Welcome to Security Response Center

False Alarm Reduction Measures

The Security Response Center recognizes that false alarm dispatches must be reduced and, if possible, eliminated.

As a result, we employ many advanced features which help us to achieve this goal. One feature that has proven invaluable in reducing false dispatches is known as a "cancel" signal that is sent from the alarm panel when the alarm system is disarmed after an alarm has occurred. If this cancel signal is received within a few seconds of the alarm, our monitoring station operator will not take any action on the signal. Your customers are encouraged to call our monitoring station, identify themselves, and cancel the alarm signal. Please note that the "cancel" signal does not work on fire alarms, so if the fire detection equipment is accidentally activated, we must be called to cancel the fire department dispatch. With many new call management features, we may not be able to reach your customers by telephone, so they must call us to cancel any false alarm activation.

User Responsibility

As an owner of a security alarm system, your customers assume a number of responsibilities related to having the best protection available. User caused false alarms continue to be the most serious problem the security alarm industry faces. When you complete your installation, you should provide your customers with user instructions. You should make yourself available to your customers if they need any further instructions. As owners, they should never give anyone a key to their door without proper alarm system instruction and an acceptable form of identification. It is your customers' responsibility to periodically test the security alarm system to ensure that it is in proper operating order. Also by testing the system, they will be reeducating themselves on what to do in the event of an accidental alarm activation. Before testing the system, they must notify our monitoring center, identify themselves, and let us know they will be testing the system. When done testing, they should call again and verify that signals were received from the test. If any renovations are done, your customers should contact you before completion so that you may verify that the alarm system has not been damaged and that there is still adequate and sufficient protection.

Alarm Verification

In the event that an alarm signal is receive at our monitoring station, our operators will attempt to "verify that an emergency condition" does not exist. The primary method of verification is a telephone call to the premises where we will need to obtain the name and the identification of the person answering the telephone and advising that everything is alright. Of course, if we are calling the premises, it is essential that we have a telephone number that will ring and be answered. While this may sound pretty basic, please remember that many business people will not answer their telephone before they open for business. So if there is a special number used for receiving after hours calls, your customers should let us know that number. Also, with the new custom calling features being offered by telephone companies, many times customers will forward their business calls to their home phone or to a voice mail system. Also, every staff member who may answer the telephone should be identified with a Personal Identification Number.

Responding to an Alarm

On occasion, your customers or one of their keyholders may be asked to respond to an alarm condition. It is recommended that if the police are not in attendance when they arrive, they should check with the police or with our monitoring station. Please understand that the police may not remain at the premises if there is no external or visual indication of an intrusion. Remember that an intruder may enter through a door and re-lock it again or they may have gained entry through the roof. Your customers are encouraged to maintain contact with our monitoring station. After they have responded to an alarm, they should call us back and advise what they found and the cause of the alarm, if known. False alarms don't "just happen." There is always a reason for the alarm being tripped.

Supervised Arming and Disarming

For some of our commercial and industrial customers, we provide a service where each day, our alarm monitoring station tracks the arming and disarming from the alarm system to ensure an employee has not forgotten to arm the system when protection was needed. An enhanced form of this service actually tracks the arming and disarming of the security alarm system according to a schedule provided to us. If your customers have subscribed to such a service, they should be aware that it is their responsibility to telephone our alarm monitoring station, in advance, to advise if they will be "out of schedule."

Cleaning Staff

If your customers employ the services of an outside cleaning staff, they should ensure that the cleaners are trained in the operation of the alarm system, and that they are aware of the obligation to advise our alarm monitoring station of out of schedule activities. We have found that some of our customers frequently change cleaning staffs and, as a result, the potential exists for excessive false alarms.

Police False Alarm Programs

Many police services have instituted false alarm reduction programs and with recent Ontario government changes in funding, some police services charge for alarm system registration and/or alarm responses. Other police services will respond to a limited number of false alarm calls and then they refuse to respond until either a deposit is paid for future response cost or a specified "penalty period" of no response is served. There are about as many various procedures and policies as there are police services. In addition, these programs change constantly and as a result, we are unable to provide specific details in this document. Should you require further information concerning the police false alarm policy in your area, please contact our customer care representative.

Smoke Detectors

If your customers system includes smoke detectors, they should clean them periodically in accordance with the manufacturer's recommendations. In the event that the smoke detector is activated, it is important for your customers to ensure that an emergency condition does not exist. Once they are sure there is no emergency, they should call our alarm monitoring station to advise that there is no need for the fire department.

Telephone System Changes

Commercial or industrial customers should let us know as soon as possible if they are making any changes to their telephone systems or equipment. Many business customers are changing their telephone systems so that there is a need to dial "9" before making an outside telephone call. Of course, unless we are able to update our equipment at the same time, the alarm service may be in jeopardy. In many cases, we can make the required changes directly from our alarm monitoring center without need for a service visit. Your customers can call us at any time should they have any questions about potential telephone problems.

Familiarization Period

When a new security alarm system is installed, the owners are naturally unfamiliar with the operation. Since our goal is to do everything we can to prevent false alarms, we encourage that new systems be put "on test" for seven days before we provide full police or fire notification of alarms. This seven day test period will give new users an opportunity to become fully familiar with the proper operation of their new security system - and in the unlikely event of a defective piece of equipment - we will have an opportunity to identify and correct it before it contributes to a false alarm.

Animals and Alarms Don't Mix

The family pet may become a problem with a security system in a home. On many occasions we have investigated a false alarm only to find that the customer has a new family pet that has activated the alarm while the system was armed. If it is required that the pets be confined to certain spaces, your customers should continue that practice each time they arm the system.

Hanging Signs

Hanging signs, balloons, and posters can move about and, perhaps, cause a false alarm. If signs or balloons must be hung, they should be out of the detection range of the motion detectors. Posters should be securely mounted so they can't fall during the night. From our experience, cello tape or masking tape will simply become unstuck and a poster or sign can fall, thus causing a false alarm.