The St. Joseph County 911 Consolidated Communications Center announced on May 15 that it has become the first public safety agency in the United States to connect home and business alarm companies directly to its 911 dispatchers using a secure cloud system.
This development is significant because it aims to reduce emergency response times by automating how alarm data reaches dispatchers, eliminating manual phone calls and potential delays during critical incidents.
Previously, when a security or fire alarm was triggered, monitoring center staff had to call the county’s 911 center directly—a process that could take up to two minutes per call and sometimes led to missed or delayed information as details were verified over the phone. Now, with the Automated Secure Alarm Protocol (ASAP), alarm data is transmitted digitally into St. Joseph County’s Motorola Solutions computer-aided dispatch (CAD) system. The county processes nearly 25,000 alarms annually; this automation is expected to save telecommunicators more than 350 hours each year that would otherwise be spent on phone calls.
“The biggest operational impact of this integration is saving time, and when a 911 call comes in, every second counts,” said Shane Anders, computer aided dispatch administrator at St. Joseph County Communications. “By eliminating the need to receive and make phone calls with alarm companies, the process is almost instantaneous. It frees our team to answer more urgent calls more efficiently.”
The deployment builds upon the ASAP national standard developed by APCO International and The Monitoring Association (TMA) for modernizing emergency workflows across agencies.
“CAD is the nerve center of emergency response, where every second matters,” said Todd Piett, senior vice president, Command Center and Cloud Solutions at Motorola Solutions. “By creating a direct, cloud-based pipeline between alarm companies and the St. Joseph County CAD system, essential information can be directed straight to the telecommunicator’s screen. We are proud to work with St. Joseph County to support their first responders when their community needs them most.”
