COPS Monitoring Bulletin Newsletter #33

Williamstown, NJ – October 3, 2016 – Each year, Security Systems News honors security industry's current and future leaders in their "20 under 40" special feature. This year, COPS Monitoring Operations Manager Samantha Scrivana is recognized in the SSN 20 under 40 Class of 2016. Samantha Scrivana, who started with COPS Monitoring 15 years ago as a dispatcher, is now the site manager, directly overseeing the company's New Jersey team and proper staffing at all of its branches. "I was drawn to this industry really because of the passion I have to help others," Scrivana said. "I found, as a dispatcher, that my passion was fulfilled by being the human lifeline for a person in need." Scrivana said that COPS supports the growth of its employees. "I was a dispatcher for a short period of time before I became a supervisor," she explained. "I quickly moved into a shift management role, and then in 2008, I became the New Jersey site manager." She continued, "We definitely have that type of environment that makes people want to advance, and we constantly look for the potential in our staff to become the future leaders of COPS." The industry is growing quickly and young talent might not realize they can start a career in it, according to Scrivana, specifically in the monitoring space. Companies can help this by becoming known in their communities and active on social media, she said. "You have to attract the right type of talent," Scrivana said. "Once you do that, as long as you create an atmosphere for development that allows people to grow and advance, you can quickly recognize the potential leaders and then guide them to their path of success." When asked about exciting technologies in the industry, Scrivana pointed to the IoT (Internet of Things). "I think that smart phones or any of the Internet of things are probably the most promising things of our future. People love the ability to stay connected to the different places or people that matter most to them," she said. For an online copy of this story and to see the COPS Monitoring 20 under 40 Alumni, please visit copsmonitoring.com/pr/1610 Samantha Scrivana Recognized in SSN's 20 under 40 Class of 2016 COPS Credits Dedicated Staff for 12.4-Second Response Times During Hurricane Matthew October 14, 2016:Williamstown,NJ –After devastating theCaribbean, Hurricane Matthew headed toward the Florida coast as a Category 4 storm packing heavy rain and winds between 130–156 mph. As the entire Southeastern seaboard was stocking supplies, boarding up their windows, bracing for impact, or evacuating, the team at COPS Monitoring was busy enacting an emergency preparedness plan that began over a decade ago. "When your home, business, or family is threatened with something as dangerous as a Hurricane, the last thing on most people’s mind is alarm response times," said JimMcMullen, President & COO of COPS Monitoring. "However, you never know when someone is facing a real fire, burglary, medical, or other type of emergency situation. Our job is to work as quickly as possible to provide the response they need wherever they are located, regardless of any challenges we may be facing as their monitoring company. It’s a responsibility that we take very seriously." To improve its reliability, COPS opened its second central station in Arizona in 2004. "This was a step in the right direction, but we quickly learned the commitment to deliver failsafe monitoring relied on more than just another location and redundant equipment; it also depended heavily on people," McMullen explained. "If something happened to one of the central stations the remaining site’s staff wouldn’t be enough to deliver acceptable response time to emergency situations. It’s simple math really, fifty percent of your staff can’t handle one hundred percent of your alarm traffic, which means having two locations just isn’t enough." COPS addressed this challenge by adding cent r a l stations in Florida, Tennes see, and Texas for a total of five active central stations. Its load sharing network and dis t r ibu ted s t af f ing mode l ensures alarms are handled by the first available qualified dispatcher in any of its networked central stations, which is largely why COPS’ 12-month average priority response is an industry-leading 13.9 seconds. McMullen said perhaps the best advantage of operating multiple central stations is the flexibility of temporarily closing one of its central stations to ensure the safety of its employees without affecting service levels. "As Hurricane Matthew approached, we were planning to minimize our staff in Boca Raton to just a few essential technical support members and increase staff at our other four load-sharing locations soour employees in South Florida could take careof their homes and families," said McMullen. "However, after ensuring their families were safe, several dispatchers committed to working through the storm to help protect our dealers and their subscribers. This tremendous act of dedic at ion and teamwork reminded me why I fell in love with this business in the beginning." Over the next five days as Matthew battered the Florida, Georgia, and Carolina coasts, the collective effort of the COPS team outperformed its impressive 13.9-second benchmark by delivering a 12.4-second average response time to all high priority alarms – including alarms from customers in the impacted region. "I am proud of our team and their accomplishment. I believe this level of commitment is a big part of what sets us apart and I extend a true heartfelt ‘Thank You’ to all the COPS employees who pulled together to make this happen... especially those in our Florida office," concluded McMullen. In support of its Dealers and the communities they serve in the affected areas, COPS Monitoring and several of its employees have contributed to the RedCross Hurricane Relief fund. COPS encourages those wishing to help to make donations online at: http://www. redcross.org/about-us/our-work/disaster-relief/hurricane-relief or by iPhone at apple.co/RedCross. A $10 donation to the Disaster Relief fund can also be made by texting REDCROSS to 90999.