False Alarm Factor

The alarm industry recognizes and supports the fact that most law enforcement agencies are interested in lowering their total number of alarm dispatches from year to year. However, more systems are being installed all the time, about 10%-15% increase per year and just like with population increases resource demands may eventually increase. In order to manage this issue it is important to have the right information. The alarm factor is most useful in comparing progress in reducing false dispatches from month to month, year to year or even dealer to dealer. Using the factor you can compare yourself to other cities as well. You must however know how many systems are in place through registration or permitting (discussed in "best practices" section of this report) and know the number of total false dispatches.

Definition:

Example: Cityville has 10,000 permitted systems and they had 10,000 alarm dispatches last year, 500 were determined to be "real", that is, there was no evidence of criminal activity having tripped the alarm. Therefore 10,000 minus 500 leaves 9,500 "false" dispatches, divided by 10,000.

If, one year later, the total number of permitted systems remained the same (10,000), but false dispatches were now 5,000, the alarm factor would be 5000 divided by 10,000 or "0.5" , roughly 50% of what it was previously. Another way to think of it – "the number of dispatches per system per year". Using the alarm factor we have found commercial users (1.5) ran a THREE TIMES higher rate than residential users (0.5).

Other Key Statistics: To most effectively manage alarms, there are several other key statistics that should be tracked, if at all possible. These are:

Repeat Offenders: during the Model States Program, in jurisdictions where the data was available, it was very clear that 80% of all alarm activity came from about 20% of the total users. This is VERY significant, since it clearly shows that by "correcting only 20%" of the "problem" users, the total enforcement effort can be reduced substantially.

Alarm Factor calculated per alarm company: it is very useful to track the alarm rate per installing company. However, to do this, it is necessary to know how many systems each company has in the municipality. Otherwise, the sheer volume of calls from users installed by the very large companies would skew the results. Once a "problem" company has been identified, corrective action can be initiated.