Alarm Data Interchange Standard Approved

The Association of Public Safety Communications Officials (APCO) announced on Monday that the ANSI standards body has approved a standard method for alarm companies to directly transfer incident information to the nation’s public safety comm centers, possibly eliminating 32 million telephone calls a year and speeding an emergency response. The standard sets out data fields and definitions so that alarm companies can transmit location, premise and other information via a computer link, and to have any comm center accept the information directly into their CAD system. The standard holds great promise for those alarm companies and comm centers willing to re-program or update their computer system, but could take years to take hold among smaller centers. Read APCO’s announcement of the ANSI approval and download the standard here. Read a news account here, with quotes that raise several questions: Exactly how much time will be saved by direct alarm transmission (2-1/2 to 3 minutes)? Will a direct link help reduce the current 98% false alarm rate? (Also note the quote on the 10-second de facto 911 call answering standard.)