Long Island's got burglaries, Honeywell has solution

Talk about serendipitous product placement—Ron Rothman, president of Honeywell Security Group, was featured in Newsday this week, talking about Honeywell's new Tuxedo Touch, a security/automation product for homes that can also be used by businesses. And the article on him just happened to appear in the newspaper on the same day Newsday's cover story was on the rising number of burglaries at homes and businesses on Long Island.

“Of course, this is technology that can help address the rising number of burglaries,” noted David Gottlieb, Honeywell's global marketing communications leader, in Honeywell's new blog, called The Security Channel.

Both Honeywell Security Group and Newsday are based in Melville, N.Y. Rothman was profiled on Monday, Feb. 20, in a regular business feature in the paper titled “Executive Suite.” He's pictured holding a Tuxedo Touch monitor and answering such questions as this:

What are some new developments at your company? ?We just released our new Tuxedo Touch, a home controller with a color touch-screen display, which controls the security system, thermostats, lighting controls, window shades, locks and other devices. Also, the systems have the ability to send you a video clip of an activity that occurs when you are not home -- so you might have a package being delivered, a child coming home from school, your elderly parent going into the kitchen -- the camera will capture and send you a 10-second clip.

And on the cover of the same paper is an article about a dramatic increase in burglaries on Long Island. Newsday said that police cite a number of reasons—including the relatively warm winter this year:

Officials blame the burglary uptick on a variety of factors, from desperate junkies craving money for opiate painkillers to the high price of precious metals. And the weather. Last year's snow and cold might have kept prospective burglars inside, [Nassau police Chief Steven] Skrynecki said.

"At this time last year," he said, "we were under snow from almost the beginning of the year through February."