Your security, Alarm companies!

[VINTAGE-SLOTCARS]

I hope this is the right place to post this info.
If you have an alarm company;
Do they have your correct address listed ? Apt # unit #.space #.
correct city, cross street, gate code?
Do they have your cell phone #
Are they monitoring in the same state?
Do they have the correct Fire/Police agencies listed?
misc. info: dogs / cats in the house
Please take the time and call your alarm company and check what they have. You pay alot of money for their service , only to find out too late the company was too lazy not to have the entered the correct info. When they tell you they called Fire/Police, who did they contact by name. Remember its not only your safety but your family's safety too.

 

[MT GUNNY]

Sounds like you had a Issue?

 

[Hungry Seagull]

We fired our alarm company long ago. It was getting a bit much. Always more money each month always more. We bought the equiptment free and clear and dropped that to a single fixed rate of the annual contract. When we bought out that entire contract for two years ahead, they pretty much quit communicating with us in any meaningful way. Almost treated us badly for being very good customers for paying WAY ahead in our contracts to halt the ever increasing money going to them.

The equiptment is still in place and functional, just need to replace the old analog celluar backup (Everything is digital on our cell towers now) and replace the old reserve 12 volt batteries.

Lee Lapin had a web site that had a survillence equiptment or at least through a distributor that you can install yourself and tie into your own computer for less than what a real security company will charge. I dont know if that particular site is still up, but will hunt for it.

Thinking back 10+ years ago and thinking of today I see a change in the way alarm systems worked. Back then you had to tell the alarm company EVERYTHING and go through the drill every time the alarm went off for either CO2, fire, smoke, break in, electric failure etc etc etc etc.... Our town actually got tired of being contacted all the time for nothing.

That leads us to ternimate and buy them out.

Today you can almost set it up so that if you are at work 50 miles away, you can dailup the house video and sound and see/hear what the house cameras see and hear in live on your cellphone or work computer's firefox browser or something across the internet.

I prefer a local type early warning system instead of a full blown alarm company monitoring. I only want advance warning to swing us into a drill and give us the time while possible bad guys approach the house itself in.

The only downside to recording on DVR is should something go down, it's recorded and will be very examined by the Prosector, LEO's and the Courts. Everything on it will be there for all the world to see and hear just as it went down. Good? Bad? Depends on which lawyer is arguing the case.

Oh, and a couple of game cameras in a pair of trees help out also should main house fail.

 

[Duke of Doubt]

For the reasons articulated by Hungry Seagull, I don't record video. However, I maintain several audio recording devices and can trip them at the appropriate time. Audio recordings tend to be more exculpatory than incriminating in SD situations. The DA and the jury will hear you announce yourself, repeatedly demand the intruder halt, leave, whatever, and then gunshots. Sounds simple and clean. A video can be far more ambiguous and subject to varying interpretation ("What did that hand gesture mean? Was that really too close? How hard a slap was that? Where was he going? Wow, that's a big gun ...").

 

[chuwee81]

well, nowadays they have the 2-way system like on-star. I didn't know until my wife's friend told me and i think they worth the money (10 more bux per month than normal monitoring system).

Basically they have a speaker and mic attached so they can ask what happened if any security measure was breached (motion, doors, etc). wife and I had a password. Any wrong password, they will say "ok, have a nice day" but will send the cops. Our puppy ran rampant inside the house one day and tripped the motion detector - he's a short lil guy but was using our couch as trampoline so he was picked up by the detector. A lady called and told us they;re sending the cops because nobody answered. Cops came and checked eveyrthing, no sign of forced entry and left.
One other occasion was when i set the alarm, but needed to get the said dog to pee, so i opened the back door w/out turning it off. The alarm went blaring but i shut it off in 3 seconds. They still called through the speaker, asked what's going on, verified my name and even asked for the password.

 

[WardenWolf]

Old analog relay switch system, fully self-contained. Basic electrical circuit interrupt system with window concussion cutout circuits. When it gets set off, a loud alarm bell rings. The equipment is so old by now that modern techniques for bypassing alarm systems don't work. In this era of digital systems, code stealers, and more, often the simple analog is the hardest to defeat.

No matter how good your alarm, however, keep in mind that a robber / home invader can always force you to shut it off. Therefore it is a good idea to devise a protocol to ensure someone would be alerted in this situation. Also, if the protocol involves someone calling you to verify, the invader can likely force you to tell them everything is all right. The protocol should thus depend on you calling someone else.

 

[Mr.510]

I have a monitored alarm system. It has the regular keypad code plus a duress code. If my wife or I enter the duress code the alarm acts exactly like it would with the regular code but sends a duress signal and the sheriff is called. They respond "differently" to duress calls than regular ones.....

 

[7.5-Swiss]

Unless you live in a very rural area, I would advise ditching the monthly fee for your alarm centers monitoring station - and instead invest in the loudest alarm available and mount it in your attic/roof.

