Dear Customer,

Major changes are coming into force this year whereby all alarms that hold a valid URN will be passed electronically via ECHO to the appropriate Police Force. ECHO is a not for profit organisation who automate transmission of alarm signalling to blue light services, in conjunction with the National Police Chiefs Council and key industry players. The rationale behind the initiative is to improve the quality and speed of the Police response to all alarms with a valid URN. Integration into the ECHO initiative is mandatory for all ARC’s that wish to continue to pass alarms for police response.

Here are the key changes that this will bring:

Essex Police Force & London Metropolitan Police Force will be the first adopters of ECHO scheduled for mid-2021. All other UK Police Forces will follow when they are capable of connection to the ECHO platform.

Our control room operators will verify the alarm and with a click of a button the connection to the Police will be passed directly from Sentinel, our alarm handling software, over the ECHO platform and delivered to wherever the Police Force deem to be the most effective location. Our operator will handle all other actions as normal (i.e. calling site and keyholders).

For the upkeep of the network ECHO will charge the ARCs £2 per annum (+VAT) for each intruder and hold up alarm with a URN and EMCS will pass on these charges to the Installer with no extra mark-up. Where the same URN is used for both intruder and hold up it will be £2 per annum (+VAT) for each, any site with the same URN for both Intruder and PA will be billed twice.

URNs listed on our database under Essex and London Metropolitan on or after 16th August 2021 will levy the £2 (+VAT) fee from 1st October 2021.

Please note that the procedure and charges for applying for a new URN will not be affected and will remain the responsibility of the installer.

Should you require a list of your customers with URN(s) listed on our database under Essex, London Metropolitan and/or any other jurisdiction, please request this via email to admin@emcs.co.uk.

EMCS are required to complete a final URN declaration for both the Essex Police Force and London Metropolitan Police Force by the 16th of August, therefore to avoid any unnecessary charges, please instruct our admin team via email at admin@emcs.co.uk to remove any URN’s that are no longer required by 4pm on Friday 13th August 2021. Any amendments sent after this cut off point may not be processed in time and therefore liable to the above charges.

We attach an official ECHO flyer which explains the benefits of the platform, should you have any queries or require further information, please do get in touch with us or visit the ECHO website on www.echo.uk.net

Should you have any queries or require any additional information, please do get in touch.