Alarm Permits

[patric]

Im debating whether or not to allow my burglar alarm permit to expire, since there doesnt seem to be much advantage to having one.  With an alarm permit, the police response time is typically one hour for a system with no history of false alarms.  Fire response times are much better, on the order of 4 minutes or so.

From today's whirled:
Alarm permit required for police to be first responder
Every intrusion alarm user in the city of Tulsa must chose whether to have the police be the first responders or secondary responders when the alarm is triggered.

Secondary response means police would not be dispatched to an intrusion alarm until after the alarm company or home or business owner has responded and determined that criminal activity has triggered the alarm.

If secondary response is chosen, the alarm user is not required to obtain a certificate.

If an alarm system is not registered or an owner fails to maintain a first-response certificate, the owner will receive secondary response from police officers.

The city of Tulsa has issued more than 21,000 active first-response certificates. A city alarm permit, available at tulsaworld.com/alarmpermit, has a $30 application fee. Source: City of Tulsa
http://www.tulsaworld.com/webextra/content/2010/crimesite/article.aspx?subjectid=450&articleid=20110307_11_A13_CUTLIN38122

[Gonesouth1234]

Im debating whether or not to allow my burglar alarm permit to expire, since there doesnt seem to be much advantage to having one.  With an alarm permit, the police response time is typically one hour for a system with no history of false alarms.  Fire response times are much better, on the order of 4 minutes or so.

From today's whirled:
Alarm permit required for police to be first responder
Every intrusion alarm user in the city of Tulsa must chose whether to have the police be the first responders or secondary responders when the alarm is triggered.

Secondary response means police would not be dispatched to an intrusion alarm until after the alarm company or home or business owner has responded and determined that criminal activity has triggered the alarm.

If secondary response is chosen, the alarm user is not required to obtain a certificate.

If an alarm system is not registered or an owner fails to maintain a first-response certificate, the owner will receive secondary response from police officers.

The city of Tulsa has issued more than 21,000 active first-response certificates. A city alarm permit, available at tulsaworld.com/alarmpermit, has a $30 application fee. Source: City of Tulsa
http://www.tulsaworld.com/webextra/content/2010/crimesite/article.aspx?subjectid=450&articleid=20110307_11_A13_CUTLIN38122

I think the new policy depends on how well armed you are.  

To the cred of TPD, when I have had them as first responders on the alarm system at a business, they were There when I got there after being called by the alarm company.

But after being pulled out of bed or out of the house several times because of a malfunction of the system, or one of the sales people coming in after hours, or the boss coming in early one morning before flying out of town, and since he couldn't remember the code, just leaving the horn blaring and  going to his office, and being met by Tulsa's finest and me with guns drawn a few minutes later, I  changed the setup for the alarm company to call me first, and having them ask me if I wanted response at all from TPD.  

The building where the business was located was often used as a pallette by Tulsa's after-hours artists, and some of the area's female business people who liked to ply their trade in the area around our loading dock, so that often triggered the alarm as well.

If it is your home, no questions asked, I would think.  $30 is a bargain, for first response.

If a business, I would base your decision on what is contained inside the business.

Some of the above free advice--for what it is worth-has been based on advice given to me by my attorneys, Smith, Wesson, Glock and Colt.

[TurismoDreamin]

I own a radio scanner and have local agencies programmed into it, including TPD (you can listen to TPD too: CLICK HERE). I have noticed that with TPD, business intrusion alarms are taken very seriously and they usually get more than one cop on it immediately. With residential, sometimes they address it immediately and sometimes they don't. I really think it has more to do with how busy they are at the moment. I've heard of intrusion alarm calls holding for more than 30 minutes several times. At the same time, Cheesecake Factory had two officers respond to an alarm call from a motion trip in the freezer...turned out to be employees.

And recently, we were driving on 11th Street when an obviously drunk driver speeding behind us almost hit us from behind, drove into the wrong lane until nearly hitting a truck head on, then ran a stop light to pull into a bar. He stumbled out of his car and walked into the bar and I reported it to the police. We sat in the parking lot and waited for nearly two hours just in case the police needed a statement. The police never came. After nearly two hours, the bar finally closed and the man got back into his car and sped off. We tried to follow him again, but he was driving too fast. Ironically, while we were waiting on TPD to show up, one of them pulled up into the same Burger King parking lot we were in only to order food and leave. At the time our call was placed, two other calls were on hold and they never assigned our call to anyone (we were listening to the scanner).

