Our teams and clients always feel relieved when our responders arrive at a home or business and determine that an alarm has gone off needlessly. The alternatives are much worse: a break-in or unauthorized access, a fire or environmental hazard. Seen as an annoyance, false alarms have their own risks, too. Below, we’ll cover some of the key issues and how to prevent them.
Last year, the fire-alarm system of a downtown Victoria daycare went off during nap time. Dozens of preschoolers and toddlers were woken up and evacuated. Protocols left no time for them to put on coats or shoes. So, they filed outside through multiple floors of a downtown parkade in bare feet. Looking back, we know the evacuation risks outpaced those of staying inside. Because there was no fire. In the moment, however, educators needed to avoid the less-likely possibility of a more severe danger. Groups waited at their appointed muster point until the Fire Department investigated, then gave the “all clear” signal. Those kids endured an ordeal that illustrates the vulnerabilities and emotional stress that false alarms can induce. We so appreciate the prompt response of staff at this facility.
When false alarms happen, hopefully people on the ground as well as security professionals and emergency services will respond with the same speed and dedication they deploy in a real crisis. Those responses eat up time and energy while undermining readiness. They divert attention from where it might be needed. If alarm systems go off accidentally, that might halt operations for businesses, with real financial impacts. Repeat occurrences can damage an individual’s or corporation’s reputation, when employees, customers, neighbours, and public officials see the problem as one rooted in negligence. Worse yet, multiple false alarms over a short period desensitize people to warnings. They might not take a real warning seriously, after a system has “cried wolf” over and over. Recognizing all these issues, municipalities issue invoices and fines to property owners who do not manage their alarm systems responsibly.
More than 90% of Western Canada Security’s alarm-response deployments end with a false-alarm determination. Certainly, that’s a better result than seeing mostly real incidents. But we can think of many ways to better spend our time. For starters, we can meet with clients to review and test their systems in a controlled manner. More visits like that would reduce the number of unexpected false alarms. Testing needs to be done properly and professionally to ensure accuracy and thoroughness. Responsible, regular testing also limits legal liabilities or civil claims that come with the more extreme situations.
Investments in testing, maintaining, and upgrading alarm systems pays off when equipment functions as intended. These days, upgrading often means optimizing smart systems. Positioning and sensitivity of sensors and cameras matters a lot. And warning systems work best when they are integrated. An access-control scanner merges with video surveillance to create a layer of double-authentication. Smart system design is part science, part art. So, you should carefully vet your chosen security provider and establish protocols for the array of possible events. Those up-front conversations with clients save a lot of time during uncertain and stressful events.
We do our small part to reduce the frequency of false alarms across our region: by collaborating with clients and educating the public. False alarms will likely continue to be a daily occurrence for some time, however. A small joke was going around our office while this blog post was in progress. Someone suggested we allocate the bulk of our alarm-response budget to the marketing column. Even with no danger present on site, false-alarm events still showcase the speed and dedication with which Western Canada Security’s response units spring into action.