Oklahoma City Police Department 911 Communications has gone live with ASAP Service, a standards-based solution developed by The Monitoring Association (TMA). ASAP Service automatically and digitally delivers prioritized alarm notifications to the computer-aided dispatch (CAD) systems used by emergency communications centers (ECCs) across the country. The expected results of this initiative are faster, better-informed emergency response, fewer communication errors, improved data accuracy and reduced stress for citizens and 911 telecommunicators.

The first phase of the initiative deployed the solution through ASAP View, a web-based portal that reduced the city’s implementation timeline by roughly 50%. “Once we had the opportunity to review our call volume and processes, the value of having all the information upfront was clear,” said Katherine Underwood, the agency’s management specialist. “We moved forward with View because it was easy to implement and use, and we believe it will reduce call handling times and overall call volume. Ultimately, the benefits outweighed the manual effort, since we would have had to build those calls either way.”

However, to realize the full potential of ASAP Service — for example, address pre-verification — the city plans to integrate ASAP with its CAD system as part of phase two. CentralSquare, the agency’s CAD-system vendor, is developing an application programming interface (API) for this purpose. The API will connect to the GovCloud-hosted version of ASAP, delivering scalability, reliability and data security, as well as compliance with the Criminal Justice Information System (CJIS) security standards for handling criminal-justice information. 

“Once ASAP Service is integrated with our CAD system, we no longer will need to dedicate a telecommunicator to monitoring the web portal,” Underwood said.

The agency’s ECC serves about 702,000 residents and provides 911 call-taking and dispatch services for law-enforcement, fire/rescue and emergency-medical incidents. In 2025, the center received 1.48 million calls for service, plus nearly 40,000 residential and business alarm notifications, the vast majority of which pertained to law-enforcement incidents.

Regarding alarm notifications, multiple voice calls typically are needed between 911 telecommunicators and alarm-monitoring-center personnel to verify the information needed to effectively dispatch emergency response. It is a time-consuming process — industry estimates indicate that it adds from two to eight minutes to response times, an eternity when lives and property are at risk. Because telecommunicators need to type the captured information into their CAD systems, the process also is prone to miscommunications, misinterpretations, and transcription errors.

ASAP Service is architected to resolve these issues. It was developed by TMA in collaboration with the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO). The solution is built on two TMA-developed standards, the Automated Secure Alarm Protocol (ASAP) and the Alarm Verification Scoring Standard (AVS-01). Both are accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI).

Of all the benefits that ASAP Service will provide, the one that resonates most with Underwood is the anticipated dramatic decrease in call volume for the center’s telecommunicators. Fewer calls mean telecommunicators will be free to focus on higher-priority incidents that require their unique skills and experience. They’ll also have more time to decompress between calls. “They’ll have time to breathe, which will reduce their stress,” Underwood said.

Further, Underwood predicted that citizens requiring emergency assistance will encounter fewer instances of being placed in queue and will experience shorter hold times when they are. “Our residents no longer will be competing with alarm companies to talk with one of us,” she said. “There’s nothing more frustrating than dialing 911 and getting the ‘all lines are busy, please hold and don’t hang up’ message when your house is burning down.”

As of go-live, the following alarm-monitoring companies are transmitting alarm notifications via ASAP Service to Oklahoma City Police Departments 911 Communications: Quick Response, CPI, Alert 360, Affiliated Monitoring, JCI, United Central Control, Allstate Security, Security Central, Rapid Response Monitoring, Everon/Protection One, Vector Security, Vivint, Guardian Protection and Becklar.