An AICC subcommittee, co-chaired by Jim McMullen from COPS Monitoring and Bill Cooper from ADT, has been formed to draft a National Monitoring License bill for central station monitoring companies engaged in interstate commerce.

"National monitoring companies encounter strenuous compliance requirements, such as obligating company qualifiers to travel to numerous states to take licensing tests that are often devoid of any monitoring-related materials and mandates," said McMullen. He added that they also require that companies provide duplicate criminal background checks and fingerprinting for employees in states many miles away from their home states.

While these state rules, regulations, statutes and policies have been well developed to help protect both consumers and businesses, the AICC believes that they do little, if anything, to address alarm monitoring directly.

According to Steve Doyle, executive vice president of the Central Station Alarm Association, "Many of the monitoring regulations are piggybacked or attached as part of other legislation that often governs other industries, such as electricians and private security guards."

He adds, "The term 'reciprocity' is being dropped from this legislation because it has a negative connotation in some sectors. The term 'National Monitoring License' more clearly defines the scope and intent of this proposed legislation." He notes that this effort will likely require considerable financial resources for the next two or three years that it takes to accomplish this significant national legislation.

The AICC subcommittee is calling upon the expertise of national monitoring companies and other industry professionals to provide the constructive input necessary to draft a comprehensive bill that details the criteria or requirements of a "Nationally Recognized Monitoring Company."

To that end, the AICC has established a website, http://alarminfo.net/aicc, that contains the first draft of the proposed bill, along with an online form to collect the input from various sources. The AICC will be accepting input until the close of business on May 13, 2011.