Are home alarm systems worth it? I’m talking about something like ADT or Vivint, with window and door sensors, and automated police calls.

Are those monthly subscriptions worth it? Do you guys have them? Does anyone have any stories where having an alarm system made a break-in situation better? Are they just snake oil?

  • UnwrittenProtagonist@lemmyusa.com
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    4 hours ago

    When looking to secure your house, you should use a “defense in depth” strategy of which an alarm can be part of it but I don’t think you should solely count on an alarm to keep you safe. Many crooks can kick in your front door, get in, go through your bedroom, and be out in five minutes well before anyone can get there and do anything.

    So it could help, but only as one part of a multi-pronged strategy.

    An alarm that makes noise (but doesn’t necessarily call the cops) can help if someone breaks in and you are home (which, IMO, is the best argument for it) or even to encourage them to get in and out quickly as they know they’ve called attention to themselves.

    You want to do several things that will deter a burglar so most just decide that your house is not worth the effort. This is no guarantee (as there are some stupid but opportunistic criminals out there) but for example:

    • not having hedges that hide entry points to your house
    • getting a dog that barks
    • not establishing routines that say “I’m not home” (like, for example, your garage door is always open when you are home but only shut when you leave)
    • don’t leave boxes out front that had expensive things, etc…
    • Make sure your house is well lit
    • Lights on a timer when you are away
    • Security Cameras or even fake alarm signs
    • Don’t leave your garage door open unattended
    • Don’t leave valuables in your car
    • Good locks and a strong doorframe

    None of these things will stop a burglar, but a combination of things may make them think that your neighbor is a better target. And, regardless, have good insurance.

    If someone does break in, don’t keep valuables in your bedroom/main closet or bath as that is the room most likely to get tossed. Have a safe in an obscure place that bolted down (like under the sink in a bathroom), or maybe have something a little valuable out in the open so they grab that and run.

  • neidu3@sh.itjust.works
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    7 hours ago

    Nah. I live in the middle of nowhere, so it’d just be an annoyance with no benefit.

    I haven’t locked my front door or car in years.

  • Fondots@lemmy.world
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    12 hours ago

    I apologize, this became a long rant, too long for a single comment. This comment is mostly rant, I’m going to reply to it with sort of a TL;DR in a 2nd comment, but it’s still probably going to be kind of long, I have a lot of thoughts about alarm companies.

    I work in 911 dispatch. What happens when your alarm gets activated is the alarm company receives the signal and then they call someone like me to send police/fire/EMS.

    I’m pretty sure that everyone in my profession has a pretty low opinion of alarm companies. In theory the services are a fine idea. In practice, they’re kind of a shit show. I’m not too sure where the biggest issue is with them- corporate decision making, lazy installation techs, incompetent account managers, terrible phone operators (some of them like to call them dispatchers, they don’t dispatch shit) or the customers are all just idiots, but it’s probably all of the above and more.

    Starting from the bottom, a whole lot of these places seem to use the same sort of call centers we’ve all come to know and hate from having to call tech support. Most of them have thick accents, and most of the ones who don’t seem to be borderline illiterate. Think back to grade school when the teacher would go around the room having you read a paragraph or two from a book out loud then pass it onto the next person to continue reading, it eventually would come around to the kid who probably had undiagnosed dyslexia and a fear of public speaking, and he’d struggle through it having to sound out each word syllable by syllable while you all just went ahead and read the paragraph on your own. That’s what talking to some of these operators is like. And if you deviate from their script even the tiniest bit they get totally flustered and don’t know what to say.

    That’s all well and good in your high school English class when you’re reading through Romeo and Juliet, but when I’m trying to send the fire department out to see if a house is burning down or not it’s maddening when I can’t tell if the address they’re giving me is “7 main Street” so “11 maple Street” either because of their accent, they’re mumbling into the phone with a screaming baby in the background (I’m pretty sure some of them are working from home now) or they just can’t fucking read.

    On my call here are the questions I’m asking.

