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Enhanced call verification.

Enhanced call verification (ECV) helps reduce false dispatches 25–50% while still protecting citizens, and is mandated in several US jurisdictions, although the alarm industry has successfully opposed it in others. ECV requires central station personnel to attempt to verify the alarm activation by making a minimum of two phone calls to two different responsible party telephone numbers before dispatching law enforcement to the scene.

The first alarm-verification call goes to the location the alarm originated. If contact with a person is not made a second call is placed to a different number. The secondary number, best practices dictate, should be to a telephone that is answered even after hours, preferably a cellular phone of a decision maker authorized to request or bypass emergency response.

ECV, as it cannot confirm an actual intrusion event and will not prompt a priority law enforcement dispatch, is not considered true alarm verification by the security industry.