wolfva
Join Date: May 2007
Posts: 96
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RE: June 2008 Patrol Response to False Burglar Alarms
I'd like to point out something about false alarms. Sometimes they're not false. Alarm systems are tools of deterence. They go off, the thief runs away, responding officers find nothing wrong and write it up as a false alarm.
Here's a story from my own experience. I'm the SecDir for a private country club; one year our tennis facility alarm kept going off. I tracked the problem to a specific fire exit door near the road. Most times that it went off, I'd find new pry marks on the door, chips in the paint corresponding to a 1/2 inch bladed screw driver, etc. Eventually I figured out that an employee was leaving that door ajar enough to pry open, but shut enough to set the alarm. He would stash merchandise near the door, come back and steal it. I figured it out when I saw him fleeing the area at a high rate of speed in his car with the headlights off. Guess what responding officers wrote each time? Yep, false alarm. Even though the alarm WASN'T false. But when he got there the suspect was gone so it was false.
Another incident I had involved same building, different door. I had just cleared the building, making sure all doors were locked and examining all doors for new scratches. The alarm went off 20 minutes later, I responded, and found a 3 foot section of the door flashing ripped from the frame as well as a bunch of new gouges. The responding officer, a rookie, insisted that it was just normal wear and tear and that I (being the stupid rentacop I am) just hadn't noticed. While we were debating the issue, the person who tried to break in apparently broke into the main building (which wasn't alarmed, it had guest rooms) and tried to crack the safe. When they showed up, I told the burglary detectives and forensics guys about the tennis building, and pointed out the large, beautiful handprint in the middle of the glass door. No prints were taken. Why? Because the rookie had written it up as a false alarm.
Another incident at a different site involved a coffee bean warehouse; the alarm went off, PD cleared the outer building and saw nothing amiss, wrote it up as a false alarm. The manager arrived in the morning and found someone had cut a hole in the roof with a chainsaw, waited for the cops to leave, popped open the back door and stole a couple dozen 100 lb sacks of coffee beans.
The moral of the story? The purpose of the alarm is to scare off intruders, NOT apprehend them. When clearing the outer area of a building, don't just look for the obvious, look for the sublime. Pressed down grass under a window showing someone had recently stood there, handprints on glass where they ordinarily wouldn't be, fresh scratches in paint, footprints in the fresh dew, etc. If you don't find anything and you have the time, pull off a little ways then just watch the building for a little while. You'll look good to your superverisor if you catch the thief coming out when the thinks the coast is clear. At least, you'll look better then you will when the property owner calls in the morning to report a burglary... And hey, if there is absolutely no evidence of a break in, THEN write up the business for a false alarm. Just be sure to CYA first.
Another moral is to LISTEN TO THE PEOPLE WHO KNOW THE SITE. Yeah yeah, I know. No one likes rentacops. Most of us aren't worth our weight in manure (I should know, I used to be an Ops manager). But some of us are. Odds are the Security Officer you see alertly doing his rounds, or who has already responded to the alarm and gives you a precise and consice update considering possible points of egress to his building, may just know what he's talking about. If you can, interact with the SOs on your beat; learn which ones know what they're doing. They can help you greatly in the performance of your own duties. Remember, YOU are reporting to a call. THEY are already there. And probably know a whole lot more about the site then you do. Heck, I'll even go so far as to say help out the decent SOs. I was very lucky when I started out in security, several Police Officers took me under thier wings and taught me skills I needed to be a good security officer. I'll be forever indebted to those Officers for the time they took helping me out, and sparking in me an abiding interest in learning everything I can about the job.
Last thing, ALWAYS respond to an alarm as if it's real. Even if it's the umpteenth time. Because sooner or later it WILL be real. And you don't want to be caught with your pants down.
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