NSW Operations

           

Why alarm monitoring?

There’s more to protecting your home than just buying an alarm system. Security experts recommend three lines of defense against burglary. The first of these is automatic lighting control that makes your home look occupied.

The next line of defense is a piercing siren and flashing lights that scare away burglars and attract attention to your home. Your security system does this also, alerting neighbours and making it easier for police to identify your home.

The third step in protecting your home is 24-hour monitoring for rapid emergency response. If your alarm goes off, you can’t rely upon neighbours to call police. That’s why a professionally monitored security system is so important. Only professional monitoring can guarantee that police will be alerted when an alarm is triggered, and only professional monitoring ensures that you will be notified in an emergency.

How does it work?
When an alarm is triggered, your security system automatically dials Contact Security’s central monitoring station and sends a digitally encoded message notifying the station of an alarm at your home. Contact Security’s 24-hour monitoring staff will then notify your local police that a possible break-in has occurred. After alerting authorities, Contact Security can call your office, a neighbour or family member, your pager or any number you specify when you sign up for service. Contact Security calls each of the contact numbers on your list so that you are notified of a possible emergency.

90% of police believe that monitored home security systems deter burglaries and increase the likelihood that burglars are caught.

Homes without security systems lose four times more personal property and are subject to more damage than homes protected by monitored security systems.

How can I test that monitoring is working?
In short, set off your alarm. Contact Security encourages periodic testing to make sure your system is working  properly. First, you should call Contact Security to let us know you will be testing (this way we won’t call the police if we don’t get through to you on the first try). Next, trigger an alarm by arming the system and opening a  protected door or window, or by simply pressing the panic button. Finally, have your password ready and let the alarm sound until Contact Security calls to make sure everything is OK.

What do I do if I accidentally set my alarm off?
The first thing to do is disarm the alarm. By doing this quickly, you may prevent the system from calling Contact Security at all. After the alarm is disarmed, wait a couple minutes to see if Contact Security calls. If we do, have your password ready to let us know the alarm was an accident. If Contact Security doesn’t call, you probably disarmed the system in time. Call Contact Security to check that this is the case. In either event, make sure you talk to Contact Security.

What happens when the alarm goes off?
How does Contact Security respond to alarms?
How long does it take for Contact Security to respond?
How long does it take for the police to get to my house?
When your alarm goes off, Contact Security’s Alarm Center goes into action. First your alarm is processed by our alarm-response computer system. Then, a Control room Officer takes control. With the standard instructions, our Control room Officer will call your home to make sure you are not there. Then the Control room Officer will call your local police or will call your Emergency Contacts, as per your agreement. The average time from when your system contacts Contact Security to when the Control room Officer calls your house is approximately 40 seconds. Police response to your home can vary; you should contact them for more information.

Who can Contact Security call when my alarm goes off?
When the monitoring is activated, do I have to have police called immediately?
Can Contact Security call my pager or mobile phone when my alarm goes off?
Contact Security service is designed to meet your needs. If your alarm is tripped, Contact Security can call any number you designate, no matter where the number goes. You can also tell us in what order you wish your Emergency Contacts to be called.