Alarm verification and police response: UK, Spain, Italy

UK: the URN decides whether the police come

The rules sit in a National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) document, “Police Advice and Security Industry Requirements for Response to Security Systems”. The copy we read carries a February 2026 copyright line and a review date of April 2027. It says it is adopted by forces in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The mechanism is the unique reference number (URN). The police issue it and own it. An activation without a current URN is treated as coming from a non-compliant system, which the document calls Type B.

For compliant (Type A) systems there are two levels of response in use:

• Level 1, immediate. The document adds that response depends on demand, priorities and resources at the time and cannot be guaranteed.
• Level 3, withdrawn. No police attendance, keyholder response only.

Level 2 is no longer used.

To get a URN, a new intruder or hold-up system has to meet the document’s standards matrix: PD 6662:2017 and current BS 8243. The requirements describe BS 8243 as the standard for systems designed to generate confirmed alarms, and the URN application form asks which type of confirmation is fitted: sequential, audio or visual. We have not read BS 8243 itself, which is a paid standard, so we will not go into how each method works.

The system must be monitored by a centre that complies with BS 5979 (Cat II) or BS EN 50518 (Cat I). Only companies on a force’s compliant list may install, maintain or monitor Type A systems in that area. Certification is done by a UKAS-accredited body. The web page that hosts the document is blunt on this point: enforcing standards is not a police function.

UK: what counts as a false alarm, and what it costs

The thresholds are short enough to memorise.

• Intruder alarms. Level 1 until three false calls in a rolling 12 month period. After two, the customer gets a letter, with a copy to the maintaining company. After three, response is withdrawn, not less than 14 days from the date of the withdrawal letter. The maintaining company must then instruct the alarm receiving centre (ARC) to stop passing activations to the police.
• Hold-up alarms. The threshold is two false calls. The customer is written to after the first.
• Detector-activated CCTV. Same thresholds as intruder alarms.

Getting response back depends on what was installed. An unconfirmed intruder system has to be upgraded to a confirmed standard, DD243:2004 or current BS 8243. A confirmed system needs the cause identified, remedial action taken and 90 days free of false calls, unless an additional method of confirmation is installed. For a hold-up alarm, confirmation becomes mandatory, and in commercial premises telephone call-back alone is not accepted. If reinstatement has not started within six months of withdrawal, the URN is deleted.

The definition matters for ARC procedures. A false alarm is a call from a compliant system that was passed to the police and did not result from a criminal attack or attempted attack on the premises, the alarm equipment or the signal path, from the emergency services doing their job, or from a legitimate hold-up call. An intruder activation with no apparent damage or entry is treated as false unless proved otherwise.

Cancellations follow a clock. Cancel before a unit is deployed and the activation is disregarded. Cancel five minutes or longer after receipt with a unit en route, or after a unit has arrived, and it counts as false.

Two more points for the file. Every Type A system needs at least two keyholders able to attend within 20 minutes. If keyholders fail to attend twice in a rolling 12 months, police response may be withdrawn for three months. And forces may monitor each company’s false alarm ratio and suspend those that consistently exceed the force average.

Type B systems get no guarantee. The document says the police need evidence from a person at the scene that an offence is in progress, called in directly on 101 or 999. A monitoring centre handling a Type B system should notify the keyholder only.

Scotland is outside the document we read.

Spain: the verification methods are written into law

Spain takes the opposite route. A ministerial order, Orden INT/316/2011, tells the alarm receiving centre exactly what a valid verification is. The centre must verify every alarm immediately, using all or some of the procedures in the order, and then pass real alarms to the police.

There are four procedures:

• Sequential (article 7). Three or more successive signals from different detection elements, within a period that never exceeds thirty minutes. Two detectors give an unconfirmed alarm. A third detector, a line cut or a tamper signal inside the window confirms it.
• Video (article 8). Video is triggered by an intrusion detector or a video sensor, and its coverage must be at least that of the associated detector. The system records at least one image at the exact moment of the alarm and two afterwards, within a five second window.
• Audio (article 9). At least 10 seconds of audio from before the activation, stored audio until the centre connects, and live audio on demand.
• Personal (article 10). If technical verification cannot confirm the alarm, the centre may send security guards. An interior inspection needs at least two uniformed guards in a marked vehicle.

