Posted by In the commercials, they make their product look perfect. A house, usually that of a young woman, alone, is broken into, and the alarm goes off, the crook runs away, and the police show up. And the idea is that the crook has no reason to stay in the house knowing that the police are on the way.
But the problem is that if you don’t shut the alarm off within the alotted time, instead of sending the police outright, they call you and ask if you’re okay. So what happens if the invader puts a gun to your head and says "Tell them it’s a false alarm. Now shut it off."
Unlike what the commercials show, they don’t call and ask if your are okay, like someone else said they ask for a password. Most of the monitoring station operators are trained to look for a situation like you described and have a set procedure to follow. They are not going to call you by name and they will ask for the password. It does not matter what they hear, if they don’t get the password they will dispatch police and if you give them a bogus password they will tell the police that there probably was a break in. If you do give them the correct password at that point, ain’t nobody gonna show up.
Well she’d be in a bit of pickle now wouldn’t she?
You make a valid point, except that when most alarm companies call to confirm the alarm, they ask for a user specified "code" word to verify your identity. It seems all one would have to do is give the wrong code word when telling them its a false alarm to alert the company that it is not a false alarm.
Still, isnt it kind of pointless to have an alarm to protect yourself when your at home? A focused criminal could easily commit the intended crime before the police would even be dispatched. Companies like to advetise and people like to think of house alarms as a personal protection device, but in reality, all they offer is peace of mind and perhaps save some of your stuff from a robber.
Folks need to keep in mind that "when seconds count, the police are only minutes away". In short, people need to man up and get themselves a gun for protection.
Well many people would run away to another room or try to at least. This time factor may be the point of where the alarm company may dispatch a vehicle or call police. If the alarm goes off I know I would not be going to see who it is immediately but rather secure where I am and then take care of investigating. One of our alarm companies here has a remote voice system so they do not call but just open a comm link and ask if everything is ok and if no response within seconds they send out someone immediately. Thieves have taken to avoiding their installs as their response is fast.
Depends on the security arrangements, if there is a codeword, and if the robber is armed. Most burglars are not. Normally, they try and break in, steal the stuff, and get out without being seen.
There was an article a few days ago that I saw on the Yahoo homepage a few days ago that said home security systems were a waste of money.
My Sister "won" one somewhere, and she had it installed at our parents house, she thought it would be a good idea because it came with two panic button pendants and she thought that if anything happened they could push it. Well one day my Father fell down the basement stairs, hit his head and it knocked him out, so my mother pushed the panic button, and the cops showed up, three and a half hours later. The next day, I called the alarm company, canceled the monitoring contract, and shut the alarm off.
alarm goes off….robber stays….sounds like suicide by cop…
I used to install alarm systems – most here are correct: if the alarm goes off, the first thing to happen is a call to the premise. This prevents reporting a false alarm to the cops.
Alarm systems are a ‘belt ans suspender’ concept: they should not be your only defense.
One old guy I worked with told me his security system was "a shotgun and a shovel".