Is your Alarm Monitoring Centre Compliant?
Do you have a Monitored Alarm System? Whether you are a business or home user of Alarm Monitoring Services you have the right to expect that your alarm monitoring centre meets certain criteria including compliance with Australian Standard 2201.2:2004 (Intruder Alarm Systems - Monitoring Centres) and any required registration with Police Alarms Response Protocols (eg: Western Australia Police - Alarms Response Working Group).
A typical site with a monitored alarm system passes responsibility for 'watching' the site to the monitoring centre company for about 3/4 of the time. When the owner has his/her alarm system installed and sealed, he/she has the right to expect the monitoring centre to maintain certain operating abilities. Typically the sorts of items that are covered in the standard are:
- the construction of the centre, together with its physical and fire protection,
- access into the centre and its 'modus operandi',
- ventilation systems and emergency breathing equipment,
- power supply arrangements,
- communications (telephones, duress and radio),
- redundancy in the monitoring equipment,
- and its record-keeping
It is possible that some monitoring companies are claiming to be graded when in fact this is not correct - we advise customers or consultants to check any such claims. This can be done by either asking the company to produce its Grading Certificate (dated certificates are issued, normally with a validity of two years) or by viewing the SAIWA list of the Graded Monitoring Centres.