Armed-Response ‘Friendly’

98% of Alarms are “Cry Wolf”

The reason Armed Response* Companies love WirelessAlert products is that it helps avoid false alarms and therefore frees response vehicles from ‘wild goose chases’ to be there when you need them.

Ask any armed response company and they’ll confirm that 98% of call outs are ‘false alarms’. That’s 98% of their resources – their manpower, fuel, and enthusiasm – that is drained away chasing ‘shadows’. It’s that 98% of the time that armed response are doing an excellent job, yet are being needlessly drawn away from the 2% who desperately need them.

Put another way – that’s 98% of your monthly subscription wasted, 98% of ‘frights’ to you when alarms go off for ‘no reason’ and you’re home, 98% of the irritations in your community listening to sirens howling and 98% of your embarrassment when the howling sirens are yours.

The situation is so bad that some armed response companies are charge a premium to attend to calls from clients whose alarms trigger too frequent. Some are talking about not responding to garden beams at all!

WirlessAlert products can virtually eliminate this situation. We can save your armed response company money, your community aggravation, and ensure that when a call goes out to Armed Response, it is confirmed and ‘for real’. With false triggers eliminated, these confirmed calls to Armed Response can get the level of attention they deserves.

*Armed Response love WirelessAlert; but alarm installation companies don’t always like us. The reason is that, whereas most consumers start out wanting an alarm to satisfy their insurance that will only cost a few thousand rand, alarm installers can ‘up-sell’ them to spend tens-of thousands on sophisticated beams and CCTV – that prove to be incompatible with daily living. The result is they don’t use those expensive systems. They would be much better off with a very basic alarm system and then use WirelessAlert products to protect the people of the household.

When false-alarms aren’t False

If you’ve read the section “About Crime” under the “About” section, you’ll appreciate how criminals have come to rely on sirens to identify active sensors and beams. Criminals always have an exit strategy and simply ‘evaporate’ into the night before anyone can check if the threat is real.

This “phew… he’s gone!” sense of relief that most people wish for and feel (and insist on when they demand an automated siren and automated trigger to armed response) is unfortunately seriously misplaced: The intruder may be temporarily gone, but the siren merely gave him some information about your security setup that he can use when he comes again.

And, why won’t he come again? Think about it: His most dangerous trip onto your property is his first – subsequent visits become less dangerous as he becomes more familiar with your setup. Trespassing is an investment that might only pay dividends later; that is how criminals think!

So; your armed response company arrives, walks your property and finds nothing. They report this to you and log it as a ‘false alarm’ even though it possibly wasn’t one. After a few more of these false alarms; with your neighbours wanting to lynch you and your armed response company probably quietly agreeing with them; you call in a technician who, as he passes you an invoice for the call-out, informs you that there is no fault in your system!

And now it becomes a test of wills – will you get sick of your siren and the technical inspections & costs before the burglar tires of making his escape. We bet he’ll win.

WirelessAlert: Eliminates”Cry Wolf”

WirelessAlert products inform you – personally; without fuss and aggravation.

This ‘quiet betrayal’ system has three extensive effects:

1) Timing:

The best armed response company in the world cannot possibly get to you with less than a few minutes delay; and a much longer delay if there are a lot of calls coming in ahead of you; and criminals know and use this fact to great effect:

Criminals work in groups; they’re known to set off alarms in several places at once on the other side of your neighbourhood; forcing your armed response company to deal with calls in the order that they come in. With cell phones and spotters backing them up, the bad guys heading onto your property have ample opportunity and warning to get in and do whatever they want to before armed response can get to you; even if your siren is wailing away.

Can you imagine what can happen in those couple of minutes it takes to get help?

2) Confirmation:

However – your armed response company will prioritize a call to you if you hit a panic button (or call them on the phone). The reason is obvious; As we’ve explored, an ordinary alarm call has a 98% probability of being ‘false’ – but a panic button triggered means real trouble. The challenge is to have time to hit the panic button and become first in the queue.

With WirelessAlert you can; a) confirm the threat as real, b) identify the intruders (how many, what they look like, etc.), c) identify the level of threat (Are they armed? Do they look mean or drunk?), c) what are they doing and how best to catch them red-handed, without endangering anyone and get a conviction rather than just another intruder on the run in the neighbourhood.

And, if you follow the panic button with a call to their response room and can communicate all of the above information as you’re watching criminals; who you can choose to keep totally unaware that he’s been betrayed to you (by WirelessAlert).

The difference in outcome for you and your armed response company couldn’t be better – and the outcome for the intruder couldn’t be worse!

3) You as part of the solution:

Without proper information, you can be at the mercy of the intruder, you can get in the way of armed response; and you probably won’t appreciate just how frustrating their job can be.

With WirelessAlert making you your own first line of defense, you and your family are infinitely safer as they become part of the solution for your own property and your total neighbourhood.