Traditional burglar alarms have lost much of their value as a tool for loss control, but video alarms are taking their place. Police response to burglar alarms is degrading and in many cases police departments have stopped responding to traditional alarms unless they are verified.
Millions of traditional alarm systems have created an enormous problem, wasting shrinking police resources on millions of false alarms. It is a big concern that has the attention of national law enforcement leadership.
International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) president, Chief Craig Steckler specifically addressed false alarms as a key issue in his inaugural address of October, 2012, "According to studies, last year there were more than 38 million false alarm calls in the United States. In many agencies alarm calls were the number one call for service, and statistically, these calls often account for nearly ten percent of all the calls for service the agency handles on an annual basis. Additionally, every study of the issue continually finds that 95 to 99 per cent of all alarms are false." Chief Steckler bluntly states, "We must take a critical look and unbiased look at false burglar alarms, and determine whether in the new norm, this type of call (police responding to alarms) is truly a prudent use of severely limited resources."
Chief Steckler is not exaggerating. Police consider traditional burglar alarms an enormous waste of resources. Officers no longer make arrests, and alarm companies focus on selling deterrence instead of apprehensions. From the police perspective, many simply no longer care.
The situation has degraded to the point that many major cities like Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, San Jose, and Milwaukee stopped responding to traditional burglar alarms altogether. This trend is gathering momentum. The public/private partnership of the police/alarm company/insurance industry has atrophied, and neither the police nor underwriters find effective loss control in traditional burglar alarms.
In contrast, this video underscores the value that law enforcement places on video verified alarms to combat property crime. The president of the National Sheriffs Association describes Priority Response and how effective they are at delivering arrests. There are many actual video clips of real burglaries in the video itself.
Response Differentials
Video verified alarms are an increasingly important evolution to combat property crime. They continue to deliver priority police response and lead to arrests. The reason is the video verified alarms mean that police respond faster to the alarm, making arrests and reducing claims.
The "response differential" between a traditional alarm and a video verified alarm is significant. The following chart illustrates the differences in different sample cities across the USA: large and small, east and west, north and south. The key issue is that video verified alarms deliver police response faster, around 15 minutes faster in many jurisdictions. Those 15 minutes makes a big difference in reducing claims for property crime.
| Jurisdiction | Video Alarm | Traditional | Differential |
| Boston, MA | 7:38 | 21:00 | 13:22 |
| Charlotte, NC | 5:10 | 13:30 | 8:20 |
| Chula Vista, CA | 5:05 | 19:18 | 14:13 |
| Watertown, MA | 4:00 | 23:00 | 19:00 |
| Fairfax County, VA | 6:00 | 18:02 | 12:02 |
| Salinas, CA | 2:54 | 39:25 | 36:19 |
| Amarillo, TX | 10:06 | 19:24 | 9:18 |
Real Examples Of Alarm/Police Interaction
Perhaps the most effective way to illustrate the value of video verified alarms is to show 4 actual examples of real events with different outcomes based upon the alarm and jurisdiction. This is what the alarm business really looks like from the police side of things. Two of these examples lead to arrests. Insurers must realize the importance of central station dispatchers using video to become virtual eyewitnesses to a crime in progress.
All of the examples are not positive. In the final alarm, the 911 call taker says to the central station operator: "This doesn't meet our criteria for response," meaning that the municipality won't respond to the alarm without the video verification. The central station operator sounds a bit stunned on the phone. But this is the scenario that is happening increasingly around the country. This last example is what insurers are trying to avoid by promoting video verified alarms to their policy holders.
Now What?
We need a strong public/private partnership to combat property crime. Underwriters must answer the question, "How can we encourage policyholders to use video alarms and police response to reduce losses?"
One answer would be to join the Partnership for Priority Video Alarm Response (PPVAR), a nonprofit public/private partnership based in St. Paul, Minnesota. The organization brings together alarms companies, insurers, and law enforcement to promote Priority Response and Video Alarms to reduce property crime and insurance losses. The PPVAR board of directors includes law enforcement, alarm companies and the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) that is supported by 1,100 property/casualty insurance companies.
To further strengthen leadership from the insurance industry, the PPVAR recently added Verisk Crime Analytics Vice President Anthony Canale to its board of directors. There are now two strong insurance organizations to help build the partnership with law enforcement and the alarm companies. Verisk owns and operates national crime databases that provide services to the construction, retail, transportation, manufacturing and insurance industries.
"Our involvement with the PPVAR fits with the mission of Verisk Crime Analytics to use data and analytical tools to support public safety operations and to help our clients reduce the impact of crime," said Canale.
As the successes grow, the PPVAR is expanding its membership in the insurance industry — individual insurance companies joining the partnership and embracing the message. The PPVAR welcomes additional insurance companies and associations to work with us to help use video alarms to reduce claims and losses.