Now then, once you get outside of Tulsa, it's like night and day. Broken Arrow, Bixby, Glenpool, Jenks, and Sapulpa all respond immediately to anything. They have their fair share of calls as well, but they don't seem to waste as much time as TPD does. As for the first response option, I would do it. If you invested the money into a home security system, what good is it doing you being a second response? Thirty dollars would get you half a tank of gas...why not use it to give you a little more peace of mind. Even if there is a possibility your alarm call might be held, you wouldn't want to contemplate whether or not you should of paid the $30 once you've already been a victim.

[Hoss]

I own a radio scanner and have local agencies programmed into it, including TPD (you can listen to TPD too: CLICK HERE). I have noticed that with TPD, business intrusion alarms are taken very seriously and they usually get more than one cop on it immediately. With residential, sometimes they address it immediately and sometimes they don't. I really think it has more to do with how busy they are at the moment. I've heard of intrusion alarm calls holding for more than 30 minutes several times. At the same time, Cheesecake Factory had two officers respond to an alarm call from a motion trip in the freezer...turned out to be employees.

And recently, we were driving on 11th Street when an obviously drunk driver speeding behind us almost hit us from behind, drove into the wrong lane until nearly hitting a truck head on, then ran a stop light to pull into a bar. He stumbled out of his car and walked into the bar and I reported it to the police. We sat in the parking lot and waited for nearly two hours just in case the police needed a statement. The police never came. After nearly two hours, the bar finally closed and the man got back into his car and sped off. We tried to follow him again, but he was driving too fast. Ironically, while we were waiting on TPD to show up, one of them pulled up into the same Burger King parking lot we were in only to order food and leave. At the time our call was placed, two other calls were on hold and they never assigned our call to anyone (we were listening to the scanner).

Now then, once you get outside of Tulsa, it's like night and day. Broken Arrow, Bixby, Glenpool, Jenks, and Sapulpa all respond immediately to anything. They have their fair share of calls as well, but they don't seem to waste as much time as TPD does. As for the first response option, I would do it. If you invested the money into a home security system, what good is it doing you being a second response? Thirty dollars would get you half a tank of gas...why not use it to give you a little more peace of mind. Even if there is a possibility your alarm call might be held, you wouldn't want to contemplate whether or not you should of paid the $30 once you've already been a victim.

You won't be able to listen to quite a few of those TPD channels much longer -- they've been transitioning over to an encrypted system from what I know.

[TurismoDreamin]

You won't be able to listen to quite a few of those TPD channels much longer -- they've been transitioning over to an encrypted system from what I know.

I think you're referring to the surrounding cities. Those cities are following in BA's footsteps and going OpenSky. From what I understand, Bixby, Glenpool, and Jenks will be next to adopt OpenSky when they get the funds to do it, which I personally think is a bad move. They're sold only on the fact that there isn't a scanner on the market that can scan OpenSky since it's proprietary and uses a software key encryption unique per agency. Many other cities have said they have experienced nothing but problems with OpenSky, and Milwaukee PD has gone as far as suspending officers who complain about the system, denying their expensive investment is flawed. When BA tested out their OpenSky radios, their transmissions were very faint compared to their "old" radio system now. I hope Tulsa just goes with P25. But so far, I haven't heard of any future plans for Tulsa as to what kind of radio they're going with.

[Hoss]

I think you're referring to the surrounding cities. Those cities are following in BA's footsteps and going OpenSky. From what I understand, Bixby, Glenpool, and Jenks will be next to adopt OpenSky when they get the funds to do it, which I personally think is a bad move. They're sold only on the fact that there isn't a scanner on the market that can scan OpenSky since it's proprietary and uses a software key encryption unique per agency. Many other cities have said they have experienced nothing but problems with OpenSky, and Milwaukee PD has gone as far as suspending officers who complain about the system, denying their expensive investment is flawed. When BA tested out their OpenSky radios, their transmissions were very faint compared to their "old" radio system now. I hope Tulsa just goes with P25. But so far, I haven't heard of any future plans for Tulsa as to what kind of radio they're going with.

Nope, I'm talking about Tulsa.  I have a few 'in the know' people and they've already been testing some of the encryption.  Look for full encryption by summer.

I don't know why so many are going to OpenSky when it's an older system.  Most larger cities are sticking with Motorola and just implementing encryption.  It's a software change to the hardware and much cheaper than changing the hardware.

[nathanm]

I find the idea of blanket encryption more than moderately annoying. Understandable in the case of SWAT or something of that nature, but the dispatch channel? The only reason to encrypt that is because you don't want community oversight.

