Have you considered cameras, video, or a new alarm to protect what you value most? Sonitrol’s video and audio verification technology sets us apart from your typical alarm company, making us a leader in the security industry. Using verified intrusion methods, with live audio and video, our 24/7 monitoring team can determine if someone is attempting to break-in to your property. This innovative process ensures fewer false alarm dispatches, faster police response times, and allows our operators to provide critical details to responding law enforcement in real time, helping them catch more would-be intruders. Currently, Sonitrol’s documented apprehension record is 181,000 and counting. To learn more about our state-of-the art video and audio alarm offerings, contact us for a free security assessment of your facility at (800) 444-1191.
Fire Prevention Week
It is National Fire Prevention Week, and it is important to discuss fire prevention measures and safety tips with your loved ones, friends, and co-workers.
Here are some safety tips to consider:
- Install smoke alarms throughout your home and business, test them once a month, and if they are not working, replace the batteries. An early warning from a regularly tested smoke alarm can save lives.
- Have a plan. Talk with your family, especially younger kids, about what to do if a smoke alarm goes off. Make sure you each know at least one or two ways to escape from every room in your home in the event of a fire. Do practice fire drills, and know where to meet up outside, for example, the mailbox. Have escape plans at your place of work, too. Practice getting out in less than two minutes.
- In the event of a fire, “Get out, and stay out.” Only professional firefighters should enter a building that is on fire. Don’t go back inside.
- Have a monitored fire system that will dispatch the fire department. Sonitrol’s fire detection integrates with all of our products and services for your home or business. Just like our alarm monitoring services, our Central Station team monitors smoke and heat detectors, sprinkler systems and pull stations. Our operators can differentiate between an intrusion alarm and a fire signal and will immediately dispatch the necessary emergency personnel to your facility or home. Our professional service team will install, maintain, and inspect your system regularly. Call us today for a free assessment at (800) 444-1191.
Celebrate our 50th Anniversary with us!
Fifty years ago, in 1969, our founder, Dr. William Standring, “Doc”, opened Sonitrol of Evansville to help police reduce false alarms and to increase criminal apprehensions. Since then, our location has played an essential role in achieving Sonitrol corporate’s apprehension rate of over 180,140 criminals and counting. What began as one man’s vision of helping police catch criminals has grown into a trusted family of people who value each other, their clients, and their community. We couldn’t have achieved this milestone without the continued support of our customers, fire department, and law enforcement officers alike, which is why we’d like to invite you all to celebrate with us.
We would love to see you on Friday, September 13, 2019 between 11a.m.-2p.m. for our 50thAnniversary Open House. In addition to serving delicious barbecue and sides from our local favorite, Miller’s BBQ Catering, we will be giving tours of our Central Station, the heart of Sonitrol, where our operators work 24 hours a day to monitor our customers’ verified alarms. With the Central Station tour, you will find out how operators listen to live audio feed to determine whether or not to dispatch police. Join us for free barbecue, take a tour of our operation, and celebrate with us. We are excited for the next fifty years to come!
You’re invited!
When: Friday, September 13, 2019
Time: 11a.m.-2p.m.
Where: Sonitrol of Evansville
208 NW Third Street
Evansville, IN 47708
Call us with any questions: (800) 444-1191 or email: info@sonitrolev.com
The Three a.m. Wake-up Call
It’s three a.m. You are sound asleep, dreaming about that beach vacation you’re planning. Your toes are in the sand, the waves are gently lapping against the shore, when all of a sudden, an earthquake hits! Wait, it’s not an earthquake. It’s your cellphone buzzing across your nightstand. Why is my phone ringing at three a.m.? I was having the best dream!
No one wants to get that call. If you are a Sonitrol customer, you could be on the receiving end of one of those calls from our Central Station operators. Why? Has there been a break-in at your business? Maybe not. Often times, it’s not your usual suspect. A criminal hasn’t triggered the alarm at your facility. The culprit? An unsecured door, blown open by a summer storm or a gust of wind. Yep. A door.
But doors are great, right? They help protect the people who should be there and keep the noise, weather, unauthorized people, and zombies out. And with a Sonitrol security system at your business or residence, you’ve really added protection to your property, valuables, and loved ones. We’ve installed door contacts so that when your system is armed and a door is opened, our monitoring team will dispatch police.
How do the door contacts work?
