The Monitoring Association’s 2025 OPSTech Welcomes Record-Breaking Attendance

The Monitoring Association (TMA) welcomed over 150 monitoring and security professionals to Addison, Texas, Nov. 11 – 14, for its 2025 OPSTech. The annual meeting drew the most attendees in its five-year history. Over the course of three days, attendees took part in dynamic sessions and interactive roundtable discussions led by respected industry leaders and technology innovators.

“From the opening welcome reception to the closing workshops, this year’s OPSTech was exceptional,” said Alan Gillmore IV, president, TMA. “I was among a record number of first-time attendees this year. I took away actionable intelligence that I plan to readily implement in my own business. Moreover, I had the opportunity to reconnect with friends and colleagues from across the industry and meet new colleagues and thought leaders. The opportunity to engage one-on-one was invaluable.”

One of the highlights of the meeting each year is a tour of a state-of-the-art monitoring center. This year, attendees visited ECAM, a North American company in AI-driven live surveillance technology solutions.

Guardian Protection’s Monitoring Centers Attain ANSI/TMA AVS-01 Certification

Guardian Protection, twice recognized as Monitoring Center of the Year, announced its 24-hour monitoring centers have attained ANSI/TMA AVS-01 certification, a standardized scoring metric, introduced in 2023, used to report unauthorized human activity (such as a burglary detected by an alarm system) to an emergency response agency. The scoring provides greater situational awareness to first responders and can be impactful in allocating resources.

“Becoming AVS-01 certified reinforces our core belief that effective communication with emergency communication centers (ECCs) is vital to the service we provide our customers,” said Matt Majocka, director, monitoring operations, Guardian Protection. “It not only strengthens our relationship with them, but also with first responders, bringing an even greater sense of confidence to those who rely on us to provide best-in-class monitoring services.”

Guardian’s monitoring centers will use AVS-01 scoring to report an alarm event as being in one of five categories, helping to facilitate the best type of response by authorities. The category will be communicated to the appropriate ECC, such as a 911 center, in the following way:

• Alarm Level 0 – No Call for Service.
• Alarm Level 1 – Call for Service with limited to no additional information.
• Alarm Level 2 – Call for Service with confirmed or ‘highly probable’ human presence with unknown intent.
• Alarm Level 3 – Call for Service with confirmed threat to property.
• Alarm Level 4 – Call for Service with confirmed threat to life.

“Our trained monitoring center protection specialists have always provided necessary critical information to ECCs, so the addition of the AVS-01 certification will be transparent to our customers, but it has greatly helped to place a framework on the delivery of that information,” Majocka said.

Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office Launches ASAP Service to Improve Efficiency & Emergency Response

The Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO) has launched Automated Secure Alarm Protocol (ASAP) Service, the service developed by The Monitoring Association (TMA) to lessen the impact of alarm notifications that typically enter emergency communication centers (ECCs) over nonemergency administrative telephone lines.

The service marks a significant milestone in HCSO’s ongoing efforts to enhance public safety operations and support its emergency communications staff. By automating alarm data exchange through ASAP Service, HCSO expects to reduce repetitive and time-consuming interactions between alarm monitoring companies and telecommunicators, freeing personnel to focus on higher priority voice calls and helping offset staffing challenges experienced by ECCs nationwide.

“Our telecommunicators handle hundreds of thousands of calls every year, and alarm activations alone can involve multiple back-and-forth calls for a single event,” said Tony Martin, director of emergency communications, HCSO. “By implementing ASAP Service, we’re streamlining that process, improving accuracy and helping responders get to the scene faster.”

ASAP implementation was completed in just over four months.

“Many of our neighboring agencies that launched ASAP Service have seen great results,” Martin said. “We’re proud to bring this to HCSO as part of our broader effort to reduce telecommunicator workload, improve retention and continue modernizing how we serve the community.”

As of go-live, the following alarm-monitoring companies are transmitting alarms via ASAP Service to HCSO’s ECC: Affiliated, Alert 360, Becklar, Brinks, Dynamark, Everon, JCI, Per Mar, Quick Response, Rapid Response, Security Central, Securitas, Vector Security, Vivint and United Central Control.

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