Residential False Alarm Prevention

Did You Know

Public safety resources are limited and should never be wasted. Thousands of patrol hours are spent investigating alarm reports that turn out to be “false alarms”.

 

Common Causes Of Residential False Alarms

  • Inadequate training of all those allowed access to your alarm site.
  • Domestic help, house cleaners, house sitters, contractors, lawn care workers, extended family members, and pet sitters.
  • Weak or depleted system batteries.
  • Open, unlocked, loose fitting or defective doors/windows.
  • Drafts from heaters/air conditioning systems and open windows move plants, curtains, balloons, etc.
  • Wandering pets.

When Installing & Activating An Alarm System

  • Check with your local jurisdiction for registration requirements.
  • Completely understand how the alarm system works; what it does and does not do.
  • Accept the responsibility to keep your alarm system in proper operating condition.
  • Ensure that all users of your system are provided thorough instruction on using and testing the system and cancelling unnecessary false alarm dispatch requests.
  • Ask your alarm company for written instructions and a physical demonstration of the use of your alarm system.

How Can You Prevent Residential False Alarms?

  • Lock all doors and windows.
  • Ensure moving items such as balloons, curtains, decorations and pets are not placed in the path of motion detectors.
  • Know how to cancel an alarm dispatch request.
  • Educate all alarm system users on the proper use of the alarm system.
  • Schedule a service call if the alarm is not working properly.
  • Notify your monitoring company if you remodel, change or upgrade phone systems including DSL, VoIP, FIOS.
  • Update your contact information with your security company annually or if you hire domestic help, get a new pet or plan to sell your house.
  • Instruct your monitoring company not to dispatch law enforcement on power outages, weather related signals, low battery signals or heat loss sensors.
  • Request your monitoring company to use Enhanced Call Verification (ECV), which requires making two calls to a responsible party prior to requesting a law enforcement dispatch.