Minnesota County Is Still Reaping Huge Benefits from ASAP Service

  • May 01, 2025

The Monitoring Association (TMA) announced today that Anoka County Emergency Communications Center (ECC) has dramatically reduced the amount of time that 911 telecommunicators spend on calls generated by alarm and sensor systems as a result of implementing TMA's ASAP Service. The solution leverages the Automated Secure Alarm Protocol (ASAP), which was developed jointly by TMA and the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO).

"Our latest data shows that ASAP Service is saving our telecommunicators an average of 30 hours each month," said Kari Morrissey, Anoka County's director of emergency communications.

Anoka County ECC has handled 911 and nonemergency calls for service, and has dispatched the appropriate emergency response, since 1974. ECC officials sought a way to lessen the impact of alarm- and sensor-generated calls for a variety of reasons. One is that the 911 community has been suffering from an acute staffing shortage for several years — it is estimated that 77 percent of ECCs nationwide are understaffed.

Another reason for the ECC to address the high volume of alarm-and sensor-generated calls that it was receiving is that the role of 911 telecommunicators is inherently stressful and such calls exacerbate that stress. ECCs nationwide field about 240 million calls for emergency service annually and most of them involve life-and-death situations. Consequently, it is estimated that 25 to 44 percent of telecommunicators have experienced Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) at some point in their careers.

Arguably the most important reason, however, is that the legacy approach to handling alarm- and sensor-generated calls is time-consuming and prone to human error on several levels. Both outcomes are highly detrimental to the ability of emergency responders to save lives.

Traditionally, alarm- and sensor-generated alerts have been delivered to ECCs via telephone. Each one requires interaction between alarm-monitoring-center personnel and 911 telecommunicators. Sometimes it takes as many as five voice calls to deliver the information needed by the ECC to dispatch the appropriate emergency response.

ASAP Service eliminates these inefficiencies by automating the alarm-notification process and directly integrating with an ECC's computer-aided-dispatch (CAD) system. The platform electronically transmits alarm and sensor data directly into the CAD system, reducing response times by up to two minutes. Further, the automation that ASAP Service provides also reduces administrative call load significantly, freeing telecommunicators to prioritize 911 calls that require their unique skills and expertise.

Anoka County ECC implemented ASAP Service in 2020. Today, about 36 percent of the alarm- and sensor-generated calls that reach the center do so via ASAP Service.

Consequently, the human errors that plagued the legacy approach to handling alarm- and sensor-generated calls have been reduced dramatically because verbal information-sharing for such calls has been eliminated, as has manual data entry into the CAD system. Further, the platform provides pre-verified addresses, eliminating transcription and geographical errors that can delay emergency responses.

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