We’ll have a wine & cheese reception before hand and then start promptly at 7:00pm. Afterwards, we’ll lead a tour through our 24/7 Operations Centre for anyone interested in seeing what happens behind the scenes when an alarm trips.
Our seminars always fill up … RSVP today to ensure that we’ve got a space for you on the 20th.
Here’s a clip from a recent seminar discusses ‘Five-Minute Proofing’ and why it is the most important home security tactic…
Here are a few of the comments that we have received about past seminars…
“The presentation was interesting, flowed, Mike clearly demonstrated expertise…there was a substantial emphasis on basic security.”
“[as a result of attending the seminar] I have a far better understanding of how one protects their home and that really it starts with the homeowners.”
” getting even more confidence in Provident”
“I particularly liked reiteration of the information about how to delay a burglar for 5 minutes. The tour of the operations facility was very interesting and confidence building”.
“I felt at ease. Information was useful.”
“I found it interesting and informative and I’m sure others would as well …. whether they have a system or not. It helps to stay current with crime trends and security options.”
“with all the home security advertising, I think it can be somewhat confusing for people and your session helped to clear up some issues.”
As is the case in every industry, their will always be shady operators, but it’s frustrating when some of the biggest players, who are in a position to lead in a positive manner, do things that only add to the mistrust and bad reputation that the security industry has.
Case in point: Broadview Security (formerly Brinks Home Security) television commercials. They are ridiculous.
Being ridiculous wouldn’t be so bad if the message they’re selling wasn’t so serious. In my opinion, their new commercials represent the worst kind of fear-based marketing. More importantly, the ads are very misleading. The vast, vast majority of alarms simply do not work the way they are portrayed in the commercials (and certainly none of the $99.00 systems work that way).
Click below to watch the first ad, called “The Ex”…
Unfortunately, many people do not know how the alarm industry actually works… let alone what happens when an alarm trips. Rather than perpetuating false stereotypes about alarm systems, Broadview Security is doing the entire alarm industry a disservice with these reprehensible advertisements. As a Security company owner, these ads are simply embarrassing to watch. As an average consumer who doesn’t know how alarm monitoring service works, they could be very dangerous.
Beyond simply being offensive in general, here are a few specific reasons why this commercial should be pulled:
1. When the angry ex-boyfriend kicks in the door, the alarm instantly sounds.
Given that the woman had just armed the alarm less than a second before, the exit delay would have still been counting down.
The ‘exit delay’ is the time between when you arm the alarm, and the time that it actually ‘sets’. This delay is in place to allow you to arm your alarm and then get out of your home & lock your door without creating a false alarm every time.
The ‘exit delay’ can be customized, but in most cases it’s set for between 45 and 60 seconds.
With the way that almost every single alarm system that I have ever encountered in my career, if the scenario played out in the commercial happened in real-life, there likely would have been about 30 seconds left in the ‘countdown’ before the alarm was actually set… let alone triggered.
As a result, in the commercial when the ex-boyfriend broke in, the alarm would still have been counting down & no alarm would be tripped until the countdown was finished and the alarm was actually armed. Even then, most alarms are configured to send what’s called an ‘Entry/Exit’ alarm which treats alarms created within a very short time of the system being armed differently than an alarm that is tripped hours later.
Either way, with or without an exit delay time, the alarm simply doesn’t work that fast.
2. Once the alarm gets triggered the phone starts ringing immediately.
In fact, before the woman even has a chance to make it halfway up the stairs, the phone inside the house is ringing and it’s Broadview Security on the line wanting to know if everything is ok.
Once an alarm is tripped, it will still take AT LEAST 30 seconds for the alarm signal to be sent to the central monitoring station using the telephone line. The alarm needs this time to seize the phone line, dial the long distance number for the central monitoring station, connect with the receivers there and then transmit the alarm data. This process, using a telephone line, takes at least 30 seconds. Once the alarm signal is received, it will take more time for the signal to be presented to an operator who will then make a call back to the premises.
