In response to a number of requests from public safety officials, the Central Station Alarm Association (CSAA), Vienna, Va., announced that it is designing an online false alarm reduction training course. The goal is to give the law enforcement community and the alarm industry another tool with which to reduce false alarms.

Although this course will be designed to help the chronic abuser, anyone wishing to better understand alarm systems, central stations, and the PSAP role will be able to take the course from the privacy of their home or office.

According to CSAA’s executive vice president, Steve Doyle, “this course will give the law enforcement community an alternative to repetitive and controversial punitive fines.”

According to CSAA, this is the first time that a false alarm reduction course will be delivered online when the AHJ directs an individual to take the course, pass an exam at the end of the course, and present a copy of the certificate of satisfactory completion back to the AHJ in lieu of paying a fine or to restore police response in cases where it had been suspended.

Some leading AHJ departments have implemented classroom-style education programs for alarm abusers. However, the great majority of responding departments have not yet used this method of false alarm reduction because of resource or budget constraint, or because the number of false alarms is not large enough to justify the expense of time and money to create a classroom course. For these departments, this new, easily accessible web-based educational program delivered through the CSAA web site, www.csaaul.org, can prove to be a cost effective and convenient solution to the alarm abuser problem.

The course will be available through the CSAA web site, www.csaaul.org, and through links from the AHJ websites as well. For more information, contact Steve Doyle at (703) 242-4670 ext. 13.