Leesburg Police: Beware "Illegitimate" Alarm Sales People

Editor's Note: The following comes from a press release from the . It is un-edited.

While alarms are an excellent means of protecting homes and business, and most companies in Virginia are legitimate, the Leesburg Police Department recently learned that during the summer months some out of state alarm companies stretch legitimacy in an attempt to make a quick buck while avoiding Virginia’s requirements for the industry.  A trend in recent years is to hire temporary workers to enter Virginia and sell alarm services door to door.  Often the employees are college students hired for the summer who have been trained minimally in alarm sales but otherwise have no background in alarm sales, monitoring or services.  The temporary employees frequently practice “high pressure” tactics and sell relatively inexpensive alarm systems that generate most of their cost from the monitoring fees.

The Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) regulates all alarm companies and their employees, including sales staff.  DCJS Investigators have recently encountered the temporary sales employees through citizen complaints in both the tidewater and far southwest regions of the Commonwealth.  The regulations pertaining to all such services are written to protect the consumer and citizens from unscrupulous persons.  The Administrative Code relating to all burglar and security alarm sales employees in Virginia (6 VAC 20-171-30)  states that prior to their being hired each person must submit to DCJS; completed fingerprints cards, fingerprint processing application, an applicable nonrefundable fee; and all criminal history conviction information on a form provided by the department.  This regulation demonstrates the purpose of the DCJS oversight in ensuring that those persons entering a resident’s home or a business, and learning about the valuables to be protected do not have a criminal history.  Each electronic security sales representative must also work for a business, which is licensed in Virginia.  The sales representative is required to become registered as an electronic security sales representative in Virginia as specified in the regulations.  

The Leesburg Police Department encourages all citizens to be aware and observant of door-to-door sales, an increase in alarm company vehicles in the neighborhood, and hearing of high-pressure sales tactics from others.  If visited by a person identifying themselves as an alarm sales representative, whom you doubt the legitimacy of, do not allow them to enter your home, request to see their required DCJS issued photograph registration card and take down the information from it.  If you are interested in the product, you may contact the Leesburg Police or DCJS directly at (804) 786-4700 to verify the legitimacy of the representative and call them back later for an invited sales visit.  If the sales person is pushy, refuses to show their registration card or otherwise acts suspicious, write down their description and that of their vehicle, and immediately call the police.

The Town of Leesburg also requires all solicitors to have a Town of Leesburg solicitor’s license.   Anyone who possesses a Town of Leesburg soliciting permit must abide by the following rules;

• No person shall canvass, peddle, or solicit except between the hours of 9:00a.m. and 9:00p.m.
• Peddlers, Solicitors, and canvassers shall provide a written receipt to the payee bearing the amount of payment,
• The balance due and terms of payment, and the purpose for each transaction at the time of the transaction.
• No person shall approach a home, residence, or business for the purpose of peddling, or soliciting, where such home or residence is posted with a sign stating “no peddlers or solicitors” or words of a similar meaning.
• No person shall make any assertion, representation or statement of fact that misrepresents the purpose of his/her call on a home, residence, or business or use any plan, scheme, or use which misrepresents such purpose.
• No person licensed under this chapter shall use the fact of being licensed so as to lead the public to believe that such licensing represents an endorsement or approval by the Town.

To see the town code regulating solicitors, go to http://www.leesburgva.gov/index.aspx?page=1 and follow the link to the MUNICODE page and keyword search “solicitor”. (Town Code 20-381, 20-1382 and 20-383.)

The Leesburg Police Department encourages citizens to contact the crime prevention office or a legitimate local alarm company to seek a presentation regarding alarm regulations and alarm usefulness.  For more information on all of the private security services regulated by DCJS you may wish to visit the DCJS web site at http://www.dcjs.virginia.gov/.

For more information, contact Master Police Officer C. F. Tidmore at 703-771-4564 or at ctidmore@leesburgva.gov.