Being the victim of burglary is a hugely traumatic experience and installing a burglar alarm is one of the best ways to guard against this.
One of the questions we are commonly asked at Central FS when installing our market leading alarm systems is whether the police will come to the property if the alarm goes off.
The answer to this question is that police response to home security alarms depends on a number of factors, so we have put together this simple guide to give you all the information you need about the reaction of the police to burglar alarm activation.
Are the police automatically notified by my alarm?
Not directly. Home alarm systems in the UK cannot be directly connected to the police as it would be impossible for them to effectively respond to every activation across the country.
This does not mean that the police will not respond as a result of your alarm being activated, however.
Alarms that are connected to our 24/7 alarm receiving centres will be automatically checked by our expert team of security professionals who will conduct a series of checks to confirm the source of the alarm activation.
Upon notification, we will contact the alarm owner or another resident to determine if there has been a false alarm or if further action needs to be taken.
If someone in the property confirms the presence of an intruder, if a second detection trigger is received should the property be empty, we will then notify the police of the situation and they will respond.
Which Security Companies Can Alert the Police?
Access to police control rooms is extremely limited, and only highly accredited security companies are able to pass alarm activation information directly to the police and ensure a fast response to emergency situations.
Only security companies such as Central FS, who are an NSI approved accredited SSAIB intruder alarm supplier are able to do this, so it is important that you always check this before choosing a security company to install your burglar alarm.
What does a police response involve?
There are multiple different police response levels that determine the action the police will take if they are notified that a burglar alarm has been activated.
These responses are classified into 3 different levels depending on the judged severity of the situation.
These tiers are:
Level 1 – Immediate Response
This is the highest tier of police alarm response possible and is only accessible to SSAIB accredited companies and not members of the general public.
As this response is only for alarm activations confirmed by a professional alarm response centre the police will assume that a dangerous ongoing situation is occurring on the property in question and react in kind.
Level 2 – Immediate response, resource permitting
Now only offered by a very limited number of constabularies, level 2 response involved prioritising ARC alerts over other incidents but only if there were sufficient resources in place at the time
Level 3 – No Police attendance except if crime witnessed
Level 3 alarm notifications will only be responded to by the police should a member of the public call them to say that they have actually witnessed an offence taking place.
What Decides the Police Response Level?
As mentioned, only a highly accredited company ARC is able to trigger a Level 1 police response, but even this is no guarantee.
If the police receive 3 call outs within a 12-month period to a single property that turn out to be false alarms, the monitored alarm system on that property will be downgraded to Level 3.
Its status will only be restored after a 3 month period if sufficient technological upgrades have been made to guard against false activations.
For this reason, it is vital that you use a respected alarm provider such as Central FS who not only use the latest equipment and top of the range AI technology to avoid false alarms but whose ARC is manned by expert security professionals who will be able to make correct under pressure decisions as to whether the police need to be deployed based on the information available.
Are the Police always required?
No! If you use the keyholding services of a professional security service provider such as Central FS trained security guards will usually be able to tackle any alerts without the need for police assistance.
If our team attends the site and finds an ongoing incident taking place, at that point they will call the police and alert the ARC to the situation.
Get In Touch
For more information on burglar alarm Glasgow response, or to learn more about any of the bespoke security solutions that we offer here at Central FS, call us today on 0141 530 1244, or get in touch via email at info@centralfs.co.uk.