In addition, the alarm uses the telephone line to communicate with the central station. For as long as the signal is being sent, usually at least 30 seconds, the phone line is not available to call in or out.
Unless the woman in the commercial has two telephone lines, she won’t be able to use the phone right away… either to receive a phone or make her own emergency call to 911 because the alarm system will be using the line to send the alarm signals.
The bottom line is that alarms simply do not work this way. A properly designed alarm can be a very important part of your overall security plan, but it is not a cure-all solution. A $99.00 (or any) alarm will not save you from a stalker who is motivated and committed to breaking into your home.
While it is certainly possible to speed up how fast an alarm can send a signal (for example, by using BLINK monitoring) or minimizing the risk of dead phone lines by having a dedicated line for your alarm, none of these options are available for anything close to $99.00
This commercial is akin to seeing a car advertisement for a beautiful new car with every conceivable option (plus a couple that don’t exist at all) for an incredibly low price. But when you go to the dealership to pick up that new car you bought based on the ad you saw, you’re given an old bicycle with a flat tire and cracked frame. When you complain that the bike looks and operates a lot differently than that car in the commercial, you’re told that everything you saw on TV is actually not included in the pricing that was mentioned. Car companies aren’t allowed to do that. In fact, in every car ad I’ve seen the small print on the screen makes it clear that they are showing a specific model with specific options. Why doesn’t the security industry point out that the images you see have little or no relevance to the price that is advertised?
If you have a specific security threat/risk, like the character in the commercial, a $99.00 alarm is not going to do anything for you other than cost you money. To suggest that it will provide protection against a motivated criminal who is targeting you is irresponsible and simply wrong. Broadview Security knows this… they’re just hoping that most North Americans won’t.
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In the spirit of belaboring the point just a little longer, it’s not like this is the only commercial that Broadview/Brinks has run like this. Far from it, in fact, it’s more of a specific formula that they use in most of their ads in order to terrify people into shelling out $99.00 plus a monthly monitoring fee.
Here’s a selection of some of their other TV spots vying for the ‘Most Offensive’ title:
This one is called ‘Backyard’ and shows a mother with her daughter going in for lunch… and instant arming the second that they do. Like “The Ex” the bad-guy breaks in a second after they’ve gotten into the house but takes off as soon as he hears the alarm sound. Broadview makes the magically quick call to assure the woman that they’ll get right on to calling someone else to help.
Or this one, called “Wrong Door”. Not sure why the burglar would spend so long trying the door knob, I suppose just for dramatic effect…
Or this one, called ‘Treadmill’ where the alarm scares off the two burglars (dressed like they just got off of a set where they were playing burglars in a movie) who again are targeting a woman, alone in her home at night…
Or this beauty, that shows the same bad-guy, all dressed in black who sees the family inside and then decides to smash out a large window with a crowbar before running off at the sound of the alarm…
Here’s another black leather jacket clad burglar smashing a window while a young mother and her kids are alone at home…
This one is called “montage”… and plays like the trailer for a really bad horror movie…
If this is what one of the largest, and most successful alarm companies puts out, it’s no wonder that so many others in the industry figure it’s ok to mislead people.
Here are a few links to other posts that I’ve written that fit in with this topic…
Here are the heat maps for Vancouver for the weeks of August 26th through September 1st, and September 2nd through 9th, 2009 that show where reported residential burglaries occurred.
First off is August 26th to September 1st… which had 59 reported residential burglaries:
Next is September 2nd through 9th… where 61 residential burglaries were reported to the VPD…
These numbers average out to about 8.5 residential burglaries per day in the city. That’s been pretty consistent for all of August… about 60 home broken into each week. When you factor in that most burglaries happen between Monday and Friday, between 11am and 4:00pm (rather than evenly spread over a 24 hour period)… the real “average” gets closer to 12 per day.
