What's the #$@#$ point??

[DeLicious]

So I got a call this morning from NextAlarm (great service by the way... can't say enough good things about them) that one of my motion detectors tripped and my alarm was activated, would I like for them to dispatch police? Of course I would, they can get there a lot faster than I can. So we finish talking and I hop in my car and make the 20 minute drive home. I pull up out front and see nothing, so I decide I'm going to either wait for the police to show up or wait for NextAlarm to call me back before I go inside. Instead, I call NextAlarm directly to make sure things were dispatched, and they said yes, we called the police 20 minutes ago. So I wait 5 more minutes before the first police car shows up.

Fortunately, it was a false alarm (not sure why), but when he got done going through the house with his gun drawn (well worth a $50 false alarm charge should it show up), I asked the guy why it took him so long to show up. He said it took him 30 seconds to show from the time he was called, and then verified with dispatch that it took 25 minutes to dispatch the call. He said alarms are not priority calls.

Now, if they are going to take 25 minutes from when my alarm goes off, what is the #*@#$ point of having an alarm? 25 minutes would be more than enough time for anybody to clean me out.

 

[sic0048]

Now, if they are going to take 25 minutes from when my alarm goes off, what is the #*@#$ point of having an alarm? 25 minutes would be more than enough time for anybody to clean me out.

And don't think that thieves don't know this.

I'm sure you've heard it before, but if I thief wants something in your house, they are going to get it. There is little you can do to prevent it. Having an alarm and all the other stuff is designed to deter the random break-in. Hopefully a random thief will decide to go to a less secure house and try their luck there instead of risking getting caught. But if it isn't a random break-in, but a thief with a purpose, you have little luck in stopping them. In either case, hopefully with a really good video system you can have some proof should the suspect ever be apprehended, but that is about it.

 

[Photon]

What about dropping down to NextAlarms non-dispatch level of service. In the event of an alarm condition NextAlarm calls your cell phone. You phone police. Maybe they increase priority when an actual resident calls. Downside: No insurance company discount.

 

[personalt]

I have my alarm false twice in two differnt towns. Once I was when I was first setting the alarm up. I didnt understand what the groups where so I just picked a random number figured I could change it later. Well I put the front door on the panic group.

I hang the sensor, hit save, open the door... I didnt get off the porch and cop cars came flying down the street, wrong way down a one way and everything. Since the panic is a silient alarm it took us a while to realize what happened.

After I moved to a new town I hadnt put in all the keypads, wife came in through the 'wrong' door and did hear the beeping. Cops came really fast.

There is certainly an issue of the boy who cried wolf. In my new house I plan to install some monster sirens and maybe strobe or two to deter the thief from ignoring the alarm even if the cops roll slowly.

What about dropping down to NextAlarms non-dispatch level of service. In the event of an alarm condition NextAlarm calls your cell phone. You phone police. Maybe they increase priority when an actual resident calls. Downside: No insurance company discount.

 

[tmbrown97]

Definitely depends on the town... I'd rather live somewhere that requires a permit and fees in exchange for priority response.

I've also seen where some areas get a better response if it's a "confirmed" alarm through a succession of triggers - such as door then motion (maybe in more than 1 location) - so they know the likelihood of a false-alarm is reduced.

Coicidentally, the last few days, I keep hearing a neighbor's house alarm going off multiple times and running the full 5 minutes... haven't seen a cop yet. I haven't bothered to look into that one. I'll tell myself that the security system helps deter the "random" thief, just as I told myself for years it had the same effect in my truck. Then again, 6 months ago, someone decided they wanted what was in my truck, and suddenly that alarm didn't matter either.

Oh well - guess that's why I got the Elk - because I can decide how annoying I want the alarm to be, and when I'm on vacation, I can always look in on the house to see that everything is OK instead of wondering.

 

[DeLicious]

ah, but i do have a permit and fees... yet no priority response

life in the big city, i guess.

 

[Spanky]

In past history, the security industry used a loud electronic siren that rocked the neighborhood. No burglar would stay around with the neighbors coming out to see what was happening. The purpose of the police was to help fill out any insurance claims because you never caught the burglar. He was long gone when the loud siren went off.

Then came along a new business model with recurring revenue central station monitoring and the security world changed its thinking...

And the burglar is still not caught!

Since you can't catch'em, as a DIYer, make their ears hurt.

 

[DeLicious]

my problem with that is, there is always the occasional accidental alarm while we're home, and i don't want to hurt the ears of my 3-year-old...

 

[SnyperBob]

I would have to say the best bet is to wire up a ton of those piezo sirens that blow ears out. Maybe have them set so they'll only go off if you have the alarm armed for when no one's home, rather than when you have the system armed when you are home (thinking of 3 year old).

Then again, with those kind of sirens, your family wouldn't forget to disarm the system or otherwise cause false alarms while home. They would know what's coming...

You can't rely on police being able to stop a theft. You need to implement protection in your system that will alert neighbors or otherwise cause so much commotion that a thief will not want to stick around. Outside strobes (night thefts), outside sirens, inside piezos that will make your ears bleed, etc...

 

[CollinR]

my problem with that is, there is always the occasional accidental alarm while we're home, and i don't want to hurt the ears of my 3-year-old...

What???

Fix your stuff man, damn that chaps me. It's no wonder they take forever you aren't taking it serisously so why should they.

 

[DeLicious]

i do take it seriously... but i'm not going to make my little girl's ears bleed when she opens the back door to go play on her playground.

 

[sic0048]

Well as mentioned already in the thread, I think you would only want the screamers going off if the alarm is armed Away and it goes off. Any other setting would not set off the screamers, but only the normal horn/buzzer or whatever you are already using.

That way if there is a false alarm when you are home, it won't kick in the screamers. But if you are not home and something sets it off, better hold your ears.

 

[beelzerob]

Or at least go with a progressive response. Start off with something merely annoying for about 30 seconds. That way, if you came home and forgot to disarm it, or if it false alarms at night, you've got that much time to do something about it. Then after 30 seconds, go crazy.

 

[CollinR]

Thats called entry delay which is part of fixing his stuff, as mentioned.

Easier though would be to install a latch high enough they cannot simply exit without adult consent, thats how I would do it anyway.

 

[Digger]

What you can do is after entry delay sound a siren for 20 to 30 seconds. That gives you time to react if you do accidently set it off yourself. But if there is a bad guy he will be further into your house at that time if the regular siren does not scare him away and then you BLAST him with some screaming piezo's for 5 minutes.

You might come home to a broken window on the second floor where the guy jumped through head first to get away from the pain