silent or audible

Police don't like to catch anyone.

FWIW in all the years I've installed burg alarms I've had only ONE residential client insist on silent...but after about a year he had me change it because we dispatched on alarms that he caused. Commerical too except I have done systems where selected zones were silent.

Besides what if you were home and you set off a silent alarm...the police would catch you right?

I disagree, but only partly so. Police love catching thieves. It's just that they rarely arrive before the thief leaves so they rarely catch them. A silent alarm might result in a small increase in arrests but not enough to make up for the greater losses because the thief doesn't run off right away. Even when the cops know it's a silent alarm the delay between alarm activation and signal transmission is usually about 20-30 seconds (much longer if the system gets a busy on the first try). Then there's the time it takes for the alarm monitoring company's operator to dial the police. This varies from as little as 30 seconds to upwards of an hour, depending on which company is doing the monitoring. Unfortunately, some of the largest, most "professional" central stations are also among the slowest to respond to an actual emergency.

Once the police operator in the emergency call center finally receives the message s/he gives it to the radio dispatcher (in smaller towns the operator is the dispatcher) and the call goes out. Just giving the information can take from 30 seconds to a minute or more, depending on how quickly, clearly and accurately the parties communicate.

Finally, an officer receives the radio call and must drive to thge protected premises. This can take as little as 2 or 3 minutes if you're lucky or upwards of an hour if you're in some rural areas. With the continuing deluge of false alarms, some departments are treating burglar alarm calls as a low priority matter, about the same as a noise complaint. Other departments are starting to require verification in the form of audio, video or in-person confirmation that the alarm is valid. All of this adds to the delay, making monitoring less efective and brurglary more lucrative.

The pathetic thing is watching the TV ads for Brinks where a would-be burglar smashes the glass, hears the wimpy, little interior siren and runs off. Two seconds later the phone rings: "Hello, Mrs. Jones. This is Brinks Security. We just wanted to let you know that the 101st Airborne are landing on the lawn as we speak."

We've had similar experiences. Most people want the reassurance that a siren is blaring away, causing heads to turn and hopefully scaring off the thief. One customer, a real gun nut, insisted on a silent alarm whenever he was home and an audible when he was out. He kept guns (lots of them) in every room, including the bathroom. I expect I knew what his intentions were. :^)

I always offered silent holdup and audible panic. One neat trick is to use 2 holdup buttons almost side-by-side. Set the system to trigger a silent holdup if only one is pressed and an audible panic if both are pressed.

There have been instances where homeowners were shot by police after setting off their own alarms. Presumably this was not part of the local false alarm reduction ordinance. :^)

BTW, a policeman in our area recently shot and critically wounded his own daughter when she returned home late at night after sneaking out. He thought she was an intruder. The newspaper didn't say whether there was an alarm involved. I assume there not.

Perhaps the question should be asked "Is silent or audible better for a burglar"? Then your question answers itself.

Only as much as the courts do in letting them go I suspect. Trying to get the cops to walk with you through a big warehouse looking for the guy that just broke in says to me they don't care much about catching a "perp". If they don't happen to have the mutts available they generally won't even go in, they just wait outside. You have to go in and find the bad guy and call them. It isn't like what you see on TV. Ever tried to find a black guy hiding in a tire warehouse in the middle of the night? I have seen the police catch many suspects at the scene of a break in I have responded to. It is rare that the ones arrested are not out within hours of being arrested unless there is some other more serious pending charge or outstanding warrant. In some cases the police routinely drop charges since it is so expensive to keep certain folks imprisoned. Those with diabetes, heart conditions, drug additions, etc. The notion that the police actually "care" about such things is misplaced for the most part, it is just a job for those that are not rookies. Police don't make any real effort to understand how alarms function nor do they care to spend time developing a security system tie in with effective policing. If you are a law and order type that is trying to assist society by helping the police apprehend criminals, installing a silent versus audible alarm is not the place to start.

burglar smashes the glass, hears the wimpy, little interior

Jones. This is Brinks Security. We just wanted to let you

If you are going to call something pathetic at least get it right what they say in the commercial and although a 2 second response that scenario is more common than you think and those "whimpy" sirens do scare people off

And in a real panic situation they aren't going to remember what does what

No alarm was involved, she activated motion triggered lights outside

Audible, I only had one instance of someone wanting silent and that was because she wanted to catch her ex husband sneaking in her house

I had a lady who wanted a silent alarm and a hidden camera because her neighbor, "would sneak in the dog door and use her cold cream."

I would have suggested subbing the cream in the jar with some of that fluorescent paint... :-)

Yeah! Remember when that guy was going around? He was breaking into houses around here too.

It was called the "Cold Cream Caper" He really cleaned up around here. He was a really smooth character. Slippery as a snake but he smelled good.

The evenutally caught up with him though. He kept leaving greasy fingerprints on everything and they were able to trace him back as a disgruntled Ponds employee, trying to get even with the company for firing him.

I thought it was called the KY Jelly Caper

| > > Audible, I only had one instance of someone wanting silent and that was | > > because she wanted to catch her ex husband sneaking in her house | >

| > I had a lady who wanted a silent alarm and a hidden camera because her | > neighbor, "would sneak in the dog door and use her cold cream." | >

| Yeah! Remember when that guy was going around? He was breaking | into houses around here too. | | It was called the "Cold Cream Caper" | He really cleaned up around here. He was a really smooth character. | Slippery as a snake but he smelled good. | | The evenutally caught up with him though. | He kept leaving greasy fingerprints on everything | and they were able to trace him back as a disgruntled | Ponds employee, trying to get even with the company | for firing him. |

Pond's?

Can't be, Ponds always advertised that they were greaseless

Oh Yeah?

Well how come I can never get it off of my ha.....

Never mind.