Alarms, Dogs and Camera's

[Alarm Guy]

I say all of the above!

After almost 8 years in the Alarm business I have have been to roughly 3000 homes that have been robbed. I have seen everything bad that can happen to people or dogs in their own home Here are some trends I have noticed!

Most people get robbed in the AM! Kids are at school and adults are working.

If you park your car at the long term parking at your airport. Take out your car registration or anything that says where you live!!! They can call out your address or visit your house that night. We are very busy in January because so many people get hit over the holidays!

Camera's only work if they are also tied to an alarm! And yes I do sell camera's!! I have some great footage of an unknown burglar robbing my sisters house in North Carolina. All they have to do is wear some kind of mask or hoody.

When someone can train their gun to jump off the shelf and shoot someone while they aren't home by themselve's! I will be out of business! I meet people who carry at home all the time! It is becoming quite common.

Bad things happen to dogs!!!! Especially in rural area's or area's where no one is around and they get aggressive with the wrong guy! Still a dog can hear things at night that you can't!! Allowing you to get to your gun in time!!!

Guns are great as long as they are loaded, available and easily reached. Obviously this is not wise or resposible if children are around. Otherwise there is nothing wrong with the 357 sitting on my coffee table as I type

Do not buy an alarm! Goto a local ADT dealer instead!!!!!! If you call the sales dept. at ADT you will have to pay for equipment and install. Dealers get paid for your system! You pay the monitoring. That is how they break even! Most people call sales after they are robbed You will not be a good negotiator in that scenario!!

When the dog wakes you up at night, you will now have a panic button that can be pressed and the police will be dispatched. This way your wife can protect the kids and not have to be able to get to the phone!!! Always call 911 if you can to hedge your bet! We start dispatching in 60 seconds or less.

I have installed 2700 homes. The only house anyone ever broke into, the guy set off the alarm and ran across the golf course to freedom. It was 2:30 in the morning and (she) my client, was upstairs a sleep! I consider this a huge success!!! She didn't put out her sign or decals on the windows

I am in Colorado. I do not post this to try to sell anything!!! Just hope it helps!

[DefensiveCarry.com]

[Alarm Guy]

I Hope I didn't post this in the wrong section?

[tkruf]

Possibly try the "Home (and away from Home) Defense Discussion" section. But thanks for the post.

[dunndw]

I have a nice fence, alarm system and two large dogs. I look at them as layers of security. The cameras are next as well upgrades to the alarm system to interface with the door locks so they can be monitored remotely.
If I'm home when they break in, the only panic "button" I'll be pushing is the trigger on my AR15

[Alarm Guy]

I have a nice fence, alarm system and two large dogs. I look at them as layers of security. The cameras are next as well upgrades to the alarm system to interface with the door locks so they can be monitored remotely.
If I'm home when they break in, the only panic "button" I'll be pushing is the trigger on my AR15

Well thought out!

[INccwchris]

the only issue i have with this is i know for a fact that a person can dispatch ems or police faster than an alarm company, a building next door to the complex i was assigned to's fire alarm went off and i called 911 to report after 2-3 minutes, and the alarm company called 911 while i was on the phone and the first engine was arriving

[Eagleks]

Then , you could have guys like Dennis Rader, who worked for the alarm company installing alarms and was a serial killer.

I do agree, but do the installation yourself where you are the only one who knows what's set up , where and how.

[rocky]

Moved thread to correct forum. Thanks for the insight Alarm Guy.

[Alarm Guy]

Then , you could have guys like Dennis Rader, who worked for the alarm company installing alarms and was a serial killer.

I do agree, but do the installation yourself where you are the only one who knows what's set up , where and how.

What can I say? That did happen over 20 years ago.

Our installers are all back ground checked, bonded and insured!! Of course that wouldn't of stopped the BTK killer! He was a pillar of his community. Once we install, the new DSC and Honeywells are pretty easy to reprogram!

[Pioneer]

Anything we can do to harden our homes (and businesses) is a plus. No guarantees, but puts the odds in our favor.

