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Need an Alarm System if You Have Exterior Cameras?

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Is an alarm system needed if you have exterior cameras?

Yes. You want to scare away an intruder...something to automatically call the cops or you...

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Ditto

 

Cameras at best will be seen and act as a deterrent, may help catch who took your valuables and trashed your home or worst case give you footage of those who can not be identified.

 

A tactfully installed alarm system as mentioned will scare them off, perhaps at the cost of a broken window or broken door / lock. With indications that there is an alarm system, "yard sign, keypads or motions visible when looking in through windows" most often will cause them to move on.

There are "smash and grabs" where they grab what they can until the sirens go off. Rare that they stick around for any length of time though.

 

In our area the average police / sheriff response once contacted by a monitoring system is 45 minutes. Two zones must be triggered before they will respond because of the high amount of false alarms due to equipment failure. An individual saying their neighbors alarm is going off and they see vehicles / people they do not recognize gets high priority / quick response from authorities.

As you can imagine factors like how near neighbors are and diligence in arming your alarm when leaving the home factors in how effective an alarm is.

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Best is an alarm system, cameras, AND signs warning of both.

 

Next add motion lights all around - use new outdoor LED lamps 90 watt equivalent "daylight color" is VERY bright but uses only 13 watts - low cost to run!

 

Next step up in security would be physical. Bars on windows and doors. Deadbolts on doors and commercial grade or high security door locksets. Metal doors and door jams which can't easily be pry bar forced open.

 

Next guard dogs in yard and/or armed guard.

 

The more crooks might be seen and the more difficult to break in, the more likely they will go elsewhere. They are lazy!

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I have a ademco system that I put in myself. Glass break sensors and sensors covering mostly everything. I use self monitoring with the abn adapter for next alarm. They also have modules for the vista so you could send a notification email to say your phone with your email to txt address. There are a few help forums on the net for programming your system along with youtube videos since the pro systems are not amateur friendly.

 

I want to know the moment someone breaches my home if I'm sleeping or at work. cctv is not really the best for that and imo a proper alarm system is vastly more important than cctv.

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Depends on the situation. In my vacation properties, I have indoor cameras with PIR motion detect with push video notification that alert me. I prefer to not alert the thief and call the local police that are more likely to apprehend the thief in the act. Around me, they respond very quickly if you tell them you have them on camera.

 

If you want to stop them in their tracks, there are fog systems you can trigger than will fill a large room with blinding fog in a few seconds. Now how great would it be to see the guy on camera, talk to him over the camera's 2-way audio. Tell him that if he doesn't leave at the count of 3, you will release poisoned gas. He will laugh until you reach 3 and poof. Me thinks he will hold his breath until he's completed out of the house, maybe longer....

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