SIAC Moody Award recognizes industry liaisons

As part of the ESX “Industry Ice-Breaker Luncheon” on Wednesday, July 25, 2008, the Security Industry Alarm Coalition recognized a group of individuals who “unselfishly give of their time and talents to alarm management issues.”

The Ice-Breaker Luncheon featured a presentation by Pete Correale, a regular comic on The Tonight Show, The David Letterman Show and Comedy Central, which had the crowd warmed up with jokes about marriage, city safety, and poor health habits.

Correale was followed by an equally entertaining presentation from Nashville Chief of Police, Ronal Serpas. Serpas became Nashville’s youngest chief ever in January 2004, and brought a career that included working as assistant superintendent of police and chief of operations for the New Orleans Police Department.

Serpas’ jovial discussion mixed humor with a recognition of the law enforcement community’s need to partner with the alarm industry.

“We fight crime in partnership with your businesses and your industry,” said Serpas, who noted that Nashville is currently seeing the lowest burglary rates since the 1960s.

Serpas noted that the two groups (police and the alarm industry) have been able to work together on the issue of false alarms in the past and noted that when he was early in his career in New Orleans, that city was facing increasing false alarm rates. Serpas noted that during the 1990s, New Orleans was able to combat the effect of false alarms on police operations by working with the alarm industry.

Serpas’ discussion of partnerships between the industry and law enforcement fed directly into the SIAC Presentation of the William N. Moody Award. The award is named for Bill Moody, a longtime alarm industry champion.

Recognized on Wednesday for the Moody Award were: Dave Simon, Bill Cooper, Jon Sargent and Larry Dischert.

Simon is the senior manager of communications, government and industry relations for Brink’s Home Security, chairman of SIAC’s public relations committee and has worked on issues such as both Dallas and Salt Lake City’s verified response initiatives.

Bill Cooper, industry liaison manager for ADT, is past president of the Kentucky Burglar & Fire Alarm Association. And chares the SIAC “Care Committee”. ADT uses “Coop’s” skills to build bridges with the law enforcement community.

Jon Sargent is industry relations manager for ADT and president of the California Alarm Association. He is an often-vocal advocate of getting central stations and alarm companies involved in their community to demonstrate the value of our industry. He brings 35 years of experience in the alarm industry.

Larry Dischert, though unable to attend the recognition ceremony, is the recently retired director of industry and regulator liaison for ADT. He has chaired the SIA False Alarm committee and was a founding member of SIAC’s board of directors. He was involved in the creation of the SIAC-FARA PDQ award program and has also served on the NBFAA Board of Directors as the national company representative.

Moody was present to recognize those honored in his name.