A recent study by the neighborhood organizers where Urban Alarm runs a mobile security patrol program showed a 55% reduction in crime for 2012. The study normalized the crime rate relative to adjacent neighborhoods to conclude the crime reduction was attributed to the Urban Alarm Mobile Patrol.

Urban Alarm’s patrol is a membership program where over 50% of the residents, in the neighborhood, are members of the program. This direct membership program eliminates the need for an association or other organizing body to manage the contracting process and take on the liability and responsibility for managing the contract.

The Mobile Patrol has significant visibility in the neighborhood passing by each members from 6 to 12 times most days. For members with security alarm systems monitored by Urban Alarm the Patrol will also respond to alarm events, along with DC Police. This particularly useful for residents when they are traveling or for businesses since the Patrol Officer can be on the phone with members to provide full status updates on any situations.

The Mobile Patrol goes beyond observe and report security with concierge services and member assistance that may range from picking up and re-delivering packages to walking dogs or meeting vendors on site representing the member.

This is not a lesson included in most teacher trainings. It's not something any of us want our teachers to need to think about. But it is clearly something that K-12 teachers, unlike anyone else in society, must be schooled in.

We have been involved in active shooter trainings in office environments for years. And with recent interest in K-12 active shooter preparedness, we have modified that training for K-12 campuses. What is particularly striking about the difference is the unique necessity for teachers to take responsibility for others -- for children. That responsibility is not typically a consideration in office environments, where presumably the majority of people involved are autonomous independent adults with their own judgement and capable of acting on instincts. Further, research shows that schools are much more likely to see an active shooter incident than workplaces. 

Teachers can prepare themselved by knowing the school’s layout and plan and participating in their drills. It is critical to know what the institution’s plan is. But, you need to prepare yourself. If you are ever in a situation you need to be ready to take action. It will be your job to evaluate the situation and either get the kids out or hide them, without missing a beat. This requires preparation and practice.

Your class should be prepared to get out fast, and to shelter in place. These should be part of your institution’s emergency drills. If your classroom has younger kids, you can incorporate “get out fast” and “shelter in place” drills into your classroom in a game format, so your kids can drill without even knowing it and in a fun way. 

Call an “UP AND OUT” or “FAST RECESS” game where everyone stops what they are doing and gets to the field / play ground as fast as they safely can. 

A “SCATTER AND HIDE” game can be incoroprated to not be seen by the school mascot or other fun “culprit”. Call this drill “close the shade,” “secure the door,” and “scatter, hide & silence.” These “games’ can allow you to drill weekly without causing undue alarm. If you are ever faced with a threat, you have your keywords and practice to fall back on.

Teachers should have the following tools to prepare:

As unlikely as it is you will ever be faced with an active shooter in your school, being prepared could make the difference between you and your students surviving. A little planning and preparation can make all of the difference in the lives of dozens of kids. 

Over the past couple of months our team has been working with a number of K-12 schools to revisit plans and strategies in the wake of the Newtown massacre. While our instinct is often to “fight the last battle,” (i.e., prepare for the last incident despite the multitude of other threats) this wake-up calls into focus the vulnerability of our schools and in particular, K-12 schools. The challenge we run into time and again is how to better secure campuses which are often, by design, open. There are incremental measures that can be taken to have an impact on school security which everyone should be committed to taking. While some involve the sort of systems we deal with at Urban Alarm, there are many that cost little to nothing.

In the first half of the 20th century there were thousands of child fatalities from fires on K-12 campuses. Since the 1950s there have been none. This is a testament to what is possible when there is a multi-faceted a commitment to solve a problem. So what changed the equation, thereby saving hundreds of thousands of lives? The simple answer is that we install fire alarm systems in schools and other institutions, because we are required to comply with regulations. And that has been an important part of the solution. But it goes well beyond fire alarms.

The tide turned in the middle of the century. New fire detection and notification technology was invented, allowing for early detection and immediate campus-wide notification. Building and fire codes were established that made fire prevention and evacuation a non-negotiable priority for every school. These codes made every aspect of schools safer --  including fire resistance material, ease of egress, containment strategies (e.g., fire stops throughout the structure), monthly fire drills, and more.  

Fire and building codes continue to evolve. Why do they change despite the undeniable decrease in people dying as a result of fire? Because we should always look to incorporate everything we learn to further minimize the risk of fatalities -- especially when it comes to the places our children spend the majority of their time.

