The alarm the police will not attend

How we work

Certification, and the duties CCTV creates

Police response to an intruder alarm is widely assumed and rarely checked. Forces issue a Unique Reference Number, and attend, only where the system was installed and is maintained by a company certificated to the relevant standard by an approved inspectorate. An uncertificated installation produces noise, a phone alert and no attendance — and the customer usually does not discover that until an activation.

Maintenance protects the same thing. Repeated false activations lead to a URN being withdrawn, so the useful work after a false alarm is finding what caused it rather than resetting the panel. A pet, a draught, a detector reaching the end of its life — each is fixable and each, left alone, eventually costs the response.

CCTV carries a different kind of consequence. Recording identifiable people makes the owner a data controller with duties on signage, retention, subject access and cameras overlooking neighbours or the street. A system can be designed so those duties are manageable, or designed so they are impossible — and that decision is made at survey, not afterwards.