Faster, More Accurate Emergency Dispatch Expected in Prince William County, VA with Launch of ‘ASAP to PSAP’
Automated alarm dispatch can reduce emergency response time from minutes to seconds for monitored alarm users, including customers of Vector Security.
PITTSBURGH, May 27, 2021 – Prince William County, Virginia 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.
As background, 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, VP, Central Station Services, 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 benefits and features of ASAP, visit www.vectorsecurity.com/asap.
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About Vector Security
For more than 50 years, Vector Security, Inc. (www.vectorsecurity.com) has been a premier provider of intelligent security solutions tailored to the needs of the customer. Headquartered in Pittsburgh, the company offers a full suite of electronic security services for residential, business and national account customers across North America and the Caribbean through a network of branches, authorized dealers and their ADS Security division. The Vector Security Networks division offers customized physical security and managed network services to multi-site commercial customers. Vector Security is a sister company of the Philadelphia Contributionship, a mutual insurance company founded in 1752, and currently provides cost-effective, technology-based security and automation solutions to nearly 400,000 homes and businesses across 58 branch locations.
