Burglar alarms helping surveillance industry

[jisaac 0]

i can say the name just not where.

I understand that most of these are not HIGHEST quality. but would you look at the image and say they are cheap? Just by looking at the image.

And you are right that different boards and different components cost more. But to the end user they could care less if your components and board cost more as long as the image is good. Right? If I could push pelco and panasonic on the general public I would. But 99 out of 100 wont buy it. Thats where you go to something more affordable that still puts out a good image. Thats where this comes in.

[Jasper 0]

I agree.

 

99 out of 100 people probably don't care about the highest quality because very few are willing to pay for it.

 

Most people want something that produces a clear image and doesn't cost them what they call an "Arm and a Leg", which translates to anything above $100. or less with the really cheap people.

[rory 0]

me, ill take a $50 color camera and a light bulb any day .. alls I can afford

[Jasper 0]

I hope that is your cost and not retail.

[jisaac 0]

when cheap people call and say they want to know how much it would be for a system they mean cameras. They act suprised when you bring up the recorder. And then do not want to pay for labor also. They see think ,"ok a camera is probably 100 or so". So if i get 8 then thats 800 dollars." Those people i just hang up on.

[Jasper 0]

Lets face it the majority of people don't have a clue how much this stuff costs. Unless of course they are like the many people who want everything at your cost and you to install everything for free.

 

There is always going to be the "Something for Nothing" crowd. It's just the way it is.

 

We are so off topic I think we are going to get a ticket.

[rory 0]

Yeah down here, its even worse, they want that price but then they dont realise its x 3 once its landed, plus we have to make a couple dollars profit and also something to warranty it .. warranty includes more shipping to send it back and have it shipped back again in the case it fails .. and shipping is expensive .. so the mark up on "cheaper" products down here are much more than that on higher quality products ... but they all can fail so the mark up is alot either way. Alot of them see those web sites I wont mention names, and think that is the end user price ... at that point i say sure, buy it yourself, but labour goes up x 3 and good luck with the warranty

 

Jasper, thats retail BTW

 

Anyway, thats why I can sell them a cheap alarm system for much less than a cheap CCTV system, or any CCTV system ... and the alarm system is easier and quicker to install, especially since they are wireless ...

 

Darnit, I got suckered into puttin a single BW bullet camera in for a client tomorrow .. basically after gas and traffic im almost doing it for free ... never again

[Jasper 0]

Well you got to get out of the house sometimes to give your eyes a rest from staring at the computer screen all day.

 

Plus the muggers feel like you are not giving them an equal opportunity to rob you. Just kidding, don't want anything to happen to you.

[CSG 0]

An alarm system tells you when and where you are being broken into the moment it happens. A video system is after the fact, and it still doesn't tell you who did it. (Or some guy with a hooded sweatshirt, or ballcap & sunglasses).

 

At my house the police response is 5 minutes. If I accidentally set off my alarm I sit out on the front stairs because that's how fast they come. I have clients where the burglar alarm went off and the police caught the guy in the act.

 

I dispute the notion of 98% false alarms, because they are not false alarms when in fact the system functioned properly but detected someone other than a burglar.

 

Police departments like to throw out that number when they try to calculate how much it is costing them. But they don't take into account how many more patrol cars & detectives they would need if there were no alarm systems at all, and burglars could enter any building undetected.

 

If folks don't think burglar alarms work, then why do most local, state, & government buildings have them (like FBI field offices, and DOD.)

 

 

 

That the infectiveness of them helps our industry alot. Because most of the time the person is never caught. Because what is an alarm going to tell you besides the fact that you had been broken into? If the suspect is gone. You have no video. Pretty much they were able to tell you that you were broken into. You would have figured that out. When we had to go through the NBFAA certification the guy that heads the Arkansas BFAA said and I quote, "the national average is not measured in minutes its measured in hours. We are allowed to call the police once an hour. And we will call 3 times to ensure they have responded".

Thats real assuring. You might say that that is the polices fault for the response time. Well if the alarm industry did not have a 98% false alarm rating they would respond faster. What other industry can you think of that you can fail 98% of the time and still be in business?

[Soundy 1]

An alarm system tells you when and where you are being broken into the moment it happens. A video system is after the fact, and it still doesn't tell you who did it. (Or some guy with a hooded sweatshirt, or ballcap & sunglasses).

 

That's true... but on the other hand, it doesn't require a lot of intelligence to be a criminal, and they'll do some pretty stupid things. Example: I was asked to try to enhance a perp's face as he was filmed walking away from a vehicle break-in in an underground parking structure with an armload of stuff. He had a cap on and kept his head down so his face was not visible... BUT!

 

Looking at the other cameras from the structure, I found an angle of him riding a bike in through the stuck-open security gate... then on the next camera caught him riding up under that camera, circling around once... and then LOOKING STRAIGHT UP INTO THE CAMERA. Got a STELLAR facial ID! From there he rode off toward the third camera, which captured him walking around the far side the vehicle (it was obvious from his clothing and the timestamp that it was the same person), then walking back with his ill-gotten booty.

 

The client was happy... the investigating cop loved it! I never did hear if they caught the guy, but the cop said the perp was well-known to them.

 

I dispute the notion of 98% false alarms, because they are not false alarms when in fact the system functioned properly but detected someone other than a burglar.

 

Well the stupid thing is, most people consider it a "false alarm" if the police get there and there are no perps around and nothing has been stolen... well if someone is trying to get in, sets off the alarm, and then bolts, isn't that the alarm doing its job?

 

We had one city councillor here (Vancouver, BC) a few years ago, one of these crusty NIMBY me-me-me types, who was trying to have car alarms banned from his district, using the old "they don't do any good, they're all false alarms" bugaboo. When he was guest on a radio talk show, cops and insurance spokesmen all stated that car alarms work to reduce theft, that they are proven effective... but he refused to believe them. Caller after caller detailed how their vehicles had been broken into numerous times, and then never again since they'd got an alarm... and still he kept up his diatribe, insisting that these anecdotes were just anomalies and that alarms really were completely ineffective since they were almost all falses.

 

If nothing else, an alarm draws peoples' attention - whether they're concerned about someone being broken into, or just pissed off at the noise, they ARE more likely to notice... and the last thing a thief wants is to have attention drawn to himself.

[Jasper 0]

Shoot

 

I thought you were going to tell us his car was stolen while he was doing the radio show.

[securitymonster 0]

Shoot

 

I thought you were going to tell us his car was stolen while he was doing the radio show.

 

or at least broken into

[Soundy 1]

Shoot

 

I thought you were going to tell us his car was stolen while he was doing the radio show.

 

or at least broken into

 

That woulda been priceless

[securitymonster 0]

you should have hired somebody....

 

[Jasper 0]

Is that the sticker you put on the equipment you sell

 

Looks pretty good actually.

[securitymonster 0]

Is that the sticker you put on the equipment you sell

 

Looks pretty good actually.

 

No, but I'll sell you some if you'd like.......