These maps help show that residential burglary is not concentrated heavily in any one neighbourhood. Crooks pick on homes in every neighbourhood throughout the city. When a spike is seen in any particular neighbourhood, it is typically the work of a single burglar working one place for a few days before moving to another area in the city.
By the end of the year, if you take all of these heat maps from throughout the year and superimpose them on one another, there are not too many ‘burglar free’ spaces. Here’s what 2007 looked like…
So… the bad news is that burglary is (and will continue to be) a major concern in Vancouver. The good news is that it really isn’t that hard to minimize your risk of becoming a victim. It’s not expensive either. In fact, most of the security tactics that have the most impact are either free or at least very cheap.
One of the best ways to learn about how to maximize your home security is to attend one of our ‘Preventing Burglary’ seminars. Our next one is on Tuesday, September 22nd at 6:45pm. Click here to RSVP.
Would you like to get updates about the crime that is happening in your neighbourhood (if you live in Vancouver)?
We send out a newsletter every couple of months that includes burglary statistics that are broken out by neighbourhood, and customized to where you live. If you’d like to subscribe, please visit our website at www.providentsecurity.ca and add your email address in the ‘Subscribe to our Newsletter’ box on the right hand side. (We promise not to send you anything other than the newsletter.)
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.
Fox 12 in Portland reported a story today about a pair of burglars who Police believe may be posing as door-to-door Window Salesmen.
The video clip of the story implies that the impostors never got inside of the victim’s home, but a couple of days after their visit, a Portland homeowner had his safe targeted in a burglary.
Irrespective of who actually committed the burglary, the notable part of the story was the fact that the victim was keeping $13,000.00 cash in a safe that he had bolted down in his master bedroom closet.
Here’s an excerpt from the story…
On Tuesday, Lee said he found his home trashed. Thieves stole rare coins, jewelry and $13,000 from his safe. Lee said the burglars broke in through a door and used tools from his garage to break into his safe.
“I had it bolted to the floor,” he said. “Evidently, it wasn’t as safe as I thought it was.”
Of course, the most fundamental lesson is that you should not keep large amounts of cash in your home… put it in the bank. If you decide that you want to keep cash at home, by all means, put it in a safe and bolt it down. But, if you do not have a monitored alarm that will alert responders that someone is trying to get at your safe… they can take as much time as it takes to remove it.
The time that it takes to remove a safe is a lot less than most people think. Safes, even really, really heavy safes, are only difficult to move around when you are trying to be careful not to damage the walls (or anything else). If you don’t care about making a mess or breaking anything, moving a safe isn’t that hard. Just ask Lindsay Lohan.
Relying on a safe, just like relying on an alarm, often provides a false sense of security. Your security is in your redundancy. It’s all about putting multiple steps/tactics/measures in place.
If you have a safe, but do not have it monitored, you might want to think about how important the things that you have inside of it are. You might be better off spreading your valuables all over your home rather than keeping them all together in one easily movable box.
SIDE NOTE: In the video, the reporter mentions that the homeowner thinks that the impostors were looking for “window burglar alarm tape” on the windows. That’s fairly unlikely given that foil is rarely part of an alarm system that has been installed in the past 25 years.
If they were looking at the windows, it’s much more likely that they were simply looking through them in order to see if there was anything of obvious value that was easily reachable inside.
If they were savvy enough to look for alarm equipment, they would have simply cut the telephone lines.
Police in Marlton, New Jersey are looking for five suspects that broke into an Apple Store and made off with a few dozen Macbooks.
Click below to watch a news clip showing the brazen smash & grab that took just 31 seconds for the thieves to clean the store out of almost every display model.
Although the store had a Security Guard on duty, the crooks were able to smash the front glass doors and each took an ‘aisle’ in the store to grab every MacBook on display. Apparently, one of the crooks motioned to the Guard that he had a gun… forcing the Guard to back-off and not try to intervene at all.
