Burglary Alarm Company Sued by Murder Victim's Family

Will this ever happen, or has it happened to the CCTV trade?

http://www6.lexisnexis.com/publisher/EndUser?Action=UserDisplayFullDocument&orgId=563&topicId=13742&docId=l:655306258

Time to recheck the liability insurance.

I dont see them winning that case, and if they do, its a serious problem.

Surely there will be alarm logs to prove it the alarm was active, and the correct zones enabled at the time?

If it was active, and it failed to alert the lines had been cut (do those alarms do that?), then it failed to pick up the broken glass via glass sensor, then all the internal motion sensors failed, I would see why the owner is justifiable peeved off at ADT.....

Some alarm panels allow you to set phone line tamper, we rarely use it down here though since the phone company has their own issues, and it means constant signals to the CMS, same goes with low batter restores.

Anyway, if they cut the phone line, and there was a back up to that, it would be a radio system which would send the data to the CMS. Now that the home owner's phone line is down, there is no way for the CMS to alert the home owner of anything. They could call the cops or a security service and have them goto the location, but by that time the home owner could be dead.

In this case it did not mention anything about radio backup, only that some form of backup was supposed to alert the home owner. I imagine they meant tying in the phone line tamper to the siren, but this is also not mentioned, and its not a backup per say.

As to Glass Break Detectors, unless they have the sensors tested occasionally, there is no guarantee that they are working. That would need to be an additional service and it was not mentioned either. They have Glass Break Detector testers just for that.

Another thing to note that we are not told whether the system is wireless. In this case its possible that the CMS had low battery signals and alerted the home owners, and the home owners never had the batteries replaced - this is common due to the expense of both the battery itself, and the service for those that dont want to do it themselves; which is the majority of home owners (at least down here).

Bottom line is noone should depend on an alarm system, or any other security system, to ultimately protect their life. An alarm system is essentially designed to make an alarm sound when there is an incident, but that will greatly depend on what alarm devices are installed. What happens then is up to the home owner, or if they are lucky, the cops.

Personally I live with Iron bars on my windows and doors, but even that is only a deterrent and may slow them down. That along with weapons, alarm, and cameras, are all just tools that will help, but do not guarantee anything at all.

Put the blame where it rests, on the criminal that killed the victim.

I do find it interesting that no siren was sounding, noting that the man sleeping with the gun was not woke up. If the phone wire was cut, this would not effect the siren.

I suspect the criminal has access to the house, such as child visitation, or something to this effect. While having some access to the house I think he disabled the system in some way. Is it possible that he pulled the Xfmr out of the socket? What is the trouble report time frame? Every 24 hour?

Then again if the panel was set up right, then the power failure should have created a local alert, and a transmitted aler.

Things that make you go HMMMMMM!

He could have disabled the siren also .. outdoor one would be simple .. if he took time to disable the phone line, he might have even got in then disabled the alarm .. plug and battery and its dead, normally have a delay on the entrance and depends where they installed the alarm .. if its just motions he could duck under them in many cases, body temperature in relation to the room temperature effects their probability of working. Glass breaks probably just didnt work .. heck they may have even installed different type of glass since they were installed - plastic / hurricane proof wont shatter or make the same sound as regular glass. Maybe all they had were glass breaks, which is useless IMO.

Or maybe the alarm wasnt even armed! :(

Man there are many variables .. maybe they just didnt install and test it properly from day one .. lots of lick and stick installers over there in the USA .. especially the big companies.

If it was not alarmed, or it was tampered with then thats not the alarms companies fault. If it was not installed correctly, then they should compensate, their max of 500 dollars liability in the contract is laughable.
But on the other hand, the owners of the alarm presumably did read and sign that contract, so may not have much of a leg to stand on, unless the judge finds the contract term unfair/unenforceable.

After all if you took your car to a garage to have the brakes fixed, and you were told they were, and went out and died after the breaks failed again, its likely the garage would be in deep trouble... An alarm system not working at all (if that is the case, as said it could have been tampered with or not on) due to bad workmanship on install is something that the company should be liable for, in a fair world that is, but the world isnt fair usually.

Forensic examination. looking at the alarm logs, examining the alarm system will easily show if the alarm was tampered with, set, or plain just badly installed....

2 different things all together .. Lets put it this way, the car cant stop without brakes, in other words the car is useless; however the people can live without an alarm. The alarm system wont stop a criminal, if anything it is only a deterrent. I would like to know what they expected to happen if it was working that way, I dont think the cops are that fast, and also, the victim had a loaded shot gun next to his bed, seems he was expecting something to happen perhaps?

They are looking for somewhere to vent their frustration, bottom line is it probably could have been prevented, and that has nothing to do with the alarm system. Also, it seems the victims family are not the ones suing, just the girlfriend .. sounds fishy to me.

Rory, I think you meant to say "sister".

true that .. my bad .. poor writing on the journalists side of it .,. confused me there for a minute .. so both of them are dead .. didnt catch that. :(

Still, she is probably just looking for someone to blame .. venting frustration. The person that killed them is the one she should be suing. Also, the judge or court that let him free from the last crime he did. Maybe even his parents, or high school teacher .. see where Im going .. :D