Be AWARE

Security company’s domestic violence program raises awareness

• By Karina Sanchez
• Jul 10, 2007

PEOPLE know the name. They trust the brand and the employees behind it to protect them in their homes and businesses. ADT Security Services is known for many things, but probably most important is its involvement in helping protect the helpless. ADT’s AWARE (Abused Women’s Active Response Emergency) program, which began 15 years ago, is an effort to help protect victims of domestic abuse. The program has already won countless awards and continues to gain notoriety.

Security journalists recently learned about the program in late April when touring the ADT headquarters in Boca Raton, Fla. At that time, the program had just won its most recent award from the Department of Justice duringNational Crime Victim’s Rights Week.

And though winning awards is the result of a successful program, the company’s initiative to do something about this rather unspoken problem is what really defines it as a company at work.

In late May, Tyco, parent company of ADT, was involved in a forum on Capitol Hill where it was engaged with women’s rights groups and domestic violence networks to appeal to Congress to better fund initiatives such as the Violence Against Women Act of 1998.

“Because they have laws on the books, they don’t necessarily fund the agencies that are right at the grassroots level, trying to address the problem,” said Ann Lindstrom, director of corporate communications for ADT and director of the AWARE program. “Domestic violence remains a huge problem, and this is one tool people have at their fingertips to help with that.”

Recognizing the Problem
Back in 1992, when the program was started in the United States, domestic violence was mostly talked about behind closed doors.

“The program was started around the time of the O.J. Simpson trial, and domestic violence really wasn’t talked about. The trial put it on everyone’s radar,” Lindstrom said. “One reason we decided to call it AWARE was because we thought it was important to raise the issue of domestic violence. It cuts across all barriers – not just poor, but rich, also.”

It was a call from the Hillsborough County, Fla., Sheriff’s Department that prompted the creation of AWARE. The department wanted a program in the community modeled after ADT’s DVERS (Domestic Violence Emergency Response System) program, which was started in Winnipeg, Canada, just a year earlier.

So ADT representatives traveled to Canada to research DVERS and learn how to launch the program in the United States. Soon thereafter, AWARE, synonymous with DVERS in Canada, was launched in Hillsborough County.

On the Job
Oftentimes, police departments or Social Services will approach ADT about starting an AWARE program in their community. They usually have a particular victim they’d like to enroll.

If the victim meets the three basic criteria—victim must be in imminent danger of attack, must have a restraining order or other active order of protection against the abuser, and must be willing to prosecute and testify against the batterer in court if the batterer is apprehended through the use of the ADT system—then ADT and local law enforcement will go through the necessary steps to install and monitor, at no charge, security systems in the victim’s home and provide the victim with an emergency necklace pendant for as long as the need exists. When activated, the pendant sends a silent alarm to ADT’s monitoring center. ADT then alerts the proper authorities that an AWARE call has been received.

In setting up the program, there are certain requirements from law enforcement, as well. The police department must agree to participate in the program by responding to the program’s calls on a priority basis, provide protection for the security system installers and make the domestic violence officers aware that the program exists and that they may be getting calls from ADT. But once everything is in place, a program can be started in a matter of weeks.

“We could do a planning meeting, and then two or three weeks later, launch a program if everyone in the community is ready to go,” said Cathy Barto, manager of the AWARE program. “Once a system is installed, we require a four- to six-week follow-up for people in the program to determine that they actually need the system. We want a constant check-up of what’s happening.”

Putting Monitoring to Good Use
As those in the alarm industry already know, false alarms and non-response are big issues in the monitoring sector. Keeping a constant eye on the systems employed in this program is of the utmost importance. Moreover, this program relies on ADT’s reputation as an alarm and monitoring company. So it’s vitally necessary that all the pieces are in place.

“We need to be absolutely certain these alarms are not sending false alarms. When that alarm goes to law enforcement from ADT, they know absolutely that there’s an emergency situation,” Lindstrom said. “We have to be certain that the systems are installed properly, are monitored and that there’s a process and procedure in place for how ADT response to those alarms and what our process is for notifying authorities.”

For ADT, this is what it’s known for, so its involvement in this problem is a natural fit. For companies, large or small, looking to make a difference in their own communities, Barto suggests sticking with your core competency.

“If you’re a large or small company, stick to what you know best, and you find a way to fit that into the societal need, you’re going to really excel at what you’re doing,” Barto said. “You’re going to be the best at it that you can be, which is only going to help the people you’re helping that much more.”