We are now presented with a problem that today causes exponentially more fatalities in K-12 campuses than fire. Active shooter threats warrant the same thoroughness and commitment we invest in fire prevention. We need to evaluate how people enter schools, how active shooter incidents are contained, what materials are used, how drills are implemented. The same fundamental framework that changed the equation for the threat of fire should be applied to mitigating the potential impact of an active shooter.

These are not the only measures. We still need to address culture, mental health, firearms, and other factors, and the experts in those fields must think long and hard about their approach. But as an electronic security and life safety systems expert, I see that there is a clear path toward what will have a lasting and wide impact.

Urban Alarm has been meeting with Schools in the DC Metro Area to discuss their security and life safety strategies. To arrange a visit to your institution, please contact Miles Fawcett at 202.265.2700 x111.

If your car or cell phone is not working, you will know it the moment you try to use it. If an alarm system is not working, you may not know for weeks or months or until the next time you NEED it. Alarm systems must communicate with the central monitoring station in order to be effective. And in many cases, they only communicate with the central monitoring station when there is an alarm.

For alarm systems installed and monitored by Urban Alarm, we automatically test the alarm monitoring on a daily or weekly basis. Alarm systems are programmed to check in with us daily (for internet monitoring or cellular monitoring) or weekly (for phone based monitoring). If the system fails to check in with us, we take action.

This feature is called an automatic communication test. But not all automatic communication tests are equal. Many systems which claim to have these auto tests are not actually testing communications from the alarm system to the central monitoring center. Many alarm panels from major manufacturers use external modules for Internet and/or cellular monitoring. In many cases, their automatic communication tests only detect failures between the external module to the central monitoring center. But they do not detect failures between the alarm control panel and the central monitoring center.

Urban Alarm installs systems that have cellular and internet communication on the alarm control board, not in an external module. When our system tests communication, it is being tested from the alarm control panel to the central monitoring station. This method of testing is more reliable and more effective.

Many alarm monitoring companies do not enable automatic communication testing: make sure you check with your alarm monitoring company. Ideally, your system will perform an automatic test daily, but minimally it should check for a communication test weekly.

So remember:

Some of you may have read about Urban Alarm’s neighborhood guard patrol featured in last week’s Northwest Current Newspaper. Our patrol has been operating for a year with great success. Neighborhood studies show a 40% reduction in crime attributed to the patrol.

Urban Alarm’s mobile patrol goes well beyond security. Patrol Officers are in regular contact with members in the neighborhood, collecting mail and packages while they are at work, notifying them of open doors or garages in their home, and checking on reports of suspicious persons. 

For businesses, Urban Alarm responds to alarms to meet police, so that business owners can stay home. We will update business owners with exactly what is occurring. If the business owner chooses, we can allow police access to check the property and report back.

Urban Alarm’s patrol is available to limited Northwest DC neighborhoods and our success has encouraged us to expand our scope. If you want Urban Alarm’s patrol in your neighborhood, please contact us. Visit our website for more information on the patrol services.

SOURCE: Washington DC Metropolitan Police Department

Urban Alarm’s Mobile Community Patrol provides an added security presence for retail, business, and residential customers in Northwest DC Neighborhoods. In addition to alarm response, concierge services, home watch when you are away, and general community security the patrols utilize a private Intranet for documenting activity at Patrol Members properties. 

The system not only tracks patrol activity (each patrol vehicle is tracked by GPS) but is a repository for security related observations by the patrol officers. The system is also an effective mechanism for the patrol officers to communicate with each other as well as between the office and the field.

Patrol officers regularly document (via mobile photography) contractors on site or other potential items of concern. Patrol members can request reports on observed activity at their property.

Urban Alarm’s Mobile Security Guard Patrol is available to neighborhoods, individual residents, businesses, and commercial or multi-unit residential properties.  Larger properties may look to mobile patrols to supplement traditional posted security guards. Mobile patrols may be deployed in conjunction with remote video monitoring to provide a cost effective strategy for comprehensive security.

Over the past 30 days there has been a spike in theft from vehicles by as much as 150% in some of DC’s second police district neighborhoods.

According to Lt. Hill from MPD most of these theft from auto incidents have one thing in common -- something of potential value was left visible in the vehicle. We saw this in the three vehicle break-ins this month in our Moble Patrol area where a laptop bag and briefcase were visible in two of the break-ins.