As pointed out by the (incredibly annoying) reporter in the newsstory, the CCTV system in the store did not offer any deterrent value as the thieves simply covered their faces while they were in sight of the cameras.
1. You cannot make it physically impossible for someone to break in
If someone wants to try and break into your home or business, there is very little that you can do to make it physically impossible. If they want in, they’ll get in eventually. The trick is to put appropriate security measures in place that help make it easy for a potential burglar to make a decision not to bother with your place.
If you have a full-time security guard, extensive camera system or a big dog in your house, if a crook decides that he wants to try to get in anyways… he will. It’s the combination of the appropriate security measures that provide real security.
Your goal is to create enough perceived hassle for a crook that they make up their own mind that your store, or home, is not worth the effort.
2. Five-Minute Proofing is the most important security tactic
Five-Minute Proofing is the single most effective security tactic that you can implement in your home or business. Simply put, Five-Minute Proofing means that you ensure that, from the point at which the alarm is tripped, it would take a crook at least five minutes to get to what you are trying to protect.
In the case of this particular Apple Store, the store should have been equipped with glassbreak detectors near the front doors. More importantly, the glass panels themselves should have been laminated glass… or at least had security film on them, so that they wouldn’t smash so easily.
That way, when the crooks made their first attempt to smash the glass, the glassbreak detectors (if they were installed correctly) would hear the sound of the glass being attacked and trip the alarm. Alternatively, the camera system could have been set-up to trip an alarm due to someone standing at the front door for too long after-hours.
By designing the alarm to trip while the crooks are still outside, the Police could have been immediately called by the Security Guard to report what was happening and the alarm monitoring company would also be immediately able to assist. If the alarm monitoring company were monitoring the camera system, they could also relay the suspects exact descriptions, in real time, to the Police.
Beyond the front glass, there should be a second layer of physical security inside the store to help slow the crooks down. Expanding gates are often used for this purpose and are best installed several feet away from the front of the store. That way, if the crooks were able to eventually break through the glass to get in the store, they would then need to contend with getting around the expanding gates. Your security is in your redundancy.
Going a step further, each of the MacBooks could easily be locked down… not to make them impossible to steal, but ensuring that noone could simply grab a couple dozen of them in half a minute.
It’s not about making it physically impossible to get in… it’s about putting enough impediments into a potential crooks’ way that he is (or they are) unable to get to your valuables quickly.
If those three (the alarm, laminated glass and an expanding gate) Five Minute Proofing measures had been in place in this particular Apple Store, both the Security Guard and Alarm Monitoring company would have had a reasonable chance to call 911 and report a crime in progress.
The store would have had a damaged front door, but they would not have risked the safety of the security guard or had to worry about five crooks who learned how easy it is to break into their store and clean them out.
Click the video below to watch an excerpt from a recent ‘Preventing Burglary’ seminar where I explain Five Minute Proofing and give a few other examples.
We’ll have a wine & cheese reception before hand and then start promptly at 7:00pm. Afterwards, we’ll lead a tour through our 24/7 Operations Centre for anyone interested in seeing what happens behind the scenes when an alarm trips.
Our seminars always fill up … RSVP today to ensure that we’ve got a space for you on the 22nd.
Here’s a clip from a recent seminar discusses ‘Five-Minute Proofing’ and why it is the most important home security tactic…
Click below to watch a clip of a residential burglary in Atlanta that happened on Friday evening. The homewowner has posted on the clips on YouTube in an effort to help Police identify the suspects.
The the way this burglary happens is incredibly common. In fact, the video is almost identical to the M.O. used by burglars in Southlands from CCTV footage we published on this blog last year (I’ve re-posted that video below as well).
In both videos, one of the crooks calmly walks up to the front door and rings the doorbell a few times. If anyone had answered, the crook would have likely made up an excuse for being on the property (like being lost, looking for an address, looking for someone who doesn’t live there, etc.) and then left. This is why it is so important to ALWAYS ANSWER THE DOOR.
