Licensing Posts

On April 1, 2023, Montgomery County, Maryland will begin enforcing an Enhanced Call Verification (ECV) statute for all burglary alarm activations. Enhanced Call Verification (ECV) requires that 2 different phone numbers be called before police are dispatched.

If you reside in Montgomery County, Maryland's jurisdiction, then this new ordinance applies to you. If you are unsure, you can always reach out to their Non-Emergency phone number and provide your address. They will be able to confirm whether this ordinance applies to you.

If you live within this jurisdiction, please ensure that you have at least two (2) phone numbers on file for the monitoring station. This will satisfy the requirements of the ordinance. Failure to have more than one (1) phone number on file, which the monitoring station can attempt to contact prior to calling the police, will result in a DENIED dispatch request. It is also imperative that if you are contacted that you can provide the proper False Alarm Passcode. This verifies that you are a valid user. Providing anything other than the correct False Alarm Passcode will result in the monitoring operator contacting the authorities. Even if you are attempting to prevent a dispatch.

This new ordinance will apply to all central station-monitored burglary alarms within the jurisdiction. This includes door and window alarms, glass break alarms, and motion detector alarms that may require a police dispatch. If the alarm is the result of a panic, duress, holdup, or robbery alarm, then the process is different.

In the instance of a panic, duress, holdup, or robbery alarm, the monitoring station operator must attempt to verify the alarm signal, but only AFTER requesting police dispatch. In these time-critical moments, they will dispatch before calling the premises' phone numbers that have been provided by the end user.

If CMS gets a "verified" user response on the first number they call, then they are not required to call a second number. The ECV requirement only applies when a burglary alarm is received by the monitoring station, and upon calling the first number on file there is no answer. Remember too, that when contacted, if the user provides the proper false alarm passcode, they can cancel the dispatch in the case of an accidental activation or a false alarm.

ECV is only applicable for burglary alarm activations. This does not apply to Fire or Life Safety device alarm activations. All of these alarms will still be handled in the manner requested by the end user. Typically, life-safety alarms are set up to call the premises number first, if there is no answer, or if the person who answers can't provide verification, then dispatch, and finally call the remainder of the call list number(s) until either someone is reached, or the authorities arrive on site and contact the monitoring station.

For monitoring in the U.S., Alarm Grid uses Criticom Monitoring Services (CMS). They operate in various locations across the United States and can monitor any location within. If you ever need to get in touch with CMS, you can call our main number 1-888-818-7728, and choose option 9. This is useful if you ever need to verify (but not change) your call list phone numbers, report a false alarm, put your system on test, take it off test, or verify alarm signals received. CMS operators are available 24/7. If you need to make changes to your premises phone numbers or call list, change or update your false alarm passcode or duress code, either call our main number 1-888-818-7728 and choose option 2 for the support team or, better yet, email us at support@alarmgrid.com.

Excerpt from the ordinance, provided by Montgomery County Police Department:

"Per the below, Section 5 sub, section 5.1

Section 5. Procedures To Request Police Response

5.1 Before requesting a police response to an alarm signal, an alarm business shall first attempt to verify the Alarm signal is valid by placing a telephone call to the Alarm Site and/or Alarm user. If the first attempt is unable to make contact with a verified Alarm User and ascertain if the Alarm Signal is valid, a second attempt shall be made. The second attempt shall require, at a minimum, a telephone call be made to a telephone number which is different from the telephone number utilized in the first attempt.

In the case of a panic, duress, holdup or robbery activation; the alarm business must attempt to verify the alarm signal only after requesting police dispatch. In cases where a crime-in-progress has been verified by real-time audio/video surveillance of an Alarm Site by the Alarm Monitoring Company, a second call is not required, when there are devices that permit either the direct, live listening in or viewing of an Alarm Site or portions thereof."

We would also like to remind our customers who have central station monitoring, that you can access your information without contacting us or CMS. Customers can do this using the MyAlarms.com portal from Criticom. With MyAlarms.com, customers can view their premises numbers, their call list numbers, put their systems in test mode, view their account information, and view their signal history. To do this, a user must create an account with MyAlarms.com. To get started, follow this process to set up your MyAlarms.com account.

Alarm Grid Is permitted to do alarm monitoring in Wichita, KS Under License #165.

Alarm Grid's monitoring responsibilities extend to areas all throughout the United States - including the great heartlands. We are honored to be monitoring the alarms of clients in Wichita, KS under the permit granted to us by the city. For current regulations we remind Wichita residence to please check with your city's police department. We do our best to keep up with regulations throughout the United States, but occasionally our database is out of date or incorrect.

It is the responsibility of the homeowner to make sure that their security system is in compliance with local regulations. We do our best to make that a simple process, but if you find that our municipal database has inaccurate information we ask that you email support@alarmgrid.com with that information so that we can quickly correct it.

Alarm Grid is permitted to do alarm monitoring in Louisville, KY Under License #836.

It is not uncommon for heavily populated cities, such as Louisville, to take on the efforts of licensing and regulations for alarm monitoring companies. Alarm Grid is licensed in Louisville to monitor alarms.