A phone call to the user is a complement only. Article 11 says it can never replace the four procedures. One exception confirms an alarm: if the centre rings the landline at the protected site and whoever answers gives no password or the wrong one.

False alarms have two sets of consequences.

For the company, the law on private security (Ley 5/2014) classes reporting one or more false alarms through negligence, malfunction or lack of prior verification as a serious infringement, with fines from €3,001 to €30,000. Failing to pass on a real alarm, or delaying it without justification, is a very serious one: €30,001 to €600,000.

The order adds its own rules for the centre. Passing on an unconfirmed alarm that turns out false can be reported for a penalty. Three or more confirmed alarms from the same connection that turn out false within sixty days start the disconnection procedure.

For the system owner, two or more false alarms in a month trigger a formal demand to fix the faults within a maximum of 72 hours. The authority can order the service suspended or the system disconnected. Disconnection lasts one, six or twelve months for the first, second or third proposal, and from the third it is definitive. While it lasts, the owner cannot sign a monitoring contract with any security company.

Italy: verify first, but the decree does not say how

Italy’s reference text is Ministerial Decree 269/2010, which sets the minimum requirements for licensed private security institutes and their control rooms. Annex D says that when an alarm signal arrives, the control room operator coordinates the attendance on site, or notifies the user and, if necessary, the police, after verifying that the alarm is real and current.

That is where the written rule stops. In the decree and its annexes we found no description of verification methods, no definition of a false alarm, no threshold and no disconnection procedure. The annex mentions video inspections by sworn guards, at set intervals or when an alarm is signalled, but sets no criteria for treating an alarm as confirmed. The model relies on something else: the control room sends a sworn guard to inspect, and the guard asks for police support if a real danger is established.

The decree also refers to instructions from the Questore, the provincial police authority, and to specific agreements with the local police headquarters. We have not read any of those local agreements, so we cannot say what they require.

For control rooms in territorial scopes 4 and 5, the decree requires EN 50518, including part 3 on operating procedures. The Polizia di Stato website lists a 2017 circular on this requirement. EN 50518 is a paid standard we have not read.

Side by side

	UK (England, Wales, NI)	Spain	Italy
Where the rule sits	NPCC requirements	Orden INT/316/2011 and Ley 5/2014	Decree 269/2010, annex D
Verification before calling the police	New systems to BS 8243 (confirmed alarms)	Mandatory, four defined procedures	Mandatory, method not defined
False alarm threshold	Three in a rolling 12 months; two for hold-up	Two in a month; three confirmed in sixty days	None found in the decree
Consequence	Response withdrawn, URN deleted	72 hour demand, disconnection for 1, 6 or 12 months, company fines	None found in the decree
Who decides	Each police force	Government delegate or delegated police chief	Not stated; call-out instructions follow the Questore and local agreements

What to do with this

• Before the contract. Give the customer the police requirements document before the contract is signed. The NPCC requires it, and it sets expectations about Level 1.
• Keyholders. Record two, check they can reach the site in 20 minutes, and review the list when staff change.
• After the first false call. Investigate straight away. On an intruder system the second brings a letter and the third brings withdrawal.
• In the ARC. Cancel as early as you can. Past five minutes with a unit en route, the activation still counts against the URN.
• After withdrawal. Start reinstatement well inside six months. After that the URN is deleted.
• Variations. Notify the force within 28 days of any change to the URN details, including a change of maintainer or monitoring centre.
• Sites in Spain. Design detector layouts around the three-signal rule and keep a record of every verification. The police can ask the centre for a written report within ten days.
• Sites in Italy. Ask the security institute which local agreements it has with the police headquarters. The decree will not tell you.

If you are grading a new system, our guide to EN 50131 security grades covers the other half of the specification.