Alarm monitoring is a service in which your security company’s response center is notified if your home alarm goes off. Such assistance keeps you and your loved ones safe.
What Is Alarm Monitoring?
There are many significant advantages to utilizing a home security system. Not only can it protect you and your loved ones (including any pets), but also safeguard your property and precious belongings. Remember, the whole purpose of a security system is to ensure a building or area remains “secure,” safe, and free from damage or intrusion.
Still, not all security systems are the same, in terms of effectiveness. One key feature to keep in mind that any system should include is alarm monitoring.
Alarm monitoring is an alarm system service that immediately notifies a security company’s response center if the alarm is activated.
This could result from an attempted break-in, in which the motion sensors were set off; fire, smoke or carbon monoxide detection; and/or communication from a wellness system customer in need of assistance.
The Importance Of Home Security
Taking certain precautions to keep your home safe is imperative. This includes installing an alarm system. While the number of property crimes in the United States—which the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) defines as “offenses of burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson”—has decreased throughout the years, they still affect millions of people. Therefore, it’s important to be prepared in case you and your home become a target.
According to 2016 statistics released by the FBI, the most recent data available: “There were an estimated 7,919,035 property crime offenses in the nation” in that year alone, “result[ing] in losses estimated at $15.6 billion.”
What’s What With An Alarm System
Maximizing the full benefits of a home security system, including its alarm monitoring features, means knowing its different components and understanding their purpose.
The control panel, for example, is essentially the nucleus of the entire system. It keeps everything connected and functioning properly, and also grants users the ability to dictate specific tasks. This includes arming and disarming the system.
Motion sensors are used to catch any movement in the specific area of the home where they’re installed. Consequently, any unwelcome guests who manage to get inside your home will trigger these in any room they’re installed. This will sound the alarm, altering both you and your security company’s response center.
Security cameras can be installed along with your security system, helping to further monitor your property, even when you’re not there. These cameras can be installed both outside and inside your home. Thanks to advanced technology, you can now view live security camera footage on your desktop computer, iPad or smartphone, ensuring that you can always check to see what’s going on at home, regardless of your current location.
Although video surveillance holds several benefits via live security camera monitoring, the system itself also works to ward off would-be intruders simply by its visibility. A study conducted by the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and reported in a May 2013 article on the University’s website evaluated the way burglars chose what homes to target.
