Searching through a thread on the advantages and disadvantages of different, electronic security companies, I stumbled on a forum post by a law enforcement officer. He suggested Sonitrol based on his experience. This is what he said:
“At work we get tons of false alarms. Normally officers are not dispatched to alarm calls immediately.
Sonitrol is a bit different b/c they install microphones along with motion sensors. So when the sensor is tripped, the Sonitrol folks listen to see if they hear glass breaking, people talking, drill bits going or what have you. Then the Sonitrol people call the alarm in, and it gets dispatched right away.
Whenever dispatch mentions Sonitrol hearing something, everybody goes to those calls. The majority of the burglaries in progress in which we actually catch the burglar inside the location normally involves Sonitrol.”
When I saw that, skeptical as I am, I immediately thought it must be someone working at Sonitrol, posing as a law enforcement officer. I figured there’s no way a cop actually wrote such a glowing review of Sonitrol.
So I did some more digging.
Turns out, he’s real. He’s written over 350 posts on that forum. He likes fishing, quotes George Orwell on his page, and seems pretty knowledgeable when it comes to law enforcement issues.
Okay, so he was sincere in his praise for Sonitrol, and that’s some serious praise. So why?
Well, he told us:
“Sonitrol is a bit different because they install microphones along with motion sensors.”
That’s right. Those microphones installed with our systems are a proprietary benefit only we can offer. We try as much as possible to set up verified systems only. That way, we’re not calling the cops when they’re not needed, but we do when they are.
“Whenever dispatch mentions Sonitrol hearing something, everybody goes to those calls.”
It sounds like police officers know that they’ll likely find a legitimate reason for alarm when Sonitrol calls. While alarms from typical systems turn out to be false close to 98% of the time, that rate is down to under 10% for Sonitrol alarms.
We know this internally here at Sonitrol of Louisville, but it’s encouraging to hear that law officers recognize this as well.
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