Improving the accuracy of automated alarm transfers Precision matters As part of our continuous improvement process, a comprehensive review of alarm events transferred by ECHO has been recently conducted to identify and address any potential issues. In the course of the review of over 26000 automated alarm activations, we identified where improvements could be made, particularly in addressing the rejection or failure of transfers by police Command and Control systems. The review found that the main reasons for failure were either incorrectly formatted/invalid URN type or where police response had been withdrawn as a result of false calls. When alarm activations are transferred by telephone, police call takers will automatically enter URN’s in the correct format – for example they know that a URN does not have spaces and may be case sensitive. Call takers will also resolve any ambiguities and request clarification from ARC operators where required. Unfortunately computers can’t do this and rely on data being in the exact format required or the transfer will be rejected. Please find below the issues raised in the review and recommended remedial action necessary to minimise the number of failed alarm transfers. Where police response to a security system has been withdrawn, the NPCC Police Operational Advice and Security Industry Requirements for Response to Security Systems states that an ARC should not pass activations to the police. URN does not match the reported alarm event: • An intruder alarm is being reported with an HUA URN • A HUA is being reported with an Intruder URN • A confirmed alarm event is being reported from a system recorded on the police command and control system as unconfirmed • An unconfirmed alarm event is being reported where the police command and control system requires a confirmed alarm event to be reported Police Response Withdrawn (Reported by some Command and Control Systems as ‘Banned Alarm’). Invalid URN Type 2 1 2 Recommended Action Liaise with Installer/Maintainer to verify current response status to ensure alarm events are not transferred during any period when police response has been withdrawn. Recommended Action Verify information provided by Installer/Maintainer to ensure details are correct and where required, the police force have been notified of changes. All rejections should be referred to the installer/maintainer for investigation. Please do not contact police alarm administration personnel before attempting to resolve issues with the installer/ maintainer. 3 The URN transmitted by the ARC must exactly match the URN issued by the police force as recorded on their command and control system. Errors include: • Numerals 0 and 1 reported as letters O and I or the letters being reported as numerals • Addition of prefixes or suffixes e.g. INT, URN, /I, and full stops • URN not present or reported as TBA, NO URN or NOT SET • Missing digits or characters • Additional digits or characters • Addition of spaces • Lower case characters when upper case is expected • The URN is being reported to the wrong police force e.g a Met issued URN is being reported to Kent Police. Invalid/Unknown URN 3 Recommended Action Check ARC records to ensure URNs are correctly recorded and to eliminate errors. Liaise with the Installer/Maintainer in the first instance to check the exact format of the URN listed in the police letter and ensure this matches the URN recorded by the ARC. Thanking you in anticipation for your help in implementing these recommendations. ECHO Admin June 2024