Provident was featured in the New York Times last week in Paul Sullivan’s follow-up article about home security.

Sullivan’s original column sparked a fair amount of drama within the security industry… some reasonable, most of it… not so much. In that first article, he pointed out that the majority of alarms fail to deliver much ‘security’.

Slow, or non-existent, alarm response coupled with what could most politely be referred to as ‘poor service’ has served to paint the alarm industry with a fairly negative brush.

I wrote my thoughts on the article in my last blog post… pointing out that the faults that Sullivan listed are actually worse than he described (fortunately, they are also all solvable… most effectively through five minute proofing).

I ended up speaking with him later in the week for a follow-up story that was prompted by the flood of feedback that he received.

Sullivan divided the people from whom he received feedback from as following into one of three groups: Technologists, Pessimists and Pragmatists. Fortunately, I was considered one of the Pragmatists.

Here’s an excerpt of where Provident is mentioned… (click here to read the full article)

“Michael Jagger, the president of Provident Security in Vancouver, British Columbia, said his company had a different model to respond to alarms: it has 6,000 customers but they all live in particular neighborhoods that the company monitors closely. As soon as an alarm goes off, one of the company’s cars responds in under five minutes, charging $35 unless the homeowner reports a false alarm.

Even though his company can respond quickly, he said, he still instructed clients on how to secure their valuables until someone arrived. His “five-minute fixes” were often ingenious and would work to confound any crook.

He suggested putting a deadbolt lock on your master bedroom. However unsightly this may be, he said master bedrooms are the first place burglars go to look for jewelry and money. While they could still break down the door, the lock will slow them.

Similarly, he suggested people with alarms put poles in their sliding glass doors that are two inches too short. That way, when the burglar tries to force the door open, he will trip the alarm but still be stuck outside. (People without alarms might try putting a thick washer at the top of the slider to keep the crook from lifting it off the track.)

To keep your high-end plasma-screen televisions on the wall, Mr. Jagger said people should use a bicycle lock to attach the TV to the mounting bracket. Yes, the burglars may still rip the TV off the wall, lock and all, but it will take them a bit of time. The same goes for bolting down computers and safes. If they’re not fastened to the floor they are easy to take out.

“An alarm is not a deterrent in and of itself – despite what most other security companies will try to suggest,” Mr. Jagger said. “Because we know that we can get to your place within five minutes, you need to ensure that from the point at which your alarm trips and sends us a signal, it will take a burglar at least five minutes to get to what you are trying to protect.”

Provident’s response time may be unique to its neighborhood model. But the notion of delaying burglars with these simple solutions could reduce what they steal from anyone’s home.”

Provident was quoted in an article in USA Today about the increase in spending on home security for CEO’s.

Here’s an excerpt from the end of the article where we are mentioned…

The price we pay for security

Licensed security guards can be had for $20 an hour, and a typical home electronic security system sold by ADT costs $7,000 to $15,000. But McKinney says ADT installed a $300,000 system for the CEO of an unidentified NFL football team a few years ago, and Provident Security of Vancouver, Canada, recently completed two residential camera systems in the $250,000 range, says company President Michael Jagger.

Kirkpatrick says it’s not difficult to envision a $1 million personal-security price tag for a CEO who has a yacht and more than one home that need to be watched around the clock, and who wants a trained bodyguard, known in the industry as a “close protection specialist.” Most CEOs can walk down any street without being recognized, but some like their close protection specialists nearby and obvious, like the ones who guard movie stars.

For about $700,000, ADT says, it will install a perimeter command center inside a custom home. From there it can monitor long-range infrared cameras, fence detectors, motion sensors and provide visitor access. It would also detect fire, carbon monoxide and flood.

“Security is one of those things where you can always spend more,” says Jagger, who says a big-ticket item is the motion camera system that can detect someone lingering outside a fence for more than a few seconds.

my own addendum…

While it’s true that you can always spend more, it’s about determining what is the appropriate level of security and how best to achieve that. What’s appropriate in one case may be complete overkill in another. At Provident, we’ve been fortunate to have opportunities to work for clients at both ends of the spectrum… families who need just that basics to protect them from the typical residential burglary, up to individuals and families with specific security threats/risks who require 24/7 protection wherever they go… and everything in between.

You can read the full article on USA Today’s site by clicking here.

I’ll be a guest on CBC Radio’s Early Edition tomorrow (Thursday, August 27th) at 6:15am PST with Rick Cluff.

We’ll be talking about the recent story about a crook who tried to steal an ATM machine from a Chevron gas station using a stolen backhoe…

In addition to regular intrusion alarms in people’s homes and businesses, Provident provides monitoring for many other things like boats, servers, HVAC units, sump pumps, furnaces, ATM’s and many other random devices/objects.

Protecting an ATM is very similar to protecting your home… it’s all about five minute proofing.

If you’re up at 6:30am, tune into CBC Radio One at 690AM or, you can listen live here.

Click below to watch a short clip from the CTV News last night regarding an initiative by the Vancouver Public Space Network to count the number of surveillance cameras in Downtown Vancouver. According to the VPSN website, the purpose of the count is to “inform the public, and to discuss surveillance issues with city hall and the police. We will also use the maps to create an art installation sometime in the fall..”

I’m quite confident that whatever number that they end up with, it will still be much lower than the actual number.

The image quality of most new surveillance cameras is increasing almost as fast as equipment costs are coming down. As a result, the number of cameras in both public and private spaces will only increase. With or without the 2010 Olympics, there will be many more cameras in Vancouver by this time next year. The vast majority of them will be installed on private property, but will be viewing (at least partially) public spaces. I don’t see any reason why this trend will not continue.

the ‘privacy’ issue

In terms of the privacy concerns, I believe that the law is already pretty clear. You cannot film someone where they have a reasonable expectation of privacy. Therefore, no filming in washrooms, changing rooms, staffrooms or other similar places. Anyone who gets caught violating people’s privacy in that way can face some serious consequences. “Privacy” in a public space… like a sidewalk or storefront is a very different matter and hasn’t existed in a very long time.

