Ending the Era of False Alarms

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False alarms plague the security industry. According to the Urban Institute, 90-99% of all security alarm calls received by police are false. The ASU Center for Problem-Oriented Policing says the chances of alarm notifications indicating a real threat are only 2-6%.

Not only are false alarms a nuisance that can cause customers to lose faith in their security systems, most are also subjected to false alarm fees from their local municipalities. Cities that adopt false alarm reduction plans, which include fees and verification procedures, experience a 60% reduction in false alarms.

False alarms also waste police resources. When law enforcement responds to a false alarm, it takes time away from actual threats and investigations. Some cities have considered or adopted a verified response policy, in which they only respond to alarm events that have been verified as real threats. In previous decades, this required a video monitoring service — someone who is watching the video feeds to confirm an intruder is visible on the scene. This can be costly, requiring additional operators and equipment. Reducing false alarms is a high priority for law enforcement and security providers, but determining the most effective ways to do so were challenging, until recently.

The Evolution of Video Verification
Video monitoring is a service that monitoring centers can offer to ensure customers that their premises are always being observed. However, to provide these services, monitoring centers need to have operators viewing the video 24/7. Setting this up can be complicated and operators must juggle several different kinds of software. While video cameras record evidence of what happened, it comes at a cost — generating days and days of video to comb through when a security event occurs.

Video monitoring allows for visual evidence to be considered, but does little to reduce false notifications. Cameras with basic motion detection start recording when motion happens in their field of view. At this point, a video verification operator can view the recording and verifywhether there's a security concern. However, motion detection could be set off by wind blowing leaves or shadows, or even a stray balloon — requiring the operator to analyze whether the recording necessitates a dispatch. The development of video analytics is bringing more precision to this process.

New video technology uses analytics to detect events and help cameras identify what is showing up in their field of view. Current capabilities include detecting people, vehicles, animals, and consider factors like time spent loitering and the direction of travel. This eliminates nuisance notifications by differentiating between important and non-important motion activity. The incorporation of AI and machine learning has led to better accuracy and more detailed differentiation, such as facial recognition. As video analytics evolve, they are increasingly seen as a way to reduce false alarms.

AlarmVision®
Taking this evolution to the next level is AlarmVision, a patent-pending detection technology from DMP that enables video analytics integration with the control panel. This truly integrated system allows cameras to talk to the panel natively. When a security event occurs, all information from the system and the cameras is sent to the monitoring center and to the end user. AlarmVision turns existing cameras into smart motion detectors with the addition of one, easy-to-use XV Gateway. XV Gateways with AlarmVision bring analytics to any IP camera system, turning those simple cameras into powerful alarm detection devices.

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