A door contact has two components. First, there is the switch part that is attached to the doorframe. It can be wirelessly powered with a battery or wired directly to the security panel. The second part of the contact is a magnet. The two components need to meet up when the door is closed to let the control panel know that the door is shut. The standard allowable gap between the contact and magnet before it goes into alarm is ¾ of an inch. Once the magnet is farther than ¾ of an inch, the alarm point is considered open, and if the system is armed, our operators will be notified.
So how could a door cause a false alarm?
Sometimes, buildings settle, doors become misaligned, screws in hinges become loose, and doors and doorframes swell and shrink with changing seasons. It may sound as unlikely as a zombie knocking down your door, but it’s a common cause of false alarms.
So, what can you do?
- Make sure all of your doors close properly. Can you pull the door open without turning the doorknob? Is there play in the door? When you pull on the handle, is it tight? Or does it wiggle and move?
- Check the door hinges. The hinges should be checked to make sure screws have not loosened and the strike plate on the frame is installed properly and not damaged. Make sure the latch on the door is contacting the strike plate on the doorframe.
- Check the door contact on occasion. Over time, the contact and the magnet can become misaligned or components can become damaged. Are both components of the door contact mounted properly and meeting when the door is closed?
Checking to make sure your doors are closed and secure and fixing older doors will help ensure that your building is protected when you arm the security system. It can increase police safety, too. Police safety? You bet. Avoiding these false alarms keeps our police from rushing across town when it isn’t necessary. On a windy night, or when a summer storm might be rolling in, that extra few minutes to check your doors could help make sure you enjoy those beach vacation dreams and don’t get a three a.m. wake-up call!
Protect your business day or night!
Often times, when people think of business security systems, they only consider how an alarm will protect their location after hours. But let’s look at how a verified alarm system, specifically, Sonitrol’s TotalGuard™ alarm, can offer your company, or even your school, protection during your daytime business hours.
You may be wondering…What is TotalGuard™? This is an ALL-IN-ONE intrusion detection solution that includes impact-activated audio, glass break analytics, motion detection and video verification. The TotalGuard™ system has wireless connectivity and complete volumetric intrusion detection. Once armed, which can be done via your Sonitrol Mobile app, the alarm works around the clock to protect your business.
So how can it help you during daytime business hours when it isn’t even armed? When a TotalGuard™ alarm is paired with our unique panic button, our Central Station operators will have instant access to live video and audio feed the moment you press your panic button. A variety of business settings might have need for this sort of set-up, such as gas stations, banks, fast food restaurants, and convenience stores. Here are a few scenarios where this could benefit your company during regular business hours:
- Unruly individuals. From customers losing tempers to belligerent individuals acting aggressively to your cashier or staff at a gas station or small business shop, in the security business, we’ve seen it all. Sometimes, employees find themselves in a situation that has intensified in an instant, and for the safety of customers and themselves, they need the police there right away. Once they press the panic button, our Central Station operators will see live video and hear live audio feed from the TotalGuard™ system, while simultaneously dispatching police. Our team will give the police details as to what is happening in your business.
- Active threats. Gas stations, fast food restaurants, convenience stores, jewelry stores, pawn shops, and banks jump to mind as potential targets for hold-ups or active threats. While we hope it never happens, being prepared with a TotalGuard™ alarm and panic button could save lives by providing responding law enforcement with critical information. In the terrible event of a hold-up, a bank teller, for example, can press the panic button and instantly activate our TotalGuard™ camera to allow our operators to relay real time information with live video and audio feed to police as they race to the scene.
- School threats. By adding a TotalGuard™ camera and panic button to your school office, your front desk staff can alert us the moment something goes wrong, with the press of a button. The instant your school panic button is pressed our Central Station operators will notify police while seeing, recording, and sharing real-time details with law enforcement. This extra level of security can help police secure your campus and protect your students and staff during any school threat.
TotalGuard™ is an affordable camera alarm solution, turned on and off from your Sonitrol Mobile app. Not only will TotalGuard™ provide all-inclusive verified protection for your business after hours, paired with our panic button, it gives you dependable emergency assistance for your employees, customers, students, and company when you’re open for business. For a free consultation with our security professionals and to hear about our zero-down TotalGuard™ installation special, contact us at (800) 444-1191.
