U.S. PPP formed to reduce crime, promote video alarms

With leadership from the Police community, National Sheriffs Association, and the National Insurance Crime Bureau, this public/private partnership reaches out beyond the security industry to include all the stakeholders in property crime. Organizers say this is the first organization that brings together all the property crime stakeholders to focus on combating property crime using video alarms to protect the residential and commercial property owners in the community.

The PPVAR has been working gathering data with many alarm companies, law enforcement and PSAPs, and especially the insurers who ultimately pay the bill for property crime.  Beyond promoting the adoption of video intrusion alarms, partners say this will help gather real world examples of what is working best for all the stakeholders.  Organizers say this will mean approaching the issue from a variety of applications including indoor, outdoor, commercial, residential, etc. Ultimately, the goal is to package these “best practices” and work with official “standards creating organizations” like the CSAA (Central Station Alarm Assn.) to create standards that meet the needs of all the stakeholders and were created with their input. The current Board of Directors is composed of representatives from each of the stakeholders:

Police Community: Chief Yost Zakhary is from Woodway, Tex., where he has been working chief for more than 27 years. Chief Zakhary began his career as a dispatcher in the Woodway 911 center over 30 years ago and alarm/response issues are one of his many interests.

National Sheriffs Assn.: Sheriff Paul Fitzgerald, current president of the National Sheriffs Assn., will join the board after his term is completed in June.

Insurance Industry: Fred Lohmann, Director of the NICB (National Insurance Crime Bureau). The NICB is supported by over 1,100 property/casualty insurance companies and is the primary liaison with law enforcement.

Alarm Industry: Donald Young, CIO of Protection One, and Steve Walker, Vice President – Customer Service Centers, Stanley Convergent Security Solutions.