Now that the nights are getting longer and more people’s thoughts turn to security, we look at alarms on the market
AS OCTOBER draws to a close, one of the few groups who will be pleased to see the winter gloom are the burglars who can use the extra hours of darkness to more efficiently go about their business.
And it is a business that is booming. As the recession tightens its grip, burglaries are becoming more commonplace and rose by 26.3 per cent in the third quarter, according to figures released by the Central Statistics Office earlier this week. There were 7,047 recorded burglaries, an increase of 1,492 over the same period in 2008. The number of aggravated burglaries rose from 63 to 95, an increase of 50.8 per cent. Year-on-year burglary offences rose 5.3 per cent.
A survey from Eircom PhoneWatch paints a bleaker picture. It shows burglary rates increasing by 32 per cent in the 12 months to June 2008, although a report expected out next month is likely to show the rate of increase slowing significantly.
Hibernian Aviva figures out last week also show crime levels increasing throughout the country but at a comparatively modest rate. According to its internal claims data, there has been a 3 per cent increase in breaking and entering claims this year. “The data reveals a real need for crime prevention among Ireland’s consumers,” Michael Brennan, Hibernian Aviva’s risk management expert says, stressing the need for people to have alarms.
While burglaries are increasing, the number of homeowners having alarm systems installed has tailed off in recent months.
“With money tight, people appear reluctant to spend money on having alarms fitted and that, coupled with the huge number of houses lying empty across the country, is having a negative impact on business,” one home security expert said this week.
Given the multiple factors which contribute to the cost of alarm installation: including the size and age of house, thickness of walls, number of entrances, number of windows and sophistication of system, it is impossible to say how much any one homeowner can expect to pay for an alarm, but security consultant Martin Stairs says home owners should not expect any change out of €750 for even the most basic of alarms in the smallest of houses. “What you’re getting for €500 won’t comply with the standards or will offer coverage which is absolutely minimal,” he says. “A lot of people have no problem spending thousands of euro on a plasma screen but don’t want to spend €1,000 on a good alarm system,” he says, pointing out that it is an offence to employ installers who are not licensed with the Private Security Authority. One of the more alarming findings of the PhoneWatch survey is that 80 per cent of burglaries happen when people are at home. But Stairs is sceptical of the statistic. “Burglaries happen as much when people are out as when they are at home,” he says.
“Burglars move with the times and if they know that people are using alarms when they are not in, they might be more likely to take a chance when people are at home but they tend to be opportunistic, petty thieves.”
He says CCTV-style cameras are becoming increasingly popular in even more modest homes. A couple of good quality cameras and a recording device can be picked up for €1,000 although people can spend a lot more than that on more extensive video surveillance systems.
One high-end system is supplied by Netwatch, set up by David Walsh seven years ago, which monitors houses and commercial premises as far away as South Africa and Arizona – as well as in Ireland and Britain – from its Carlow HQ, using the internet.
Rather than sound alarms or contacting the police, it gives intruders a personalised audio warning as soon as they are detected so burglars can expect to hear something along the lines of, “Hey, you, in the red coat, your movements are being monitored and the guards are on their way,” spoken by one of the 70 staff Netwatch has monitoring a bank of 40 computers.
Walsh says the company’s alarms have been triggered over 15,000 times in the last seven years “and we have never had a situation where an intruder has ignored the audio warning. We are preventing crimes as opposed to trying to solve them,” he claims. What South African criminals make of being shouted at by people with thick Carlow accents is anyone’s guess.
Such a system covering a 10-room house will costs in the region of €20,000 plus a €10 daily monitoring charge. It is, Walsh concedes, “not for your two-up two-down house” and his clients include politicians, musicians and English premiership footballers, all of whom he declines to identify. For people of more humble means, the choices are limited. At the bottom of the ladder are audible-only alarms which use a bell or siren to draw attention to the building. While they are of limited use, all things being equal, criminals are more likely to target a house without an alarm so they do have some intrinsic value, Stairs says.
Monitored systems, which send a signal to a central monitoring station which will contact the homeowner, a chosen keyholder or the gardaí are more effective. The best known is Eircom’s, which has 100,000 alarms installed across the country, giving it a 25 per cent market share.
PhoneWatch’s sales and marketing manager Jonathan Bunce says it is impossible to give a cost of installing the system as there are so many variables, “There is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ option and every home we install the system in has to go through a thorough survey.” Whatever about the installation cost the monthly monitoring charge is €25. Bunce accepts that during a recession “affordability is an issue”.
Auto-dial systems which contact home-owners and keyholders (but never the gardaí) via phone or text when activated can be installed for a lot less but Bunce questions their worth, as you might expect. “They might make the automated call to several people but how many of them are going to respond at three in the morning?”
How to secure your home
- Get several quotes and make sure your installer is licensed with the Private Security Authority (psa.gov.ie)
- If you are broken into, remember that home insurance policies only cover the cost of replacing stolen items up to a certain limit – they will not cover that (possibly fictitious) Picasso etching you claim was hanging in the livingroom unless you tell the company in advance that it's there. Nor will it cover the bundle of €50s you kept stuffed in your mattress because you feared a collapse in the banking sector.
- If you're going on holiday, don't tell the burglars by allowing mail to build up. An Post's MailMinder service suspends delivery for up to 12 weeks. It costs €30 for up to four weeks, €50 for four to eight weeks, and €75 for eight to 12 weeks.
- Ensure that outside doors have three-lever mortice deadlocks and patio doors have locks fitted top and bottom – otherwise proficient burglars will have no trouble lifting them off their tracks.
- Never leave house keys in the hallway – it's a rookie mistake and burglars will be able to steal them by simply sticking their hands through the letterbox or breaking small panes of glass in the front door.
- Don't leave heavy duty gardening tools and ladders in the back garden where they can be accessed/used by burglars.
- Try and keep the criminals at bay by using cheap plug timers to turn lights and radios on and off at logical intervals when you're away.
