Virginia 911 center implements ASAP Service to reduce alarm notification impact

The Monitoring Association (TMA) announced today that the Emergency Communications Center operated by the Norfolk (Virginia) Police Department has implemented ASAP Service, which went live on May 12. This is the 24th implementation in the state of Virginia.

ASAP Service was developed by TMA to lessen the impact of alarm notifications that typically enter a 9-1-1 center over administrative telephone lines. With ASAP Service in place, those notifications are delivered automatically to the 9-1-1 center's computer-aided dispatch (CAD) system, with all information needed by the 9-1-1 telecommunicators to dispatch the appropriate emergency response. This saves about two minutes on average, a significant amount of time during emergencies when lives are at stake and every second matters.

ASAP Service leverages the Automated Secure Alarm Protocol (ASAP). The protocol was developed jointly by TMA and the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO). ASAP Service also leverages the Alarm Verification Scoring standard (ANSI/TMA AVS-01), which identifies five scoring levels to help telecommunicators prioritize the severity of an intrusion or burglar alarm notification.

The following alarm companies support ASAP Service in the area served by Norfolk's 9-1-1 center:

• ADT
• Affiliated Monitoring
• Alert 360
• Becklar
• Brinks Home Security
• Cen-Signal
• CPI Security
• Dynamark Monitoring
• Everon
• Guardian Protection
• Johnson Controls (Tyco)
• National Monitoring Center
• Rapid Response Monitoring
• Securitas
• Security Central
• United Central Control
• Vector Security
• Vivint

The Norfolk implementation follows recent ASAP Service deployments by the Tampa (Florida) Police Department and the Frederick County (Maryland) Department of Emergency Communications.

Learn more about how TMA's ASAP Service is saving lives every day nationwide at www.asap911.org.