8.11.22 – Madison, Wis. (WMTV)
Several companies that offered alarm services in Iowa Co. were not prepared to reach out to the right people in an emergency, the Sheriff’s Office revealed.
In one case, an alarm service provider had given its employees contact information for authorities in Iowa Co., Iowa, more than 150 miles away.
As a result, the Iowa Co. (Wisconsin) Sheriff’s Office is urging people and businesses who use a monitoring service for their fire, security, or medical alarms to contact the company to verify they are set to contact the right agencies. The sheriff’s office points out that when an emergency happens, sorting out situations like this can waste a lot of valuable time.
”If you have a fire at a place and you’re expecting your fire alarms to go off, to notify a dispatch center, they’re not calling the proper place, the fire doubles in however many seconds it doubles, and if it takes four to five minutes to get the correct information we’ve already got a huge problem on our hands,” Wisconsin’s Iowa County Sheriff’s Office Jail Administrator Michael Peterson said.
The Sheriff’s Office explains that the alarm company should be calling the Iowa Co. Communications Center.
If a customer finds the monitoring service needs more information to set up its contact information can reach out to the communication center by calling 608-930-9500, and pressing ‘2′.