From False Alarms to Full Intelligence: How CHeKT Is Rewiring the Monitoring Model

Wes Usie, the founder and president of cloud-based remote monitoring company CHeKT, has spent more than three decades in the security industry, building alarms and monitoring businesses from the ground up. While standing in his own monitoring center in 2016, he asked himself a simple question that would ultimately redefine his trajectory.

“What do people pay us for?”

The answer, he realized, was increasingly disconnected from reality.

“For years, customers bought security systems believing they would protect them in real time,” Usie explains. “But they’re not familiar with slow police response times or the false alarm problems that have plagued our industry.”

In the traditional model, a burglar alarm triggers a rigid, linear workflow: notify the customer, escalate through contacts, and, if no one answers, dispatch law enforcement. The system assumes the worst-case scenario every time.

When a potential threat is detected, alerts are paired with live video, allowing monitoring personnel to verify incidents in real time, initiate audio or visual deterrents, and escalate with actionable context. This architecture effectively shifts the monitoring center from a reactive call-handling function to an active decision-making hub: one capable of intervening before incidents escalate.

The platform’s emergence aligns with a broader industry recalibration away from signal-based alarm models toward intelligence-led security operations. Traditional systems built on motion detectors and door contacts are prone to generating large volumes of unverified alerts, contributing to chronic false-alarm rates and strained law enforcement response.

By contrast, CHeKT’s video-first approach introduces visual verification as a core layer of situational awareness, improving dispatch accuracy and response prioritization. The result is not only a reduction in false alarms but also a redefinition of service value, enabling security providers to deliver proactive, prevention-oriented protection across commercial and residential environments, ranging from construction sites and retail locations to critical infrastructure and logistics facilities.

The Inflection Point: From Signals to Situational Awareness

Usie’s turning point came as he began exploring how video could be integrated into the monitoring environment, not as an add-on, but as a primary intelligence layer.

“I started looking for a solution and realized no one really understood what the professional integrator needed,” he says. “That was the ‘aha’ moment. That’s where CHeKT started.”

At the same time, advances in analytics and AI have transformed cameras into intelligent sensors. Where motion detectors once flagged undefined movement, modern systems can distinguish between people, vehicles, and irrelevant activity with increasing precision.

“You can detect someone approaching a building before anything happens,” Usie says. “That’s the difference between reacting to crime and preventing it.”

Proof in Performance: Redefining False Alarms

The impact of that shift is not theoretical; it’s measurable.

“In 2023, at the alarm company my sons run, we monitored 6,200 cameras across the city,” Usie says. “Over the course of a year, we had five false dispatches. Five.”

That figure stands in stark contrast to traditional alarm environments, where false alarms are the norm rather than the exception. The difference lies in the context that removes human assumptions not supported by the video. Consider a typical break-in: a burglar smashes a storefront window. In a legacy system, the alarm activates only after the damage is done. The camera records the incident, but both systems remain reactive.

“The customer ends up frustrated,” Usie says. “Everything worked the way it was designed but it didn’t prevent anything.”

With proactive video monitoring, detection occurs before the breach. A subject approaching the property can trigger an alert, enabling intervention, whether through audio deterrence or operator escalation, before damage occurs.

“That fundamentally changes the value proposition,” he says. “Now the detection happens at the camera, before the break-in. You can audibly and visibly deter the person and prevent the crime altogether.”

Still, the transition is not without friction. As detection shifts outward, from interior sensors to perimeter-based video, signal volumes become less predictable. Monitoring centers must rethink staffing models, workflows, and pricing structures.

“You’re introducing judgment into a system that was built on rigid SOPs,” Usie notes. “The industry is still finding its footing.”

Bridging the Gap: A Transitional Path Forward

One of CHeKT’s core differentiators, according to Usie, is its ability to bridge the gap between legacy operations and next-generation capabilities.

“We’re not telling companies to stop installing alarm systems,” he says. “Those still have value. What we’ve done is create the shortest path to transition.”

That approach allows dealers to leverage existing infrastructure—technicians, workflows, and monitoring centers—while layering in proactive video capabilities. However, the biggest hurdle isn’t technical; it’s cultural.

“The challenge isn’t operations. It’s sales,” Usie says. “Sales teams are used to selling a repeatable product. Now they have to sell value and ask for higher fees. Some struggle with that.”

Compounding that challenge is the need to rethink system design. Unlike alarms, which follow a predictable “rinse-and-repeat” deployment model, video-based solutions require a more consultative approach.

“You’re asking people to change their pitch,” he explains. “And that’s harder than it sounds.”

On the back end, CHeKT has focused on interoperability and scalability, integrating with alarm automation platforms globally and deploying infrastructure to support low-latency video delivery across 12 regions. That foundation ultimately positioned the company for its 2025 acquisition by Alarm.com, expanding its role as a central data and video delivery layer across connected security ecosystems.

“Our platform unlocks the value of existing camera deployments,” Usie says. “It turns them into proactive monitoring assets.”

The Road Ahead: AI, Convergence, and a New RMR Model

Looking forward, Usie sees a rapid acceleration toward AI-driven monitoring and a corresponding shift in how the industry defines recurring revenue.

“We used to talk about five-year timelines,” he laments. “Now it’s five months.”

Advances in AI, edge analytics, and cloud processing are compressing innovation cycles and raising the stakes for adoption. That shift carries significant implications for the traditional RMR model, which has long been anchored in burglar alarm systems.

“I think proactive video monitoring will come to the forefront—and soon,” says Usie. “Recurring revenue in this industry has always been dependent on burglar alarms. I don’t think that’s going to be the case in five years. I don’t think it’s going to be the case in two years. There are already companies doing only video monitoring, and they’re growing exponentially.”

At the same time, customer retention dynamics are changing. Where alarm providers once expected decades-long relationships, today’s environment is defined by shorter lifecycles and increased churn.

“Twenty-five years ago, you expected a customer to stay for 20 years,” admits Usie. “Today, you hope for four.”

Despite steady demand, Usie warns that the industry may be underestimating the scale of disruption. The path forward, he argues, requires a hybrid mindset that combines the operational discipline of established players with the experimentation and agility of startups.

“It’s like having stage 4 cancer with no symptoms,” ponders Usie. “You’re sick, but you don’t even know it. The companies that succeed will embrace that. The ones that don’t, well, the market will move on without them.”