Orland Fire Can Keep Alarm Company, Court Says

ORLAND HILLS, IL — The Orland Fire Protection District beat back a fight by a private alarm company that tried to force it to use multiple contractors in an antitrust lawsuit that wound its way through the court system for five years.

The United State Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit this week affirmed a lower court ruling that recognized the authority of the Orland Fire Protection District to require all commercial buildings to send fire-alarm signals directly to the dispatch center using one contractor.

Alarm Detection Systems, Inc (ADS) sued the district, the DuPage Safety Communications and the alarm company they use, Tyco Integrated Security in 2014, claiming that Tyco tried to monopolize the fire-alarm monitoring market.

The Village of Orland Park, Village of Orland Hills, and the district's commercial fire alarms have been managed by Tyco since 2003.

Attorney Jim Roche, who represented the fire district, said that changing the system would be more costly and would likely increase the time it takes to get the first responders to the scene of the emergency.

Roche said that if the district lost, it would have to use an intermediary dispatch system that resulted in an emergency call going through a third party first.

“If I were a resident of Orland Park or Orland Hills I will sleep better tonight knowing that the U.S. Court of Appeals has put our safety ahead of corporate profits," he said in a statement.

Orland Fire Protection District Fire Chief Michael Schofield called the courts ruling a “landmark decision."

“The court basically is saying that local concerns about public safety come first before corporate profits,” he said in a statement.