PROTECTION ONE CUTS HOME PATROLS.

Byline: Jesse Hiestand Staff Writer

Protection One Inc. plans to curb private patrol service in late May and lay off the 78 security officers who worked out of its Van Nuys office, the company said Thursday.

It proved too costly to have drivers keep a watchful eye on just 7,400 of the 54,000 homes and business that subscribed to the company's alarm service in the Los Angeles region, officials said.

``It was most often received in upscale communities and by business customers but wasn't considered a necessity by the majority of our customers,'' said company spokeswoman Robin Lampe.

The Culver City-based company will continue to provide burglar alarm service to 1.4 million customers in the United States and Canada.

The company will end patrol service May 27 in the only two areas it was offered, Los Angeles and Las Vegas. Fifty jobs will be lost in Las Vegas.

While it was a luxury in Los Angeles, Las Vegas customers found private patrols a necessity because the local police department refuses to respond to alarms, a response that now be handled by another company under contract to Protection One.

Except in gated communities, private patrols never caught on because they require great resources to combat what are usually random crimes, said Brad Shipp, executive director of the National Burglar & Fire Alarm Association Inc. in Bethesda, Md.

``If you don't have a high-enough density of customers in an area that's easy to navigate in terms of traffic, then the person has to cover a wider area and your level of service degrades,'' Shipp said.

The security industry is instead moving to harness the Internet with systems under development that would use e-mail to alert people of a break- in and let them use a Web-connected camera to remotely view their home or business.

San Dimas-based Edison Security Services, which bought the Westec residential alarm franchise last year, plans to continue offering private patrols in the Los Angeles area.

Protection One handled all its Los Angeles area patrols out of its Van Nuys office, which, along with one in North Hollywood, will still be used by technicians. The affected patrol officers will be offered outplacement services.

The company closed its Chatsworth office in late 2000 but retained many of the workers, Lampe said.

The company took its service nationwide about five years ago by acquiring other security companies. It now has a presence in most major cities, with alarm-monitoring centers in Oregon, Texas and Kansas.

Among its competitors are the fire and security services unit of Bermuda-based Tyco International Ltd., the alarm industry leader.