What happens when an alarm system goes off?

A home alarm system is a great way to add an extra layer of protection for your home by ensuring someone is looking out for you round-the clock, but if you’ve never had an alarm system before, you may not be sure how it all works.

While the processes adopted by individual security companies may differ, at Calamity, we’ve developed a tried-and-tested process that ensures the most appropriate action will be taken depending on the issue at hand.

Our tried-and-tested process

Here’s what happens when an alarm system goes off at your property:

• We are immediately notified of the alarm 

When an alarm is triggered, our state of the art 24/7 monitoring centre immediately receives a signal to alert us to the issue. 

• We identify the type of issue

Our security experts identify the type of alarm that’s been triggered. This could be an intrusion alarm which had been triggered when a door has been breached or a window has been broken, motion detected inside the property, or a smoke alarm that has detected a possible fire or electrical fault.

If you also have a security camera system installed, we can also use these to assess whether a threat is genuine.

• We initiate a response based on your instructions

Our specially trained security experts initiate an immediate response in line with the type of alarm that has been triggered and the specific instructions you have provided.

You have complete control over how you want us to respond

Each homeowner may have different preferences about how they would like us to respond when an alarm is triggered at their property. That’s why when you first install an alarm system with us, we’ll help you develop a customised response plan which details how you would like our security experts to respond when an alarm is triggered at your property.

For example, you may specify that when an intrusion alarm is triggered that you would like us to immediately dispatch police or private security, however, some homeowners prefer us to attempt to contact them in the first instance to rule out any false alarms—the decision is entirely up to you.

We also ensure that the most appropriate response is taken depending on the individual circumstances. While we could dispatch police or private security to a burglary-type incident, we could also request assistance from the fire brigade or ambulance service in response to a property- or life-safety alarm detection.

If you’re not sure what the best response would be in certain situations, we can also provide our expert advice to help you determine the best course of action based on industry best-practice and our years of experience preventing crime and property damage and keeping people safe.

Want to know more about how we can protect your home? Contact Calamity for a personalised home security assessment.