Prince William County, Va. becomes the 88th municipality in the nation to implement Automated Secure Alarm Protocol (ASAP) at its Emergency Communication Center (ECC)/Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP).

ASAP automates communication from alarm monitoring central stations to ECCs and 911 centers, resulting in faster, more accurate emergency response by delivering alarm notification information directly from the alarm monitoring centers to ECCs via computer rather than by phone.

The use of ASAP results in the following benefits for monitored alarm users and first responders:

• Less phone calls to emergency response centers. Alarm monitoring center data is passed to ECCs / 911 operators electronically within seconds and then provided to first responders upon dispatch.
•  Quicker processing times. Data doesn’t have to be input manually or communicated verbally, resulting in reduced hold times and faster responses.
• Greater accuracy of information transmitted. Electronic transmission of data reduces chances for errors.

All pertinent data goes directly to first responders and the process takes only about five seconds. Many agencies using ASAP can expect alarm response times to drop from minutes to seconds.

More than 1,600 Vector Security monitored alarm users in Prince William County will benefit from the implementation. Vector Security assisted with extensive testing at the ECC prior to the system going live, having been the first alarm company to debut ASAP in Richmond, Va. in 2012.

Vector Security helped develop ASAP in partnership with The Monitoring Association (TMA) and the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO). Vector Security president and CEO Pam Petrow served as founding co-chair of the committee.

“As a pioneer of ASAP, Vector Security is pleased to see a growing number of ECCs adopt this technology as they begin to see its benefits,” said Anita Ostrowski, vice president of central station services at Vector Security. “We will continue to work with other agencies and alarm companies to bring this valuable technology online for the good of the industry and the protection of our communities.”

For a current list of agencies and alarm companies using ASAP, and those in the process of implementation, visit The Monitoring Association at https://tma.us/asap/. For more information on the features of ASAP, visit www.vectorsecurity.com/asap.