[Message Prev][Message Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Message Index][Thread Index]

Re: Commercial Alarm - help



On 9 Nov 2005 10:10:53 -0800, "Jim" <alarminex@xxxxxxx> wrote:

>

>
>I don't know what the reason is, but J Sloud only has to say that the
>authorities "perceive" that the false alarm rate is 99% and that's what
>we have to deal with.

Jim,

Many times perception is reality.  The fact that the only statistics
available point to 90+% failure rates mean that these are the numbers
in the public's view.  Show me a study that says false alarm rates are
5% or 10% or even 70%.  I'm well aware that system failures account
for very few false alarm problems.  Even when the system is blamed,
it's rarely caused by device failure.  Normally it's a bad
application, incorrect installation, or some other problem causing the
system to false.  Remeber, I work for a company with 5 million
residential customers and close to a million commercial accounts.
We're very aware of the problems, causes, and potential solutions.
We've got more reporting capability than you can imagine, and we track
every conceivable number related to false alarms.  Like you've said, a
majority of systems never false.  In fact, they never send any signals
at all aside from logging data and timer tests.  Remember, all of us
sell things that we hope will never be needed.  The majority of the
falses come from relatively few systems.  We identify these and
dispatch a technician to identify and rectify the problem.  Sometimes
it's simple customer education.  Occasionally, we discontinue service
to customers who continue to be problematic.  The interesting
statistic is the number of legitimate alarm signals as it relates to
total alarm signals received.  Btw, we investigate (in person) and
report every legitimate alarm signal.  When you take the number of
actual alarms as a percentage of total alarm signals, you ariive at
the number I've been quoting.  It's not uncommon for a small office to
only one or two legitimate alarms in a month compared to several
hundred user error alarms, nuisance alarms, bad equipment alarms, bad
application alarms, etc.

>
>But for some reason he seems to actually believe that it's an accurate
>comparison to compare false alarms to number of burgalaries  ........
>only. And everytime someone comes up with an analogy that proves his
>opinion is wrong, he ignores it and says there's a 99% failure rate.
>

See above.  The 99% failure rate is accurate when comparing legitimate
alarm signals to total alrm signals over a given time period.
Obviously, the number would be much lower comparing number of alarms
that false to toal alrms installed.  I've never argued this.


alt.security.alarms Main Index | alt.security.alarms Thread Index | alt.security.alarms Home | Archives Home