The Boston Police Department has adopted a new policy in its public safety answering point (PSAP) that gives dispatch priority to video intrusion alarms. A security industry group including representatives from Stanley CSS, ASG Security, American Alarm, Wayne Alarm Systems and Videofied has been campaigning for PSAPs to implement formal procedures to deal with alarm events where video that confirms a probable crime in progress is present. Boston is the first large city to formally implement such a policy.
The new procedure involves the use of two new codes in Boston’s computer aided dispatch (CAD) software to categorize these alarm events: VAC for video alarm commercial and VAR for video alarm residential. The procedure consists of the central station placing a call to the PSAP as it normally would and indicating that it is a video alarm. The appropriate VAC or VAR code is input by the operator along with the alarm information. The monitoring station sends the video clip of the alarm to a cityofboston.gov email address that forwards the email/clip to the police dispatcher workstations. The CAD transfers the alarm to one of six dispatchers (organized geographically) who are able to call up the video on their screens when they see the VAC or VAR code and dispatch the alarm as a priority to the officers in the field.
Boston’s CAD has the capability to specifically label a video alarm and give dispatchers the capability to view video clips and obtain additional information about a crime in progress. Traditional alarms have always received a priority 3 in the Boston CAD system and this has not changed. Now, however, video intrusion alarms receive a priority 1.