our dealers and their customers are relying on our dispatchers to be their lifeline day in and day out." Melissa has proven her consistent determination to institutionalize excellence, which is intrinsic in COPS Monitoring's philosophy to ensure it properly serves its customers and remains a leader in the alarm industry. Reduce false alarms by activating ECV on your entire account base in just a few minutes!