“Chalk one up for the good guys,” said president of the Illinois Electronic Security Association (IESA), Chet Donati, at a legislative dinner event held by the IESA in conjunction with the ESA. He was referring to the latest development in the ADT Vs. Lisle Woodridge Fire District lawsuit. After a federal court issued a permanent injunction in late July against the fire protection district for regulating fire monitoring illegally, the district issued a notice last week officially removing itself from the monitoring business. That ruling was the result of a lawsuit initiated by ADT and five other security companies, which were losing significant business in this district due to a non-competitive ordinance.

Kevin Lehan, executive director of IESA, explained, “The Lisle-Woodridge Fire Protection District has sent out letters to their previous customers and said, ‘A federal judge has told us we cannot do this,’ — as I like to call it it’s their capitulation letter — ‘and you are free to choose your alarm dealer in a free market fashion.’ This is very good news for the industry.”

The notice reads, “Under the Permanent Injunction, you are entitled to restore fire alarm monitoring service to any commercial account you were serving before implementation of the Ordinance. You are allowed to remove the District’s Keltron radio and provide an alternative alarm transmission device in its place, i.e., radio, digital dialer, or other NFPA recognized means of transmission… the District is scheduled to end its fire alarm monitoring business in 120 days from the date the order was entered, which is August 16, 2011.”