    What is the address- house number, street name, apartment/suite number if applicable, municipality (not necessarily the same thing as the town/city on the mailing address, they’re different sometimes, I’m sending your towns police, not delivering your mail)

    What is the nearest cross street- to verify I have the right location, damn near every town has a Maple Street, and because I can’t necessarily count on getting the correct town from the caller, this helps me make sure I’m sending help to the right Maple Street and not the one in the next town over.

    If it’s a business, and the name of the business. I’ve had alarms called in as residential alarms but the name of the resident is listed as something like “Anderson Construction LLC” so a commercial alarm under just some schmuck’s name. Or it will be the name of some property management company and not the actual business at that location.

    For security alarms- is it audible or silent

    The area of activation - half of them are just labeled as something like “zone 2” which is useless. I don’t know where zone 2 is, the alarm co doesn’t know, the homeowner doesn’t know, our police and fire sure don’t, so we don’t know where we need to be looking for the issue. Is it a motion sensor? A window alarm? The garage? Your guess is as good as mine. Or sometimes zone 2 is kitchen windows, bathroom door, side room motion, and basement stairs all on the same zone.

    Also once in a while they’ll tell me something like it’s a security alarm but it’s coming from the smoke detector.

    If it’s residential - what is the resident’s name?

    Some sort of contact phone number. Ideally a premise phone number, but at least a residents cell phone, or a keyholder for the business. Some way to get ahold of someone to make sure everything is ok, see if they know why the alarm is going off, confirm if anyone is supposed to be there, figure out how to re-secure the house if they find an unlocked door, get authorization to force entry if needed, etc.

    Will you notify- will you be calling the resident, an emergency contact, keyholder, etc. to let them know about this alarm

    That’s a lot of ranting on my part, but it’s not much information I’m looking for. On the rare occasion they have all the information and the operator is competent, it takes me just over 1 minute to get everything I need

    My entire call ideally boils down to something like:

    123 MAIN ST, TOWNSVILLE NY, APT 4
    X-STREET: MAPLE ST
    AUD, BEDROOM MOTION
    JOE SCHMO - 555-555-5555
    W/N

    There’s not a single one of those fields that they haven’t messed up- wrong or incomplete addresses, no x streets, no name/wrong name, wrong or no phone number, no list of emergency contacts, or the contacts are all outdated and haven’t worked at a company for 10 years. Sometimes all on the same call. I sometimes wonder how they manage to get paid for their service because I don’t know how they’re able to send their customers a bill or call them to ask for money because they don’t seem to have any of that information.

    And sometimes they call the wrong jurisdiction, I’ve occasionally had to transfer alarm calls to other dispatch centers around the country.

    We had one once where all the information they had was an “address” that was something like “¼ mile past the motor pool” and the zone. Literally nothing else. Somehow our supervisor managed to track that down to an Indian reservation on the other side of the country. I have no idea why it came to us, but we got that call a couple times before they were able to finally update the account information.

    Some of that is lazy installation techs not setting things up properly, or customer service and account managers and such not properly verifying information. Sometimes though I think it’s customers providing them with garbage information from the get go.

    Also most of these companies have some sort of verification protocol where they try to reach the homeowner to confirm if help is needed and they ask for a password. I get a lot of false alarm calls where they spoke with the homeowner but they didn’t know their password, so they had to call it in. Maybe write that down and stick it in your wallet or something if you can’t remember it.

    They’ll call in 3 hours later with an “update” to a previous alarm that our responders have already been out to and cleared from for 2½ hours. And sometimes they’ll call in 2 minutes later with a new request for dispatch and are shocked to learn that we already have help on the way because I literally just hung up with another operator for an alarm at the same location.

    And when a sensor is malfunctioning and giving false alarms, no one ever seems to do anything about it. There are houses and businesses that we legitimately have police or fire at almost every night and sometimes multiple times a night because the alarm keeps going off for no reason and it sometimes goes on for months or years because no one can be bothered to get a tech out fix it or at least take that sensor offline.

    We had one alarm we kept getting for about a year. The business it was for had been closed for years and the property vacant, even our police couldn’t track down a property owner or anything. Who the hell was paying that alarm bill? I think it only stopped when the building was demolished.

