Licensing and Certification

FLORIDA LEGISLATURE 2004 PASSES VISIONARY LAWS FOR THE SECURITY & FIRE INDUSTRY

In those humid lazy days during July 1998, no one in the security industry could possibly have imagined the changes within our business and this country that were coming within four years. At the beginning of that summer laws had just been passed in Florida that adjusted the burglar and fire alarm agent requirements for training and education.

What no one realized at the time was that eventually law enforcement and fire resources would become so strained as a result of national events that the bottomless pool of responses from these fine folks might end some day. Additionally no one had the foresight to realize that static security industry research and development would explode via the Internet and microchips in ways that never could have been anticipated.

Another event that happened that year was the inadvertent opening of liability for security contractors who employed alarm system agents. When the laws were relaxed then, a huge hole was opened through which potential employees could walk with no frequent background checks subjecting their employers to potentially ‘business-threatening’ lawsuits.

All of these legislative threads hung in the air for these several years and now have been addressed by new statutes that the Florida legislature has had the wisdom to pass to take effect July 1, 2004. This will mean that you as a contractor must spend some additional money in training and checking your employees; but that money is well spent on the front end compared to any legal liabilities on the back end. Moreover, the new laws passed should help us relieve some of the strain on first responders throughout the State and help reduce false dispatches.

A final version of the laws will be available July 1, 2004, but for now here is a summary of the changes:

1. All License Holders in the normal course of their license renewal will continue to have 14 hours of CE’s every two years. For those involved in alarm system contracting two (2) of those 14 hours are now mandated to be on false alarm prevention.
2. All technician entry-level training will now be 14 hours in length. That is 14 hours for BASA personnel, 14 hours for FASA personnel and 14 hours for on-site sales personnel. Of those 14 hours at least 2 hours will be in false alarm prevention.
3. Any persons currently employed, as BASA or on-site security sales personnel as of the effective date of this act (July 1, 2004) MUST be trained in the new entry-level 14-hour course and successfully complete a criminal background check within 90 days even if they currently hold a previously issued BASA card (no grandfathering).
4. Any new applicants hired, as BASA or on-site security sales personnel MUST be trained in the entry-level 14-hour course and successfully complete a criminal background check within 90 days of the date of hire.
5. All BASA and on-site security sales personnel will now be required to possess a state mandated identification card whenever they are engaged in their BASA duties.
6. This new identification card for all BASA and on-site security sales personnel will only be valid for a period of two years from the date of issue.
7. Each identification card must be renewed every two years for BASA, FASA and sales personnel with a 6-hour continuing education course with 2 of those hours being on false alarm prevention.
8. All contractors employing BASA, FASA and sales personnel who renew their ID cards every two years MUST obtain an updated criminal background check from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement for these renewing individuals.

Additionally the Electrical Contractors’ Licensing Board has instituted some new rules to assist Department of Business and Professional Regulation field inspectors regarding contractors who fail to abide by these statutes. Now under the Florida Administrative Code, Chapter 61G6-10.002 (15) (g) contractors who employ BASA, FASA or on-site sales personnel without providing for the training, ID cards or background checks will be subject on the low end to a fine of $500 and proof of compliance to the high end of $2,500 plus probation or suspension of license and proof of compliance.

What these changes accomplish will be to plug the liability hole on employees who rarely have background checks (lowering contractor liability); start the process of education in the reduction of false dispatches; reduce the strain on law enforcement and fire departments as a result of fewer dispatches and raise the standards by which we serve the private sector as an industry.

We are the first state in the nation to employ these standards in a concerted effort to assist public safety in their goal to provide enhanced public service and establish stricter contractor performance. Only through better contractor accountability and more effective cooperation with public safety can we hope to survive as an industry in the 21st century. Please refer to our web site after July 1, 2004 for the entire new state statutes F.S. 489 Part II and the rules F.A.C. 61G6: http://www.fla-alarms.org/certification/index.html