As someone who has to respond to alarm calls, I've learned a few things about how the monitoring/dispatch service works. What I've found is the delay is usually on the alarm company side. When the alarm goes off, they call several of the key holders to see if they should call the police. Almost always, their call list is out of date and they waste 10 minutes making the calls. Then they write something up or enter a computer message and send it to another person telling them to call the police. If you ask when they called the police, they give you the time that request was created, not the actual time of the call. I've never figured out why it takes them so long to place the call, but the only excuse I can think of is the volume of calls they are getting.
Once the 911 center gets an alarm call, they prioritize it amongst every other incoming call. I assume most agencies would probably handle them similarly. They rank above complaints about barking dogs, parking and probably complaints about identity theft or bad checks but below traffic crashes, fights, shoplifters being held by store security, etc. Normally if an officer in that section of the city/county is going to become available in the near future, they will hold the call for them instead of dragging one over from the other side of the city. Most agencies won't have there officers respond lights and sirens because 99% are false and it doesn't justify the risk. That's always a tough call to make, which is a real alarm and which is false, lots of time it comes down to a gut feeling on the officers part. Becoming complacent on the officers part can have bad outcomes if it turns out to be a real alarm.
Most departments have a policy to send two officers to an alarm call, but in reality that doesn't often happen. In your scenario, I am surprised the officer searched the house by himself, normally they would wait for a second officer to do that. Most of the time, you arrive at the house/business and all the doors and windows are secure and the owners are not responding so your done. Normally the bigger the business, the less chance of a key holder responding to let you in. This normally doesn't upset us too much, because who wants to search Home Depot at 3 in the morning with two officers. You could hide a small army in there and probably not find them. When you are searching a building is where we can see the big delay in reporting from the alarm companies. We are usually done searching the building before the alarm companies call to say they received additional trips.
Please indulge me in a chance to rant a bit. I hate key holders that don't respond even when the police call them and tell them we would like them to come because they want to be able to get in for some reason. Another is alarm companies who won't call the key holders for 30 minutes on a panic alarm. I understand the rational in that they don't want the owners interrupting a crime in progress, but if the police call, say they are at the business and need someone to respond, I would think it's safe enough for someone to get called. Another favorite is the people who intentionally set off the alarm to time the response or to call the police for some other reason (neighbors dog barking, etc). And my personal favorite is the person who is mad that police responded to the alarm and woke them up or walked through the building when an open door is found. If they don't want police response, don't call.
Sorry for the long post.
