Any good home alarm companies out there? (Salt Lake City: house, buy)

[Hermosa]

Looking for a good home alarm installer, quality work, not someone like ADT, they don't know jack, they just sell a service. We will be out of town a lot this year, and with all the dirtbags in SLC, I just want the added protection. Thanks in advance.

[h_scott]

Like any company there are good and not so good technicians. I know that you're not looking for an endorsement of ADT - but I have been very happy with their Pulse system which was installed 2 1/2 years ago. It has many features and I use most of them - including auto and / or remote control of cameras, lights, thermostats, alerts and others. The system is very reliable. The house already had contacts installed on windows / doors so that wasn't needed. I suspect that they have special installers that are trained in this, their top of the line system. This may alleviate your concern - or it may not.
If you're in SLC proper it seems that whatever service you choose they will use a private security service for initial response before the police are dispatched.
PS. I don't work for ADT. Their service is not perfect - but I don't think any of them are. But I'm a fan of the Pulse hardware.

[irman]

Are you in the SLC area or in Lafayette, CA

If in the SLC area, check your Private message box/

[dcisive]

If you buy a ADT, Peak Alarm, Mountain Alarm or any other in Salt Lake City, just be aware they have a "Non Response" ordinance in place. In otherwords they are NOT going to come running if you're alarm goes off. You'll need a guard service to respond first and THEN they might respond when they have nothing better to do (which isn't likely till the following day). Many cities are adopting this ordinance because it is a statistical fact that 98% of alarms are false alarms and the police no longer have the resources to respond like you might wish. There are other cities along the Wasatch front looking at adopting these types of ordinances. It's a sad deal for the alarm owner but a reality with cut backs in budgets. I happen to work for a competitor to those other companies, although we generally are nearly 95% commercial and typically do the owners of the businesses we protect due to the cost. We are also the ONLY "Verified" system out there, meaning it is a system in which it is automatically verified as an actual event without the need to confirm the actual alarm is for real. Therefore law enforcement tends to honor and respond to our calls when the others go unanswered due to the fact they are NOT a verified system (as in they use motion detectors which are very unreliable). I know it is not allowed to give you links to either the company I work for nor the technology we use shown on our web site, so I'll just leave it at that. The jist of what I'm saying is the other alarm companies are not going to be able to supply a system that will either catch the burglar nor protect you from intrusion and loss. Just a reality. Don't listen to me, ask a cop. They will tell you the truth regarding this deal.

[mikealarm]

Originally Posted by dcisive

If you buy a ADT, Peak Alarm, Mountain Alarm or any other in Salt Lake City, just be aware they have a "Non Response" ordinance in place. In otherwords they are NOT going to come running if you're alarm goes off. You'll need a guard service to respond first and THEN they might respond when they have nothing better to do (which isn't likely till the following day). Many cities are adopting this ordinance because it is a statistical fact that 98% of alarms are false alarms and the police no longer have the resources to respond like you might wish. There are other cities along the Wasatch front looking at adopting these types of ordinances. It's a sad deal for the alarm owner but a reality with cut backs in budgets. I happen to work for a competitor to those other companies, although we generally are nearly 95% commercial and typically do the owners of the businesses we protect due to the cost. We are also the ONLY "Verified" system out there, meaning it is a system in which it is automatically verified as an actual event without the need to confirm the actual alarm is for real. Therefore law enforcement tends to honor and respond to our calls when the others go unanswered due to the fact they are NOT a verified system (as in they use motion detectors which are very unreliable). I know it is not allowed to give you links to either the company I work for nor the technology we use shown on our web site, so I'll just leave it at that. The jist of what I'm saying is the other alarm companies are not going to be able to supply a system that will either catch the burglar nor protect you from intrusion and loss. Just a reality. Don't listen to me, ask a cop. They will tell you the truth regarding this deal.

How can you verify that your system is a valid alarm? And by the way motion detectors are 99% of the time false alarm free.

[dcisive]

It's easy Mike, it's called research and statistics. Any law enforcement office will verify what I've said. It's not some well kept secret to say the least, if anything it is the bane of alarm companies out there. And how does Sonitrol verify their alarm you ask? Good question. We use "Sound" sensors which are calibrated carefully upon installation. That coupled with highly trained agents at our monitoring station which by the way is digital state of the art, and you have the methods by which you can easily discern between a book falling off a shelf, or someone trying to jimmy a lock or break a window or worse. We have the ONLY significant and noted apprehension rate in the entire country. Yeah, that's what it's ALL about....apprehensions, not noise makers going off. The police love us because they know when they get a call from us there is a very high probability they will be putting cuffs on someone and taking them OFF the street. And after all THAT is why one should have an alarm. To genuinely protect their property and keep criminals where they belong.

[mikealarm]

Originally Posted by dcisive

It's easy Mike, it's called research and statistics. Any law enforcement office will verify what I've said. It's not some well kept secret to say the least, if anything it is the bane of alarm companies out there. And how does Sonitrol verify their alarm you ask? Good question. We use "Sound" sensors which are calibrated carefully upon installation. That coupled with highly trained agents at our monitoring station which by the way is digital state of the art, and you have the methods by which you can easily discern between a book falling off a shelf, or someone trying to jimmy a lock or break a window or worse. We have the ONLY significant and noted apprehension rate in the entire country. Yeah, that's what it's ALL about....apprehensions, not noise makers going off. The police love us because they know when they get a call from us there is a very high probability they will be putting cuffs on someone and taking them OFF the street. And after all THAT is why one should have an alarm. To genuinely protect their property and keep criminals where they belong.

You are no diferent then any other alarm company in the country, lots of companies use sound detectors and also cameras to see who is on the premises,it is unbelievable that you think your company can catch a criminal better then anybody else.

[SouthernBelleInUtah]

OK, quit arguing with each other please.

[CCSLC]

My uncle and cousin are both cops in Salt Lake County (on different forces) and I asked them about what dcisive said. They agree that, during busy times, their departments initially tend to ignore the alarm companies' alerts and classify them as false alarms... but they said they ignore Sonitrol just as frequently as the others mentioned.

[h_scott]

When I signed up with ADT they let me know that they use a private security service to respond to alarms. I don't know how many of these companies there are in SLC but it is the alarm companies that contract with them and not the final consumer / resident.

At the end of the day most alarm systems are deterrents. As a consumer I don't have any industry statistics (which are referred to but conveniently unstated above) so I can't judge if any systems have a better average of actually capturing bad guys or not. But a good system will likely scare away many bad guys and discourage them from stealing from your home. I have one specific experience where my home was broken into while I was not there. The alarms went off, phone rang (central station calling) and police were dispatched. I know from my system that they were in and out of the house in less than three minutes with nothing taken! They left so fast they alluded the police. From my perspective the system paid for itself that night.

Moral of the story - understand what systems do and their limitations. Don't expect miracles.