Frederick County, MD, brings TMA's ASAP Service to its 911 centers

The Monitoring Association (TMA) announced today that the Frederick County (Maryland) Department of Emergency Communications (DEC) recently implemented ASAP Service to lessen the impact of alarm calls that its 911 center receives. The solution leverages the Automated Secure Alarm Protocol (ASAP), which was developed jointly by TMA and the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO). More than 150 implementations of ASAP have occurred across the United States.

DEC’s 911 center processes emergency and nonemergency calls and provides dispatch services for the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office, the Brunswick City and Thurmont police departments, and several fire/rescue and emergency medical departments. It also coordinates after-hours communications for several county agencies. Each year, the center handles about 40,000 calls.

The department’s decision to implement ASAP Service followed an earlier decision to upgrade the 911 center’s computer-aided dispatch (CAD) system.

ASAP electronically transmits alarm data directly into the 911 center’s computer-aided dispatch (CAD) system, reducing response times by two minutes on average.

Alarm companies supporting ASAP Service in the region served by DEC include ADT, Brinks Home Monitoring, Dynamark Monitoring, EverOn, Guardian Protection, Rapid Response Monitoring Service, Securitas, Tyco/JCI, Vector Security, and Vivint.

Learn more about TMA's ASAP Service at www.ASAP911.org.