Re: Looking to purchase alarm system - suggestions?

[tufflaw@xxxxxxxxx]

J. Sloud wrote:
> On 7 Jul 2005 21:27:13 -0700, tufflaw@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
>
> >Hello, I'm trying to purchase an alarm system for my home, just
> >starting to compare vendors but I'm not really sure what I should be
> >looking for.  I've spoken with two so far, Protect America and
> >Honeywell.
> >
> Some facts they may not tell you...
>
> Almost all alarm calls are for false alarms - well over 90% of the
> time the police get a call for a residential burglar alarm it turns
> out to be false.  Because of this, many police departments have
> stopped responding to non-verified alarm calls.  Those agencies who do
> respond, assume that the alarm call will be a false and it gets lowest
> priority.  Most of the alarms are caused by users failing to turn the
> system off in time, faulty equipment, bad installations, power surges
> etc.
>

Actually I would have thought the % of false alarms would be even
higher - when I was in high school I interned at a police precinct,
they had a policy that if there were 3 false alarms at a location
within a certain amount of time, they would no longer respond to an
alarm call at that address for a period of 30 days.

> Poilce departments have started charging false alarm fees, sometimes
> running hundreds of dollars.
>
> Typical police response time is 30 minutes or more in many locations -
> if they come at all.
>

It's been my experience that the vast majority of break-ins occur when
the homeowner is gone (I work in law enforcement) - I have almost never
seen a true home invasion (the few that do occur almost always involve
parties who know each other and there's something else going on).  That
said, when I was a teenager our home was burglarized when we were home
upstairs asleep at 4 AM, so I'm well aware that it does happen.  I know
that the likelihood that my home will be broken into is not very high,
and the likelihood of it happening when I'm home is practically nil,
but I still would like the peace of mind of having a security system -
and if I'm going to go to the trouble, I'd like a good one that will
work when it needs to (of course I don't want to break the bank
either).

Based on the advice in this thread, I did find a local alarm company
that I'm going to be meeting with this week and see what they have to
say.  I'll probably make my decision in a week or so, hopefully it
won't be too complicated :)