MPD believes the state of the economy has “professionalized” this type of theft. What once were isolated and opportunistic smash and grabs appears to have become more organized and systematic. Perpetrators are believed to arrive and leave in vehicles and perform many thefts a day.

It seems self evident but often forgotten. Don’t leave valuables in your vehicles. Don’t leave items the look like they might be valuable in your vehicle. Empty shopping bags or iPhone ear buds can be enough to end up spending the morning pickup up glass.

Smoke detectors are an important part of a monitored alarm system. Smoke detector system may be installed by your alarm company or by an electrician. Electricians install 120VAC smoke detectors. Alarm company typically install 12VDC monitored smoke detectors.

The 120VAC smoke detectors are lopped together an a single circuit so if one smoke detector is tripped all detectors will sound. It is not connected to a monitored system or external sirens. The power comes from your circuit breaker and the backup battery is inside each of the individual detectors.

12VDC monitored smoke detectors installed by Urban Alarm are connected to the alarm control panel. They are powered by the alarm panel and a single large 12VDC battery that provides backup power to the alarm panel and all the devices connected to the alarm panel.

Up until recently the 120VAC detectors were required to meet most code requirements (for more information on fire and electrical code). 12VDC monitored smoke detectors were not an option for code and inspections. However effective with the International Residential Code (IRC) 2009 version, hard-wired 12VDC smoke detectors are now accepted to meet code and inspections. Unfortunately it can take time for states and country to catch up to the most recent code. Many, including DC and Maryland, and Virginia, are officially on older code standards which require the 120VAC detectors.

The good news is, in practice, DC, Maryland, and Virginia do allow 12VDC monitored smoke detectors to meet code and inspections. In some cases you may need a variance during the permit process but we have found jurisdictions willing to provide these so long as the installation meets the 2009 code requirement. 

12VDC Monitored Smoke Detectors have many advantages over 120VAC detectors:

It is possible to install and monitor a relay on the 120VAC smoke detector loop. In this configuration any of the smoke detectors tripping will result in a fire alarm transmission to the monitoring center (and a fire department dispatch). But we will only know if a sensor goes off -- we will not know which one or why. Nor will the health of the system and device be monitored.

What about Wireless Smoke Detectors?

Up until the 2012 International Residential Code (IRC) all low voltage smoke detectors are required to be hard-wired. The 2012 IRC code allows wireless smoke detectors. But jurisdictions are not quick to adopt this brand new standard. Over the next year they will be reviewing code updates and the matter of wireless smoke detectors will clearly be up for discussion. Contact our office for the latest on this mater and we will update the blog as soon as we have more information.

Keep in mind the NFPA recommends replacing your smoke detectors every 5 years. Most manufacturers documentation recommend replacing detectors at least every 7 years. Smoke detectors should be tested regularly and inspected / cleaned by an alarm company annually.

The District of Columbia has taken the lead from Maryland and will require sales tax be paid on alarm monitoring effective October 1st 2011. This change will effect security and fire alarm monitoring for commercial and residential properties located in DC.

The notice from DC goes on to specify that DC sales tax will now apply to “...the service of monitoring an electronically controlled burglar or fire alarm system for any residential or commercial property located in the District...”.

Our invoices for security alarm monitoring and commercial fire alarm monitoring (including auto-credit card charges) will reflect this change as of 1 October 2011.

With Hurricane Irene making its way up the East Coast today it will leave in its wake, among other distraction, a trail of beeping security alarm panels. The most likely cause of security alarm issues during this time will be:

1. Loss of AC Power

2. Low Alarm Panel Battery

3. Phone Line Failure

While these issues will generally restore themselves as the services are repaired they will cause the alarm panels to beep until acknowledged. We will get phone calls through the weekend from customers asking how to silence these beeps.

Here is a quick reference for the system Urban Alarm installs and other popular alarm panels.

What to do when a trouble tone is sounding

You can silence the trouble tone by pressing any key. This only silences the 

keypad and does not correct the condition that originally caused the problem. 

Silencing Trouble Beeps

To silence trouble beeps:

1. Perform a system status check by pressing * on a touchpad,

2. Change the arming leve(i.e., Disarm the Panel).

To silence the beeping, for power outage or low battery, press any key.

When a trouble condition is detected the Trouble or system indicator will turn on, and the keypad will beep every 10 seconds. Press the [#] key to silence the beeps. Press the [*] then {2} keys to view the trouble condition (#1 most likely a low battery, #2 is loss of AC power, #3 is telephone line failure)