[Red Arrow]

I find the idea of blanket encryption more than moderately annoying. Understandable in the case of SWAT or something of that nature, but the dispatch channel? The only reason to encrypt that is because you don't want community oversight.

Sounds like a plan to me.  Maybe not one I like though.

[patric]

I find the idea of blanket encryption more than moderately annoying. Understandable in the case of SWAT or something of that nature, but the dispatch channel? The only reason to encrypt that is because you don't want community oversight.

BA's new police radio system blocks public scanner access

BROKEN ARROW - A new digital radio system using "OpenSky" technology has cleared the way for a greatly improved ability for police and fire departments to communicate with other jurisdictions, but the public is excluded from hearing any dispatch scanner feeds because of its digital encryptions.

"It's a little disappointing," said James Taggart, president of the Broken Arrow Amateur Radio Club. "I can't hear anything either anymore. Especially when storms are out, it's nice to be able to listen to it, and it's a nice oversight to have for regular citizens to be able to listen in on them."

Police Capt. Mark Irwin said the city is still debating the issue.
"The system is so new, we want to make sure we get all the kinks out," he said. "We'll reach a decision on whether we provide media outlets radios."

The Harris Corporation provided the $2 million network, which has been fully operational for about eight months. The network is called VIDA, or Voice Interoperability Data Access, and it has the OpenSky radio/data and Project 25 systems.

Tulsa is taking steps toward digital systems, and Tulsa Police Chief Chuck Jordan said media access to scanner traffic was one of the first issues to come up.
Jordan said the department is keeping the main dispatch frequencies available to anyone but is keeping investigation communications private.
"Some cities have a special media channel where they put out all the information they think is significant," Jordan said.

But this model puts police in the role of evaluating what they think is important instead of the media making those decisions, Jordan said.
"We're trying to get away from everyone listening to us," said Bixby Police Chief Ike Shirley. His department is also moving to digital systems.

Mark Ketchum, communications systems engineer for Broken Arrow said the next technological advance will be a way to directly communicate with the state's platform. The Intersubsystem Interface is being funded through Homeland Security.

[patric]

Residents at a 21st & Harvard break-in are upset their alarm company didnt call police because they apparently said there was no current alarm certificate. The failure to report the alarm was followed by a high-speed chase and crash of the victim's stolen vehicle.

Burglar alarm responses basically come in two flavors: First Response and Secondary Response. 
A First Response is defined by city codes as the police receive an intrusion alarm dispatch request and elect to provide intrusion alarm response.  In the absence of a confirmation (from a good neighbor or the alarm company) the priority is very low so the police First Response can be around an hour.

A Secondary Response means the police receive an intrusion alarm dispatch request but elect not to provide intrusion alarm response until after the alarm industry business has provided its own alarm response to the alarm site and has determined evidence of actual or attempted criminal activity.  Once the alarm is confirmed by the alarm company, the police respond at a higher priority -- usually only minutes.

In the event (911 dispatchers discover) the alarm site does not have a certificate, the alarm industry business will be immediately notified that the police will be the secondary response for this intrusion alarm dispatch request. At that point the monitoring company sends a technician to the premises, who then relay to police the status of the alarm.

Alternately, the monitoring company may activate any security cameras it has access to, or 911 may receive a confirmation from a neighbor.

The customer usually chooses early on which response they prefer, and should a person elect the police to act as secondary response, the residential or commercial alarm user is not required to have a certificate.

An alarm that is self-monitored (as opposed to professionally monitored) would not qualify for First Response nor require a license.  An alarm viewed on a smartphone would be an example of self-monitored, or one with only a loud siren to alert neighbors. The later gets a much faster response than First Response because the request for police comes from a real person rather than a mechanical device.

The news story didnt mention the alarm company but did show an alarm keypad with what appears to be an Advance Alarms logo.

https://www.fox23.com/news/unregistered-alarm-keeps-security-company-from-reporting-tulsa-home-break-in-to-police/988601738


Many Tulsans Pay Police Alarm Fee, But Non-Payers Get Same Service
https://oklahomawatch.org/2017/03/08/many-tulsa-pay-police-alarm-fee-but-non-payers-get-same-service/

Tulsa, Oklahoma - Code of Ordinances TITLE 21 - LICENSES CHAPTER 19. - INTRUSION ALARM CERTIFICATE
https://library.municode.com/ok/tulsa/codes/code_of_ordinances?nodeId=CD_ORD_TIT21LI_CH19INALCE