Alarm System Responses

It is extremely important to consider who will respond to alarms and what they will and will not do when they arrive at a Forest Service facility.

Determine the real response time to an alarm, not the advertised response time. For example, a national alarm monitoring company might state that they respond to all alarms in less than 10 seconds. That may sound impressive until you realize what that means. It means they will begin the notifications on the list you have provided them. It does not mean that law enforcement officers will arrive at your facility to investigate in less than 10 seconds.

Typically, law enforcement response times to alarms, particularly alarms at unoccupied facilities, are going to be from a few minutes to several minutes. In some jurisdictions, law enforcement officers will not respond until they have been notified that a responsible party associated with the facility will meet them.

Normally, you are likely to instruct the alarm system monitor to notify the local law enforcement agency of any intrusion and duress alarms. If that is your intent, talk first with the law enforcement agency that you are hoping will rush to your building. Determine:

• What is their priority for response to your facility? How long will it really take them to get an officer, a deputy, or a trooper there? Normally, intrusion alarms at unoccupied facilities are not high-priority calls for law enforcement.
  
  
• What does local law enforcement expect from the Forest Service if law enforcement officers are going to respond? Often, law enforcement wants a responsible party with facility keys to meet them at a designated location and accompany them (or at least be available) while they inspect the exterior. If the Forest Service does not send anyone and law enforcement officers see no signs of unauthorized entry, law enforcement officers will probably clear the call and move on.
  
  
• How can law enforcement (either officers on scene or dispatches) contact the Forest Service employee who responds? Ideally, law enforcement officers should be able to talk directly to the responsible Forest Service employee by cell phone.

If one or more Forest Service employees are on the alarm response notification list, train them how to respond properly and safely. Their training should include:

• Providing them with a written policy that instructs them how to respond safely.
  
  
• Making the as-built facility drawings available to law enforcement officers, if necessary.
  
  
• Admonishing the employee to wait for law enforcement officers or a second responder before approaching the facility. Remind them that unless they are commissioned Forest Service law enforcement officers, they are not trained to restrain intruders properly. Even Forest Service law enforcement officers should await the arrival of local law enforcement officers so all officers can plan the safest and most coordinated investigation of the alarm event.
  
  
• Instructing the Forest Service employee to call law enforcement to identify himself or herself, provide his or her cell phone number, provide his or her description and the description of his or her vehicle, and provide his or her time of arrival at the facility. Provide a specific location where the employee will meet the law enforcement officers. The responding employee should never approach the facility until after meeting with law enforcement officers. Then they will know what the employee looks like. Even then, the employee should not approach the facility alone.
  
  
• Showing the employee how to observe the facility from a safe distance with binoculars rather than rushing into the parking lot.
  
  
• Instructing the employee not to carry any firearms unless they are commissioned Forest Service law enforcement officers. Their instructions should never require them to respond to a situation where a firearm would be necessary.