With security systems ever increasing in technology it is now possible for you to have a system where your property is guarded by an alarm with a siren and even have CCTV cameras watching the property and when movement triggers the sensor the image is transmitted to a receiving centre. The different companies have different policies on when to contact the police and key holders, these rules they must adhere to as the police don’t want to feel as if they have been called out un-necessarily as it is a waste of their time if there is no intruder. Some of the different types of systems that have the link to these receiving centres are:

• Visual systems that have the CCTV cameras in place around the property and once the sensor is triggered they can watch the intruder whilst contacting the police and the owner of the property.
• Siren systems work by sounding a siren when the system detects an intruder and this sends a signal to the centre, it firstly sends an unconfirmed alarm, when this happens the police will not be informed. However, if a second boundary is broken the police will be informed straight away and they will then inform the key holder of the fact the alarm has been sounded, they will do this when the first signal has been sent so the key holder can go and reset the alarm.
• Some systems now have verbal warning systems to the intruder so when the alarm has been sounded and alerted the receiving centre there are speakers that they can issue warnings through live to the place of incident. Once they are aware of there being an intruder they can inform the police as soon as they know. This is thought to be one of the most successful systems as it not only enables the police to get straight to the scene but is also more likely to scare off intruders as it has an actual voice rather than just a siren sounding.
• There are some companies that can offer a premium service because some of the companies that have monitoring stations rely on the phone line sending the signal to their station and if the phone line was to be cut the signal would not reach the station, meaning they would not be alerted of your alarm sounding. The companies that offer the premium service have the ability to monitor your phone lines ensuring they have not been tampered with, if your phone line is cut or tampered with in any way they will alert you of this.

Before getting a contract for your company or home with one of these companies make sure you know exactly what service the company offers, obviously the higher the standard of service the more expensive it becomes so make sure you do some research online, or even your insurance company may be able to advise you on a company.