Property Protection
Property protection takes into consideration the operating statistics of burglaries and the observed methods of operation of burglars. 90% of burglars gain entrance through unlocked doors and windows. Once inside, the first action a burglar takes is to open an exit door to ensure he can escape quickly in the event he is discovered during the burglary. After he has made sure that the can get out easily in the event of detection, the burglar will move throughout the home scouting for the best items to take. Favorite areas include master bedrooms and media rooms.
A good basic strategy to design a system to protect your property is to protect:
- All doors that go outside the house Interior door to garage (if connected to the house)
- Interior motion detectors or glassbreak detectors
- Covering stairways that go between different levels of the home
- Covering hallways that lead to bedrooms
Personal Protection
Each person has their own level of protective comfort, which is a product of their experience. A person who has been burglarized will have different criteria than one who has not. The challenge for the burglar alarm system designer is to design a system that gives the homeowner a system that makes them feel safe, while still keeping the system easy to use as well as being in a comfortable price range.
It is very difficult to give good design advice for personal protection without seeing the home and talking to the homeowners. My experience over the years has been that salesmen (who are paid on a commission basis) tend to sell the customer more protection than they need, creating a greater possibility of false alarms, difficulty of use and unnecessary expense.
All major alarm system manufacturers provide emergency features built into the alarm keypads that operate the system that allow the homeowner to alert the central monitoring station to police, fire, and medical emergencies.