While we do our best to make sure to stay on top of each city's rules and regulations when it comes to home security ordinances, the burden of ensuring that your system is in compliance with local laws is on the owner of the security system. Please double-check our posted process with those listed by the city itself.

If you find that Alarm Grid's rules are out of date or incorrect, please email us at support@alarmgrid.com so that we can correct the record in our municipal database.

Alarm Grid is permitted to do alarm monitoring in Maryland Under License #107-1961.

Alarm Grid is honored to monitor homes in Maryland. Maryland's state regulations regarding home security are onerous, so we are glad to be done with the process of getting licensed in the state.

While having a license to operate in the state of Maryland is necessary for effectively performing central station monitoring for municipalities within the state, many of those municipalities, including counties and cities themselves, have ordinances that require additional efforts in order to make sure that your system is in compliance.

We do our best to make sure that we are in compliance with each of the individual municipalities, but there are over 9,000 throughout the United States, so occasionally, the information in our municipal database is outdated. It is your responsibility to check the regulations in your local area, though we do our best to help. If you find that some of the information that we have posted is incorrect, please let us know by emailing support@alarmgrid.com. We will make the proper updates right away.

Alarm Grid Is permitted to do alarm monitoring in Albuquerque, NM Under License #820.

Albuquerque, NM is a municipality that requires the registration of local security systems with the city. Alarm Grid submits a list of new clients as soon as you are activated. At that time, if you are interested in a homeowners insurance discount for your system, once activated please let us know the name and email address or fax number of you insurance provider. We will send on a certificate of insurance as soon as we confirm the reception of signals.

For those in other New Mexico municipalities, please explore the Alarm Grid places database for information on your specific locale. Every location has different rules and regulations. However, it is your responsibility to know the rules in your specific location. While we do our best to maintain a comprehensive, up-to-date database of all locations in the US, with more than 9,000 locations, there is no guarantee that our information is the most recent information. Please check with your police station to confirm that our displayed requirements for your location are both current and accurate. In cases where you find out-of-date data, please email us at support@alarmgrid.com so that we can update the municipality right away.

Alarm Grid Is permitted to do alarm monitoring in Florida under license #EG13000444.

As Alarm Grid's home state, we are both proud and excited to begin monitoring home security accounts in this wonderful state.

Florida is a big state, and municipalities are in charge of their own rules with regard to alarm registration. Some cities require alarm system owners to purchase a permit from their local police department to avoid false alarm fines. If your located in any of those cities, it is your responsibility to know what you need to do to make sure that your alarm is in compliance with local regulations. That said, we do our best to make sure that our local database has information about your location, though the incredible frequency with which local regulations change will mean that our database is occasionally displaying old, outdated information. You should call your local police department in order to make sure that you are in compliance.

In the case that Alarm Grid is required to be permitted within your city limits and there is no permit displayed on our municipal database's page, simply email support@alarmgrid.com in order to obtain our permit number and any forms that might need for local registration.

Alarm Grid is permitted to do alarm monitoring in Virginia under license permit #11-9013.

We are proud to be working with the state of Virginia, and its municipalities to both reduce false alarms and to make sure that our users are in compliance with both state and local regulations at all times.

The great state of Virginia has granted Alarm Grid permission to operate within the state under permit #11-9013. This is a pre-requisite for Alarm Grid to obtain permits in any city in the state. Alarm Grid does our best to remain compliant with municipal rules, but it as the alarm system owner, it is your job to know the laws in your particular jurisdiction. Please check the ordinances within your city and county's limits to ensure that you are in compliance with the local jurisdiction.

In some cases, you will need to make sure that your security system is registered with the local police, though that is not necessarily the case. Additionally, in some counties within Virginia (Fairfax County for example), users are required to fill out a triplicate carbon copy sheet that is to be submitted to be held by the owner of the system, the county itself, and Alarm Grid. If you live in one of these counties, please ask us for the forms since they are specific to your security company and we will send out a pre-filled form to you that same day.

If you find that the licensing information for your city is out of date on Alarm Grid's municipal database, please email support@alarmgrid.com so that we can make sure to update the locale's information. We do our best to help you remain compliant, but local municipalities regularly change their ordinances. And with more than 9,000 municipalities nationwide, there are times when our database will be displaying out of date information.

Our headquarters is in Lighthouse Point, FL, not so far from the quaint little city of Boca Raton. Alarm Grid has clients all throughout Florida, and in much of the United States. We are proud of how we treat our clients, and do whatever we can to serve them well.

Part of serving you is making sure that our municipal registrations are up to date, a daunting task, as you can imagine considering there are around 9,000 municipalities in the United States.

But that, combined with our state of the art equipment, like the Honeywell L5100, our reliable alarm monitoring service, are what ensure that you get an expeditious response from Boca's friendly police force if your property is being compromised.

Alarm Grid has received its permit to provide alarm monitoring services in Boca Raton under account #581.

If you are a resident of Boca Raton, you are responsible for knowing your city's ordinances and regulations. While we are permitted to monitor your system, you are responsible for paying any municipal fees that are owed to the city of Boca Raton or filling in any required registration forms.