    This all pretty much applies to medical alarms like life alert and such too. Missing or incorrect information across the board there. Same address verification, name and phone number, we also want medical history and access information like a hidden key or garage code. We’d rather not have to break down your grandmother’s door to help her up after she’s fallen and can’t get up if there’s a spare key hidden under a flower pot we could use instead.

    And the icing on the cake, of the probably thousands of alarm calls I’ve handled in almost 6 years I’ve been here, maybe a few hundred of them have been legitimate, the rest were false alarms or accidental activations. Most of the legit ones have been fire alarms.

    And of those legitimate calls, all but maybe a few dozen of them have been called in faster and more efficiently by the homeowner, employees, or random bystanders/passersby who either noticed something suspicious or heard the alarm going off and called it into us before we ever got a call from the alarm company. Hell, sometimes the alarm never even goes off until the police are there clearing the interior of a building after a break-in.

    I live and work in what I’d overall consider to be a very safe area. Break-ins are almost vanishingly rare, and when they do happen it’s more likely to be some sort of a domestic thing where your ex wants to steal back the TV they bought you and remembers your alarm code or something like that than the sort of burglary you probably imagine. And when the more legitimate break-ins happen, it’s either in the super rich neighborhoods when the homeowner is out of town, or it’s in the poorer, more urban (this is the suburbs, none of it is really urban, but a couple towns come pretty close) parts of my county, where most of the people probably don’t have the extra money for an alarm system anyway. For everyone else in the middle, I think security alarms aren’t really worth it.

    • Inf_V@kbin.earth
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      10 hours ago

      this is off topic but you should pursue writing as a hobby if you ever get interested in it. the way you describe things are really fascinating and easy to understand and kept me roped in the entire time.

    • Fondots@lemmy.world
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      12 hours ago

      TL;DR

      From my end of things, none of these companies are much better or worse than any other. If I had to pick one of the big names I’d say maybe ADT/Everon, but the difference is miniscule. If you can find a smaller local company, that’s probably your best bet, especially if they somehow have a local call center (most of them seem to outsource to central call centers that handle probably dozens of alarm companies)

      If you’re in a rich, less-dense town where you can’t count on neighbors being around to see a break in happening to call it in, sure, go ahead and get an alarm. If you’re stuck living in the ghetto, and can somehow afford it, go for it. If you have some sort of fucked up domestic situation where your ex is stalking you or something, it’s probably worth it (but change your code and locks.) If none of that applies to you, just lock your doors and maybe put some lights on timers and motion sensors, and just have a little situational awareness and you’re probably going to be fine. Like I said above, most of the calls I get are false alarms, and of the legitimate ones, most of them get called in faster and more efficiently by the homeowner, a neighbor, an employee, or a random passerby before we ever get the call from the alarm co.

      And if you do get one, make sure they’re setting it up right, make sure you’re providing them with correct information and keeping it up to date, and make sure the sensors are labeled in some sort of sensible manner. “Zone 2” means absolutely nothing to anyone.

      If I ever personally get an alarm system, it will probably be for fire alarms. Currently though, I have some smart smoke detectors that will send me a notification on my phone if they go off. I think that’s pretty adequate, as long as I have cell service, I can call it in myself if I’m not home, and if I don’t have cell service, that probably means I’m out camping and so my dog is either with me or staying with my parents, everything else in my house is just stuff, and that’s what insurance is for.

  • Vanth@reddthat.com
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    17 hours ago

    Aside from cost, there is also privacy to consider. Subscription home alarm systems don’t fit into my threat model, personally. I focus on hardening physical access points as compared to my neighbors, and good insurance.

    Just like how I only need to outrun my hiking buddy instead of trying to outrun the bear, my house simply needs to look like a more challenging target with lower yield than my neighbors. I am not going to get robbed when my neighbor leaves their patio door unlocked with valuables visible through their always-open windows.

    • Manifish_Destiny@lemmy.world
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      13 hours ago

      Depends on the alarm. Some take special equipment, some take a magnet, but that won’t get you by the motion detectors.

      Just avoid simplisafe and you are doing at least the bare minimum.

      Id honestly just recommend good locks, proper door fitment and security laminate on your windows for the vast majority of people.

