Just before the digital communicator revolutionized residential central station alarm monitoring in the late 1970’s were the days of the “Automatic Telephone Dialer”. This device was an add-on to the “local” burglar alarm systems of the day. It “pulse” dialed the phone number of the local police department and then played a pre-recorded message from an open real audio tape (something like the “Eight Track” tapes of the 1970’s and the cassette music tapes of the 1980’s.) When

My profession of security and life safety is falling short; many of the people we serve are not happy with how law enforcement and other emergency responders are interacting with them. We need a new model if we are to expect different results. Imagine a time where police, fire, and medical responders are welcomed everywhere not only as true heroes, but also as true friends – especially in our seriously economically challenged neighborhoods. Emergency Responders working toget

Alarm monitoring has been around for well over one hundred and fifty years. Monitoring for fire alarm signals dates back to the 1850’s. The first 100 years used the basic technology of connecting the central monitoring station to each client by a pair of wires. Initially a telegraph service was used, followed by a dedicated telegraph line with a special fire alarm transmitter and receiver. One early innovative way of signaling was the McCulloh mechanical “clock” style system,

Since people first walked the earth men have assumed ultimate responsibility for the security and life safety of their social circles. When rival muscle mass was the only threat on the “radar”, and muscle mass was the only response option, it’s clear why men assumed this roll. Funny how the concept of “If You See Something Say Something” has also been around for millions of years with no gender bias. Todays threats come from many other places; nature, suppliers, customers, ut

Alarm monitoring has been around for well over one hundred and fifty years. In fact, the first monitoring for fire alarm signals date back to the 1850’s when the telegraph was used to send an address / location code to a telegraph office. In 1854 Dr. William Channing together with Moses Farmer of Boston Massachusetts applied for the patent of an “Electromagnetic Fire Alarm Telegraph for Cities”. One year later in South Carolina, John Gamewell purchased regional rights to mark

In an excellent article published in the second quarter issue of Fire Protection Engineering magazine titled “Smart Fire Fighting and fire protection” by: Anthony Hamins, Casey Grant, Albert Jones and Nelson Bryner a strong case was made for a quantum leap in managing the fire ground using Information Technology (IT). I could not agree more, in fact I would see IT used in support of not just fire incident management, but for all emergency response: police, fire, medical and a