Several years ago, before retirement from the PD, I was tasked with conducting research on false intrusion alarms. The city & county were considering imposing fines for chronic false alarms and needed research on the issue. For my research I contacted state, county and local law enforcement, both in the United States and Canada. I studied those alarms on which an officer/s was dispatched and arrived on scene to investigate, both homes and businesses. I intentionally left out data on individual alarm companies, which for my purposes was irrelevant. Without reproducing the entire study here, what I learned was that nation-wide, including Canada, police responses to alarms that were false was 97.4%. Not all jurisdictions included in their data base the reason for false alarms, but from those which do, the most common reasons were; customer error; weather or other environmental causes; animals; and interruption in power supply. Seldom did I see evidence of alarm system failure. Post research, I learned that rate was very near what others had found doing similar research.

Why that matters, is the allocation of resources, especially officer availability. Because of the high percentage of false alarms, many patrol officers do not make alarm response a high priority, and seldom is more than one officer assigned to respond based on an alarm alone. Because of that, very often there is a long response time to intrusion alarms.

When the alarm ordinances went into effect, imposing fines on repeat false alarms, we saw alarm companies first contacting property owners or uniform private security personnel for the initial responses. If or when the private sector discovered that a crime occurred, they would then notify law enforcement for response, which were given a higher priority.

I'm not trying to make a point of any sort with this, just F.Y.I.

PS: This was in an urban / suburban area in the Pacific Northwest. In my experience, in more rural areas, police & sheriff officers quite often are first responders to alarms.

[Alarm Guy]

Here in Colorado the police have asked us to adopt this policy. Within 60 seconds we call the home phone. If it is an accident? The home owner gives the password and nothing else happens. After five rings all cell and work numbers are speed dialed. If home owner answers their cell and says they are not home we assume the signal is real! Especially if we have a glass break sensor or motion going off. Or if we have two zones going off , ( motion plus door or window contact). We no longer use shock or vibration sensors on glass and we have Pet-immune motions for dogs under 80 lbs. Cats are a pain in the ass!!!!!!!!!

[jbum]

Here in Colorado the police have asked us to adopt this policy. Within 60 seconds we call the home phone. If it is an accident? The home owner gives the password and nothing else happens. After five rings all cell and work numbers are speed dialed. If home owner answers their cell and says they are not home we assume the signal is real! Especially if we have a glass break sensor or motion going off. Or if we have two zones going off , ( motion plus door or window contact). We no longer use shock or vibration sensors on glass and we have Pet-immune motions for dogs under 80 lbs. Cats are a pain in the ass!!!!!!!!!

They need to invent a glass break detector that is bark proof. We have a dog that her bark sets ours off and had to disable it.

[Devilsclaw]

2700 homes, you've been a busy guy!

Good input, thanks for posting! Do you use exterior motion sensors? Is there any way to stop the false alarms from dogs, cats, skunks, etc.?

[mkphillips]

In a lot of cities now alarms most try to contact the home owner twice before calling the police, this is to reduce the number of false alarms. This does not include fire or panic buttons, unless the alarm conpany has other instructions.

[Alarm Guy]

2700 homes, you've been a busy guy!

Good input, thanks for posting! Do you use exterior motion sensors? Is there any way to stop the false alarms from dogs, cats, skunks, etc.?

I like motion sensors that turn on exterior lights!! But we do not tie them to the alarm. There are just to many things running around outside that could trip the alarm!

Inside motions are very effective with small to medium size dogs! Once they are over 85 lbs they can set off even a pet Immune motion. Cats climb up high and sometimes jump thru the array I prefer to use glass breaks instead of motions if there is more than one cat.

As far as a glass break setting off on a dog bark, I honestly have never heard of that happening before? I have to wonder if it is a faulty sensor? The new generation glass breaks are suppose to hear the thud follwed by the decibels of broken glass. I did have a customer who turned up the volume on his home entertainment system and someone of the tv show he was watching broke a window and set off his alarm All I could say was it worked, LOL

We are now tring to include the keychain remotes with every system, so people can disarm the system from the car. That has really helped our false alarm numbers. Unfortunately the sensors are only as good as the tech who installed them! We are lucky because we are the largest volume dealer in Colorado, so we get to pick from a large pool of techs! I warranty all my systems for as long as the client lives there.