Our History

“A Higher Standard”, Since 1989

A Long Tradition of Excellence

1989: Company Founded

Since 1989, First Response has aimed to become the premier safety and security provider in the Pacific Northwest. We serve thousands of locations throughout the Northwest region, and have grown into new areas of service to meet the ever-changing needs of our valued customer base.

We made our commitment to A Higher Standard over 30 years ago, when we became the first 24-hour alarm response company in Portland, Oregon.

Very quickly, customer demand revealed the need for an expanded presence, so we opened our On-Site Division in 1991. The purpose of our onsite Division is to provide local offices for specific locations.

1996: Electronic Security Introduced

Because of this, it wasn’t long before we began attracting attention from large regional businesses. By 1996, our service offering had expanded so much that we opened First Response, a full-service installation, monitoring and response company, to provide customers one central point of contact for all their security needs. As our reputation continued to grow, so did our customer service area, and in 1997, we opened our first interstate branch office in Seattle, Washington.

2004: Central Station Monitoring

We continued to grow, of course; but our commitment to A Higher Standard never changed. The advent of new technologies brought new opportunities to First Response. For example, in 2004 we created iWATCH Communications, Inc. to provide leading technology and state-of-the-art software for the monitoring of burglar and fire alarms.

Our growth and success has not gone unnoticed. Since 1996, First Response has been recognized by the Portland Business Journal as one of the Fastest Growing 100 Privately Owned Business seven times: in 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2002 and 2003.

Present Day

Today, we are proud of what we have accomplished, and are honored to secure the homes and businesses of our friends and neighbors throughout the Northwest.