The real question is how is all of this technology is being used… and, most importantly, is it offering any real value in preventing crime.

I’ve posted on this blog before about why the vast majority of CCTV installations do not provide a deterrent to crime. The reality is that most CCTV systems simply provide a really frustrating video recording of your stuff being stolen… which you’ll watch hours after the crime occurred.

In the CTV clip below, I demonstrate how using video analytics can help turn a ‘regular’ CCTV system into a much more effective crime prevention tool by analyzing suspicious behaviour. By doing so, the CCTV system stops being a passive recorder of activity and, instead, becomes a pro-active tool that alerts responders to criminal activity just as it’s starting… not simply providing a record of it hours after it’s over.

We use this technology for many of our residential and commercial clients. In the example shown in the CTV clip, the system is programmed to detect someone standing right up against our showroom windows. Anytime this happens, the system creates an alarm (in the same manner that a motion detector or glassbreak sensor would trip an alarm on the inside) and a signal is sent to our 24/7 Operations Centre where our team can immediately review the live video and determine if a response is required.

We have this technology set up on clients property to create alarms whenever someone climbs over a fence, in retail stores when someone is standing for too long in front of the door after-hours as well as in office towers to detect unusual activity in hallways when the building is supposed to be empty.

Without question, the technology allows us to offer a much higher level of security for our clients and eliminates the need for a human being to sit and watch hours of live video footage in the hopes of watching a crime transpire.

Of course, like most other technology, it’s all about the human response.

Unless someone is set-up to provide immediate response to what has been detected, it’s of little value. That’s where our guaranteed five minute response comes in. Video analytics can be a very important part of your overall security system… often, using analytics allows us to respond to an alarm while a crook is still thinking of breaking in rather than after he has already successfully gained access.

Provident was mentioned in a BIV article this week about finding opportunities in the economic downturn. Specifically, the article referenced that we are working to implement lean (aka Toyota Production System) strategies to help ensure that we are operating in the most efficient manner possible.

Here’s an excerpt…

Provident Security CEO Michael Jagger has also instituted strategies to ensure optimal inventory control.

Most of Jagger’s “millions” in revenue come from providing security guard services, but he also sells burglar alarms, cameras and other security products.

He recently re-evaluated all inventory and found that he had too many of some products. He has since recalculated how much of each he needs and implemented a system to identify when to order more.

Instead of going to seminars to reflect on how to spot looming trouble, Jagger decided to split the cost of hiring a consultant with two friends who he knew from the Entrepreneurs Organization.

Jagger teamed up with Nurse Next Door co-founder Ken Sim and Garibaldi Glass co-owner Chris Mobius to hire lean manufacturing expert Jo Suria.

Lean manufacturing abides by the philosophy that spending resources on goals other than creating value for the end customer is wasteful and worth eliminating.

It’s sometimes called Toyotaism, because Japanese carmaker Toyota Motor Corp. has made it an operating mantra.

Metro Vancouver companies such as Delta fireplace manufacturer FPI Fireplace Products International have long used lean manufacturing consultants to ensure optimal productivity.

Said Jagger: “We’re working to engage our team members to understand the philosophy behind this stuff.”

Click here to read the full article.

Click below to watch the clip from today’s Living Vancouver segment on CBC where I talk about how just about every residential burglary happens.

One of the key points of the clip is the fact that the value of a monitored alarm system can only be realized after you’ve already taken a number of simple physical security measures such as locking your gates, installing double sided locks and five minute proofing.

The mistake that a lot of people make is thinking that home security is as simple as finding the cheapest alarm provider they can find and assuming that that’ll be enough.

I was interviewed for a story about home security… and specifically about how to prevent becoming the victim of a burglary… for Living Vancouver on CBC.

The segment will air today on Channel 3 at 3:00pm… It will also be available on Living Vancouver’s website

Click here to listen to my recent interview with Christy Clark on CKNW. The interview opens up with Captain Gabe Roder of Vancouver Fire & Rescue Services… and then me at about the 5:05 mark.

Although Captain Roder talked about lockboxes (like the one pictured below)…

I strongly, strongly, strongly recommend against installing a lockbox. If you have one installed in your building now… take it out (or at least the keys inside of it). Lockboxes are very easy to compromise and put your entire building at risk.

During the interview, I was asked by a caller what happens during a power failure and we received a number of questions today at our office about what exactly I meant.

My response to the question of what happens when the power goes out if we are providing remote management service was that “all of the instructions for the system are stored onsite”… which some people thought meant that we leave a binder, or some sort of paper records, onsite which can be read in an emergency. This is not the case.

What I should have said was that… 1) Yes, the system will continue to operate during a power failure; and 2) Yes, we can still remotely connect and control the system remotely. All of our system programming is stored in the actual access control system hardware onsite… which means that although we can control the system remotely, the system is not relying on that connection in order to continue to operate. If required, the system can still be programmed locally… using remote management adds another layer of security (and convenience) to the system, without taking anything away.

Click on the icon below to listen to the show.

Provident was featured in this month’s Security Sales & Integration Magazine for our SAMMY award that we were awarded at the International Security Conference (ISC West) in Las Vegas back in April.

Provident was recognized for having the best website in the security industry…

Provident was one of only seven companies recognized in this year’s SAMMY awards which are open to every security company in North America. Provident, along with Securtek, were the only two Canadian firms awarded SAMMY’s this year.