All About False Alarms

Administrator — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 17:25:46 +0000

What is a False Alarm?
A “False Alarm” is when an Alarm System goes off in error, and the Police are dispatched. As you can imagine, this causes a big problem for Law Enforcement because the officer’s time can be better spent than driving and inspecting a California home or office that has not been burglarized
County and City Police Departments have been charging false alarm fines for years now, which motivate home owners and businesses to keep their Security Company accountable. Usually, the first False Alarm is free, but the costs grow as more False Alarms occur.
How do you prevent False Alarms?
The two predominant causes of a False Alarm are faulty equipment and outdated (or limited) call lists. Faulty Equipment will send an Alarm signal, just like an actual burglary will, and this will send the Police to your home or office expecting the worst.
Having an outdated call list is very preventable. A good rule of thumb is that if a person has a key to your building or a code to disarm the system, then they should be included in your call list. This is because they have the potential to make a mistake to cause the system to alarm, so they should have a way to quickly fix the mistake before the Police arrive.
Some of the uncommon culprits for False Alarms include spiders inside of motion detectors and hanging holiday decorations that are moved around by an automatic air conditioner or heater. When the weather is poor False Alarms seem to double because water has a very bad effect on electronics.
It is a good idea to keep up on your call list regularly, and to test your system at least every six months to discover if any equipment needs replacement.

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All About False Alarms