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Mr. Charles McGinnis Page 2 April 29, 1982 Mr. Howard Scarboro and Mr. Terry Black of the Cabarrus County Sheriff's D~partment were contacted regarding working relationships between Mr. Blackwelder's company and the Sheriff's Department. Both indicated that Mr. Blackwelder was very cooperative with the department and he made every effort to work within the pollcy and guidelines of the Sheriff's Department. They also stated that Mr. Blackwelder was quick to respond to complaints from alarm subscribers when system problems existed. The Wadesboro Police Department has allowed Mr. Henry Morton of Spectrum Sales install the DART System in Anson County's Emergency Communications Control Center. The system has been in place approximately one month and no major problems have emerged during that month. At this time, only a few locations are connected ko the system and all alarms seems to be functioning normally. At this time no complaints have surfaced concerning modification costs on existing alarms for hook up to the DART System Overall, the Anson County and City of Wadesboro officials seem to be satisfied with the performance of the system. They were, however, quick to point out thai the system had been operational for only one month and that few locations were on line at this time. If the claims of the DART System representatives are accurate then the system offers definite benefits over the traditional monitorzng panels with indicator lights or audible speakers. 'There is no evidence at this time to justify doubt in the system's capabilities. It should also be pointed out, however, that the system is relatively new and has not developed a long term track record. One potential problem area is that of conversion costs for existing alarm systems. This is estimated 5y Mr. Blac~elder at $200.00 per alarm system. There will pro- bably b'e some complaints a§out having to pay the additional $200.00. Mr. Roy Brown of the S.B.I~ pointed out that this is a source of a number of complaints to his office. The turnover of alarm systems' representatives and periodic technological improvements in systems creates a dilemma for law enforcement. This has brought on a new trend among law enforcement agencies regarding monitoring alarms. Simply stated, the trend is toward law enforcement agencies getting out of the alarm monitoring business. Since Cabarrus County is moving their communications center to a new location, this certainly is the time to consider whether or not they want to continue to provide this ssrvice. Private companies provide central service monitoring and weed out the false calls from the real thing prior to notification of law enforcement. This does not result in significant delay in response since their personnel are specially trained to recognize false alarms from actual emergencies. The result for law enforcement is savings in manpower utilization as well as a decrease in negative public relations resulting from faulty equipment. Quite often citizens assume that if the equipment is monitored ~t the law enforcement center, then the county or city involved should be accountable for faulty equipment.