Once the house is confirmed to be empty, the crook goes back to get his accomplices and then kick the door down.
The fact that most residential burglaries, throughout North America, happen in an almost identical manner makes it easier to protect yourself.
Below the two burglary videos, I’ve added a clip from Realty TV where I describe exactly how a typical residential break-in happens and what you can do about it.
The most important tactic is to Five Minute Proof your most valuable belongings.
Here’s the Atlanta burglary footage from last week…
Here’s the Southlands burglary footage…
Here’s the clip from RealtyTV where I explain how you can protect yourself from becoming a victim…
The Telegraph ran a story today about a recent report commissioned by UK Insurer Legal & General that suggests that the use of social media sites, particularly Twitter and Facebook, could increase the risk of burglary.
Of specific concern in the report is the fact that of the 2,000 social media users polled for the report, two-fifths of them admitted to posting specific details about their holiday plans or times away from home.
Michael Fraser, who stars in a BBC program called Beat the Burglar, is a former burglar himself and had this to say in the Telegraph article:
“They gain confidence by learning more about them, what they are likely to own and when they are likely to be out of the house.
“I call it ‘internet shopping for burglars’. It is incredibly easy to use social networking sites to target people, and then scope out more information on their actual home using other internet sites like Google Street View, all from the comfort of the sofa.”
Of course, if a burglar wanted to see if you were actually home or not, they could just knock on the door.
If you have a monitored alarm with immediate response… you’re in pretty good shape.
In my experience, most crooks are not very industrious. If they were, they’d have a job. Most are drug addicts who are motivated by the need to score their next ‘hit’… which doesn’t leave a lot of time for planning out the perfect crime.
Instead, most burglars follow a very similar pattern… they will walk down a block, picking out homes that appear to be empty. Next, they will knock on the door to see if anyone is home. If there is no answer, they break in through the front door, go straight to the master bedroom, empty out the bedside table drawers and then into the closet.
Almost every burglar is looking for cash and things (like jewelry) that can be quickly turned into cash. It’s almost textbook. (You can read more about how the typical residential burglary happens by clicking here).
The Telegraph article goes on to explain why the Insurers say they are concerned about social media use:
“Our research shows that 41 per cent of people are divulging personal and private information to complete strangers on Facebook, such as their date of birth, where they worked, where they lived and what they were doing,” he said. “People are boasting about how they are having a fantastic time on a beach in Mexico on a webpage that has their home address.
“Criminals who put together the jigsaw can use it for identity theft or burglary. It is just as dangerous as leaving your windows or doors open at home.”
The report also found that almost half were unconcerned about social networking security. In an experiment, 100 friend requests were issued to random stranger. Nine out of 10 Twitter users accepted the stranger as a friend, with more than one in 10 Facebook users.
While posting that kind of specific information certainly won’t increase your security, it’s a long ways away from posing the same kind of risk as leaving your doors or windows open.
People should be cautious… but not paranoid.
Here’s the quote from the article that makes the most sense to me…
Privacy groups however have said insurance companies will simply use social networking sites to increase premiums.
Simon Davies, director of Privacy International, told The Daily Mail: “This is a disgraceful attempt to leverage yet more from customers.”
Is it a good idea to let the whole world know the specifics of your vacation plans on Twitter? Definitely not. Does it create enough of a new risk to warrant an Insurance premium increase? I don’t think so.
Home security is mostly common sense… it’s the really basic stuff that ends up having the most impact. It’s not so much about trying to imagine what you would do if you were a burglar, it’s about understanding how burglary actually happens in reality.
Ensuring that you remember to arm your alarm, five-minute proof your most valuable possessions and ensure that you’ve got someone to pick up your papers & mail while you’re away will ensure that you’re protected against the vast majority of would-be burglars… with or without a Facebook or Twitter profile.
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.
Our next Preventing Burglary seminar will be held on Tuesday, October 20th at 6:45pm in our Kerrisdale Showroom.
