False Alarm Analysis Program (FAAP)

Billing and Permit Suspension
The system will assist in the reduction of false alarm occurrences by billing alarm users for excessive numbers of false alarms and indicating alarm users who have reached a defined number of false alarm dispatches in a calendar year as outlined in a city or county ordinance for police response suspension. It provides a billing system and tracks payments of false alarm billings.

There is a billing function that allows jurisdictions to specify a dollar amount per false alarm fee schedule. It will also print out invoices suitable for window envelopes and/or mailing labels to bill the accounts. Messages unique to the number of false alarms may be automatically applied to the invoices based on the number of false alarms for that account.

If the jurisdiction has a separate department to handle billing, a report or diskette can be made with the billing information on them to give to that other department. It will also keep track of payments received and a balance due. The administrator may also specify a number of false alarms to suspend police response service. When an account reaches this number, a flag is set indicating that police response service should be suspended.

Reports
The reports generated by the system are designed to assist those managing a false alarm reduction program to identify problem alarm users and alarm companies with a high incidence of false alarms among their alarm user customers. The reports provide a jurisdiction with historical tracking of progress on reducing false alarms from a base year to the present or future.

Only the administrator can run the reports. The Horrible Performers Report allows selections for date range and minimum number of false alarms which occurred during the date range.

Data Export and Import
The software is also designed to allow data export from a jurisdiction to an off premises false alarm reduction coordinator and for the import of new alarm user accounts from major alarm companies in an effort to reduce the administrative burden on jurisdiction personnel. This can be achieved by transfer to disk.

(OPTION NOT AVAILABLE BETA 33 VERSION) -There is an import/export function built in to allow, at the discretion of the jurisdiction, alarm companies to have instant access to their data. The alarm company simply needs to have their computer call the computer at the dispatch center via modem. To maintain security, the dispatch computer will call the alarm company computer back at the modem number on file and transfer the information for that particular alarm company only. The information can also be placed on diskette and shipped to the alarm company.

Security Levels
In order to insure the integrity of this system, two levels of security were created: User and Administrative. Users can enter new accounts which will be placed in pending status. In addition, the user can enter the false alarms and create invoices. The administrator has the ability to enter new users to the system, generate reports, run billing, and can also enter false alarms. The Administrator can perform maintenance on Jurisdiction information, Account Classification information, Alarm Company information and Account (alarm user) information.

Everyday Sequence
The first screen the dispatcher sees is a search screen. This is to ensure that the dispatcher checks first to see if that alarm user account is already in the system. The search can be on any component of the name or address. For example, a search on an address of "MAIN" will bring up a list of all accounts in the system on "Main street". If the dispatcher sees the account they are looking for, they will select it with their mouse and will then see a screen of all the false alarm history for that alarm user account. The dispatcher can then select a button to add a false alarm to that account history. The dispatcher will then select a disposition, the date and time of the false alarm (default is current date and time), and enter any appropriate comments.

If the dispatcher does not find the account in the search, they may choose to add the account to the database. They will then enter all name/address information, who to contact information, account classification, servicing alarm company, monitoring alarm company, whether the alarm is registered, active/suspended and automatically assign a default alarm user number or optionally the number can be manually created.

There are screens to enter alarm company information, including a unique identifier, name/address, the name and phone number of a contact person and the number of a secure modem at the alarm company. Account information may and should be entered ahead of time, for example, if the alarm user has registered their alarm, but has not had a false alarm. Any accounts added to the system must be approved by an administrator before they are truly added. This is to help ensure accuracy of the collected information and also to ensure that duplicates do not get added to the system. The administrator is notified that new not yet approved accounts exist every time they log into the system.

Integrity
The effectiveness of the system and the false alarm reduction effort depends on the integrity of the data. It is therefore imperative that the administrator for FAAP be determined to verify newly input data such as:

• Alarm user account name and address
  
• Alarm user account servicing and monitoring alarm company since reports are sent to alarm companies listing there customers alarm history.
  
• Defining alarm users as commercial vs residential whether they are a direct connect on a member of a specially tracked group of alarm users such as banks or schools, etc.
  
• That there are not duplicate entries for the same alarm user since false alarms spread between duplicate accounts will keep the alarm user in lower cost false alarm fine brackets and delay suspension of problem alarm users.