Can a burglar alarm system actually prevent your home from being burgled? That’s the question we’ll answer in this video.

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An nteresting question I was asked the other day is, does a burglar alarm actually prevent a burglary?

The simple answer to that question is no, it doesn’t, it can’t do, there’s no physical barrier with an alarm system. It doesn’t lock your doors or your windows, it doesn’t prevent them from opening.

So you might ask, what’s the point of actually having a burglar alarm? Well, the point of having an alarm system is twofold.

Firstly, it lets you know when there’s a problem, so you can take action accordingly. Originally systems just had the siren or the bell that went off but these days you may have a monitored system, so when it goes off, the monitoring centre calls you and says your alarm’s gone off. Alternatively, you may have a self-monitored alarm system where you either have a smartphone app or the system phones you on your mobile and lets you know that there’s a problem. So that’s part one. It lets you know when there’s a problem and then you can phone the police or pop home and see what the problem is.

And the second point of having an alarm system is it provides a massive deterrent. There was a survey a little while back of convicted, burglars in prison, and 81% of them said that they’re put off burgling a house by the presence of an alarm system.

Burglars aren’t specifically after your house. They can get what they’re looking for in virtually every house. They’re after cash, cards, they’re after phones, iPads, tablets, games consoles, small electrical tech items that they can sell easily, which they can get in every house. So there’s no kind of truth in the myth that having an alarm system advertises to a burglar that you’ve got something worth stealing. No, it doesn’t. Every house has got something worth stealing.

So if you are a burglar and you’ve got a choice of burgling two houses, one with a window open and a burglar arm system, and one with a window open and without a burglar alarm system, which are you going to do? Every self-respecting burglar is going to go for the one without the alarm system.

Now, it could be that if you’ve got an alarm system and you’ve left a window open and next door hasn’t got an alarm system, but hasn’t left a window open, then you’re leaving yourself at risk clearly. But with all things being equal, a burglar alarm system is a huge deterrent and it is well worth having one.