Article 4

Everyone accepts that false alarms are irritating, untimely and costly.  As a key holder the last thing you want is an unwarranted call in the middle of the night, especially when it’s –4 degrees C outside.  False alarms are also a drain on already stretched police resources.  The opportunity cost is immense when false alarms run in excess of 90% of all intruder alarm calls.  

The police and the industry are increasingly seeing confirmation systems as a positive way forward but they are expensive.  Once an electronic detection device such as a door contact or passive infrared detector has been triggered confirmation systems require some additional method by which the system can confirm that there truly is an intruder on the premises. There are three ways of achieving this:

•By installing microphones throughout the premises which are switched on by the activation so that the monitoring centre can listen to what is going on;  

•By installing video cameras so that the monitoring centre can see what is going on;

•By installing sequential detection capability; this means that the alarm panel is capable of tracking the progress of an intruder through the premises by the triggering of a single detector more than once or two or more detectors and being able to relay this information to the monitoring centre.

No, it does not come cheap, as those having a newly installed system requiring a police response will tell you.  Since 1st October 2001 confirmation systems have been mandatory for new systems requiring a police response.  

If you are relying on a non-confirmation system and a police response you must minimise the likelihood of false alarms by:-

•Checking that there is a maintenance contract for the system with a competent alarm company and that all the visits are completed on schedule;

•Ensure that someone has responsibility to do daily visual checks of detection devices making sure that nothing has been suspended near to PIRs especially and that doors with contacts are securely shut, all as part of the close down procedure before the alarm is set;

•Making sure that only those properly trained attempt to set or unset the alarm system.

 

Do what has been suggested and there is every likelihood that you will continue to receive your present level of Police response.  Remember though that fewer false alarms will be tolerated before response is downgraded, so it will be easier to lose response altogether. The exact situation is as follows:-

Level 1 response – Immediate Police attendance.

Level 2 response – Police attendance desirable, but there may be a delay. There is now a reduction to Level 2 following 2 false alarms in a 12 month period; this used to be 4 in 12 months.

Level 3 response – No Police attendance, keyholder response only. There is now a reduction to Level 3 following 5 false alarms in a 12 month period; this used to be 7 in 12 months.

Should you lose Police response following a number of false alarms, it will only be reinstated following conversion to a confirmed system.  Remember, this could prove to be very expensive and the Police will define a false alarm as any activation resulting in Police attendance where it is not clear that an intruder has caused the alarm.