From my experience - it usually take 1 - 2 minutes for the alarm to go off once it has been tripped (gives you time to enter the code),

Then, another 2 - 5 minutes before the call center calls to see if there has been an actual emergency (they usually wait a few minutes to make sure the code is punched in late),

Then, assuming the burglar hasn't answered the phone and is stalling the call center as he ransacks the house (looking for the safe-word code that he wrote down somewhere), it will take another 5 - 10 minutes for the alarm company to contact the local PD, which then dispatches a unit to your home.

and THEN, another 5 - 10 minutes before a unit actually arrives at your home.

All told, that's about between 15 - 30 minutes with fairly conservative time estimates.

With a loud alarm going off while you're away, assuming you have close-by neighbors, through a pre-arranged agreement - or simply through the annoying sound of the alarm, they can immediately dial 911 and side-step all the unnecessary steps the alarm company goes through, and have a unit dispatched to your home in potentially half the time.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[jbkebert]

http://icukansas.com/index.html

Check out the link above. Shameless plug but this company is operated by my nephew. The systems are pretty darn cool and I was surprised at what all you can do with them. He is still growing as a company but has gotten contracts in 5 states to install these systems.

 

[george29]

Another hit-and-run poster.

 

[jbkebert]

Another hit-and-run poster.

And your post was what sir??

I am sorry that I did not make out a long drawn out post about a subject that I do not know that much about. The subject was about home security my nephew sells home security systems. If someone is reading this thread and had been thinking about one I posted a link. People do it all of the time on this forum. Maybe not for a family members business but links are added for various goods and services and where to get them.

 

[GRAYRID3R]

what does this thread have to do with guns?

 

[george29]

And your post was what sir??

I was referring to OP.

 

[jbkebert]

George29

My apologizes for jumping the gun.

 

[Fred Fuller]

what does this thread have to do with guns?

This is Strategies and Tactics. Not everything discussed here has to do with hardware that goes BANG.

lpl

 

[GRAYRID3R]

Sorry, I thought this whole forum was about firearms. I guess I'm overly sensetive to this subject since I own a COMMERCIAL security company. I've been in this business since 1982 and have a general contempt for the residential aspect of our industry. A vast majority of residential companies are in existance for the monthly reoccurring revenue. The installers and technicians are poorly trained if trained at all, and the equipment used is very often substandard to say the least. The sales force is one step lower than a used car salesman. To feel the least bit secure in using a residential alarm system for protection can be a fatal mistake. Why do you think the average response time for LEO is so high for these systems? Virtually all alarms transmitted are false alarms and take up LEOs precious time. Residential security alarms should be used as notification of a possible break-in so the homeowner may deal with the intruder himself. The preceeding is only my opinion, and I'm sure there are residential alarm companies out there that are the exception to my rule. I just haven't found any in my 27 years in the security/fire alarm industry.

 

[frankd4]

Most of my family are Metro cop’s household alarms are the lowest priority for cops they answer those calls last; it’s a waste of money to have the alarm monitored.
The best is the extremely loud siren and video cameras, I can see all around my house as well as inside over the internet yes I can see what’s going on through my I Phone then there’s Rock and Hilda both over a hundred pounds half Lab Half Pit.
We have a great neighborhood most houses have video cams and most Crimes are solved
In hours when something happens the Cops knock on the door and ask if there is any footage and we are happy to help out.

 

[jbkebert]

I could not tell you the specs on the cameras that they are using. I am pretty impressed though. The one on top of their house will pan 360 degress with 5x magnification. The one covering the front door has IR capabilites. They can be checked via a i-phone or internet access. I would probably be scared to know what is available anymore. He was showing me some of the cameras at the home show. I have not bit the bullet and had one installed at my place yet. I have been cheating a little bit. His dad lives just up the road and I can pan his camera and see my front door. The image is not crystal clear but clear enough I could tell you if I know the person or not. Distance covered is around 550-600 yards with a 5-7 second delay.

 

[gwlammers]

I have a security system from x10.com. I don't pay for "monitoring". The system is programmed to call my cell phone. If I get called, I first call home. Everyone at my house knows that if you accidently trip the alarm (all the time), you better be near the phone when I call. If I don't get an answer at home, my next phone call is to the police. I also have several neighbors phone numbers in my cell phone so that I can call them and ask if there is a moving van or any activity at my house.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

To feel the least bit secure in using a residential alarm system for protection can be a fatal mistake. Why do you think the average response time for LEO is so high for these systems?

Too true. Every company that shows a TV ad where they call and talk to the person inside the home, and fail to tell the person to hang up and to call 911, should be fined thousands of dollars by the FCC for endangering the public safety. Every company that guarantees "a police response" should be fined for false advertisement.

The best case scenario from a previous one listed above is: 1 minute for the alarm to sound, 1 minute for the tech at the alarm center to call and get no response, 1 minute for the tech to call the police to generate a police call, 1 minute for the call to be transmitted to a patrol car for response, which is four minutes before the cops have a chance to begin driving toward the alarm, at standard ground speed...., not lights and siren. Too much can happen in four minutes.

If the power is out, or if the BG cuts the phone lines (which is how the alarm system alerts the alarm company to call) ..., then what??

I have seen countless examples of folks who will spend a couple thousand dollars each year for a "state-of-the-art" system, but neglect spending a few hundred dollars to beef up the hardware and windows on their homes, add lighting, etc, to make the home much harder to get into.

LD