Marlboro, New Jersey Police To Start Home Alarm Monitoring Service
In an effort to boost town revenues, the Marlboro, New Jersey police department is looking to “cut out the middleman” of New Jersey home alarm system monitoring companies and allow consumers to have the police department be their monitoring service.
According to SecuritySystemsNews.com:
According to Chris Mosley, president Complete Security Systems and past president of the NJBFAA:
“They’re going to do it. No matter what we say or do, they’re going to do this,” Mosley said. “This was a recommendation from the department of community affairs to help boost revenue in the police department.”
According to a report in the Marlboro News Transcript, the mayor of Marlboro estimated that the town could raise between $351,000 and $900,000 by monitoring home alarm systems. The police chief is quoted in the report as saying that residents who opt to have their systems monitored by the police department rather than by a private security company “will cut out the middle man,” and may see faster response times when an alarm is received.
The idea behind the police department providing monitoring services is that there will be a decreased response time as well as an increase in revenues for the police department. Not everyone agrees that this is a good idea, in fact on local community not too far from Marlboro recently looked into the residential home alarm security monitoring and opted against getting involved:
This is not the first time that a city police department has tried to raise revenue by offering monitoring to residents. Earlier this year, the Nassau County, N.Y. police department looked into monitoring residential accounts. After security industry representatives got involved, Nassau officials decided it lacked the expertise, manpower and liability coverage to get into the residential monitoring business.
Whether it works or not, one thing is clear – police departments need more revenue and citizens need to be sure that a reliable, stable entity is monitoring their home alarm systems.
While it is understandable that our Police, Fire and EMT Departments are also feeling the economic strain is there no good reason to venture from the Public Sector into the Private Sector?
The AFAANJ and NJBFAA have both been very proactive within NJ (and the entire country) in reducing the amount of nuisance (false) alarms in both the fire and burglary sectors. This has been achieved on too many fronts to list in a single posting. It is a documented fact that in reducing these types of alarms we have already providing every town in the State with a cost savings.
As to the statement that a “reliable, and stable entity is monitoring their home alarm system”. There are many licensed, trained and certified alarm companies that not only provide reliable monitoring, but also environmental monitoring and several other services. Not to mention expert service 24 hours a day. To even insinuate that the only entity that can provide this service in a reliable or stable way is the Police Department is a prime example of the very reason that it is not qualified to provide the service. Monitoring the signals coming from a residence is the last link in a long and complex chain of the overall life safety needs for our family’s and property.
Lastly the Mayor’s statement that this action would “cut out the middle man” is completely inaccurate. By attempting to insert another entity (who’s only reason for entry is to gain additional revenue by admission) they are adding another link in the chain and will most likely end up jeopardizing the overall viability of the systems and level of protection provided to the very residents they are sworn to protect.