  • BlueSquid0741@lemmy.sdf.org
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    18 hours ago

    I have an external camera facing the front entrance to our property, and then some motion detection cameras inside, one pointing at each external door.

    They don’t dial anywhere, just recording to surveillance rated SD cards. I have an option for them to call my phone when motion is detected, and I tried that out, it works fine. I only turn that in if we’re staying away from home.

    This seems to be suitable for our area.

    • Stalinwolf@lemmy.ca
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      18 hours ago

      My sister-in-law has them all throughout her house and I’m just like, “You know you have a teenage boy, right? You ready for that?”

  • AbidingOhmsLaw@lemmy.ml
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    19 hours ago

    i guess that would depend on if you have a lot of home break ins in your area and if you a gone from home a lot.

  • oderus@lemm.ee
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    18 hours ago

    Your smoke alarms and CO sensors could also be integrated into the system, which is why we have a monthly service. The panels usually have buttons to directly dispatch Fire/EMS/Police if needed.

  • Peaches@lemmy.today
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    18 hours ago

    Security systems might get you insurance discounts too. But I’ve been of the assumption most break-ins will be opportunistic (unlocked entry points or things laying around). Even fake signs and cameras can help be deterrents. Only people I’ve personally known with problems though were either vehicle break-ins or stolen packages.

  • Pistcow@lemm.ee
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    19 hours ago

    I’ve got the Ring set up and it was pretty cheap along with a few stick up cameras on the exterior. Been nice when I got on vacation and lowered my home insurance. Lots of similar ecosystems. Also, bedside pistol safe and family code word.

  • BombOmOm@lemmy.world
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    19 hours ago

    When the intruder alarm goes off, police are minutes away, the intruder is only seconds from you. You are the only person who can reliably protect you. Buy a gun, learn how to use it, and keep it in an accessible place.

    • socsa@piefed.social
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      9 hours ago

      If you are going to spend money on a gun, at least also spend money on steel doors and real locks for your bedrooms. If someone breaks in and actually means you harm, having a defensible keep is far and away the most important aspect of home security.

      But 99.9999% of the time, anyone who breaks into your house just wants your shit and not confrontation. Which is why insurance is more important than any gun.

    • magiccupcake@lemmy.world
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      16 hours ago

      Statistically if you have a gun your risk of death by homicide doubles, and suicide rate triples citation.

      Guns don’t make you safe. Dogs are a are an actually effective deterrent for example citation.

      • BombOmOm@lemmy.world
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        15 hours ago

        Your first link doesn’t separate correlation and causation. Is a high murder rate area more likely to cause people to buy a gun, or the inverse? I can tell you for sure people who are in a bad situation generally don’t just sit on their asses and do nothing.

        • magiccupcake@lemmy.world
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          6 hours ago

          No it doesn’t, so that’s why I didn’t speculate on the cause. But the statistics don’t lie, and you’d be a fool for assuming you’d be the exception.

          As for speculation, guns are tools of escalation. Pulling a gun on robber while half asleep can turn a robbery into a homicide. Not to mention all the stories of people who shoot at intruders who turn out to be police from a no knock warrant and inevitably kill someone.

          But it doesn’t matter what the cause for it really is in the end. Owning guns don’t make you safe.

    • OhVenus_Baby@lemmy.ml
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      15 hours ago

      Wrong comment for this platform. Your not wrong though so watch the downvotes roll in. I bet none of the down voters have been in a real active situation of any kind. Reality vs dreams.

      • venotic@kbin.melroy.org
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        10 hours ago

        Or they don’t want to be a murderer.

        Or they don’t want to chance being in a court case where maybe their self-defense claim won’t work.

        Or they don’t want to be troubled where if they somehow lose a fight with the intruder, the intruder gets the gun and shoots you.

        Or they don’t want any liability regarding the gun.

        You don’t think do you? No you don’t, you just want to be right. Dumbass.

        • OhVenus_Baby@lemmy.ml
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          6 hours ago

          You have none of these problems if your dead from the intruder. You do you. Your post seems to reflect your need to be right rather than mine.