Preventing break-ins on summer break…
The countdown is here, and sure enough, in just a few short weeks, students, and teachers alike, will be bursting through school doors across the country, proclaiming three months of freedom. And while the students are away, will the burglars play? Here are a few quick tips to secure your school and prevent a break-in:
- Use outdoor lights. Make sure your school’s outdoor walkways, entrances, and exits are clearly lit. Motion detector lights are excellent deterrents for potential vandals.
- Store valuable equipment, such as computers, tablets, and science lab items in interior rooms and away from windows, out of sight from prying eyes.
- Consider a verified security company versus a traditional alarm company. Unique factors set Sonitrol apart from traditional alarms and help us protect your students, teachers, and campus. As a provider of school security to more than 12,000 schools across North America for over fifty years, the Sonitrol Safe Schools program takes campus security to another level. Here’s how:
- We provide state-of-the-art audio detection. With strategically placed audio sensors throughout your facility, you don’t have to worry about your school being unprotected while the students are away. The instant a vandal breaks a window, opens a door, or breaks into your facility through rooftop access or any means, our audio sensors are activated. This means operators in central station immediately begin listening to real-time events and can determine whether it is a false alarm or if a break-in is occurring. They relay this information to law enforcement. Traditional alarms can’t verify what is happening when the motion detectors they depend on are tripped, which causes a high rate of false alarms. Unlike Sonitrol, they can’t be sure an actual break-in is occurring. Also, a unique feature of the Sonitrol alarm is that the criminals won’t even know police are on their way because this is a silent alarm.
- We offer managed access control. Using programmed keyless entry, you can decide which employees have permission to enter your facility and through which doors. From day care facilities to college campuses, depending on the number of your staff, this is a huge convenience, during the school year and on summer break. Traditional alarm companies may offer access control, but Sonitrol also offers door prop notification. This means that if a student or staff member intentionally leaves a door propped open, for example, to allow someone to access the school after hours, our operators will receive a notification and contact you about the door. This feature can be programmed according to your specifications. You may, for instance, want door prop notification to alert us after only thirty seconds of a door being open. It’s up to you.
- We offer emergency panic buttons. It’s an unfortunate reality, but schools are more vulnerable to violence and crime than ever before. When the students and teachers return after break, Sonitrol can provide unmatched security for any on-campus emergency. Our panic buttons can be placed in common areas around the school, such as the front office, and can even be carried on key chains by administrators. With the press of a button, not only will police be dispatched, the audio sensors will activate to allow operators to listen in during an emergency. This enables them to provide critical details to responding law enforcement. As an extra feature, if you choose to add video surveillance as well, after a panic button has been pressed, operators can watch live feed of your campus. This allows them to provide law enforcement even more information as to what is happening on your campus. Before the police arrive, they can know who is in the building and where any potential perpetrators may be. While traditional alarm companies might offer you a panic button, they can’t verify what is happening on your campus as Sonitrol can with our technology.
Sonitrol can provide unrivaled security for your school. We even offer fire detection monitoring. This summer break let us handle your school campus security needs. For a free quote, call us today at 1-800-444-1191 to have one of our security professionals assess your school’s security risks and recommend a tailored solution to protect your school, students, and teachers.
Join us for the EPD Foundation SWAT Challenge!
From its inception, Sonitrol has been a proud supporter of our men and women in blue. In fact, our company wouldn’t be here today if it hadn’t been for the teamwork of an inventor and a local police officer back in the early 1960s. We are so grateful for all that the Evansville Police Department does to protect and serve our community, which is one of the many reasons we are excited about next week’s EPD Foundation SWAT Challenge.
SWAT challenge, you say? I can hardly do a squat. There’s no need to worry. This unique, 5k urban obstacle course is a family-friendly event. With more than 20 SWAT team members, plus volunteers, stationed to assist you throughout the obstacle course, this event is about being part of the EPD team. Last year’s participants ranged from six-years-old to seniors. From tire and wall obstacles, to being able to run, jump, and slide over cars, this is a 5k unlike any other, and the EPD Foundation welcomes anyone who is up for the challenge to participate.
Proceeds from the event go towards scholarships for EPD family members and specialized equipment and training for the SWAT team. This year’s challenge is on Saturday, May 4th, Star Wars Day, so be prepared to see some Star Wars-themed obstacles and maybe even some characters. Join Sonitrol in supporting the men and women who sacrifice for us twenty-four hours a day to keep our community safe. Register your team or as an individual at www.epdfoundation.org. Together, we can back the blue.
5thAnnual EPD Foundation SWAT Challenge
May 4th, 2019
8a.m.-1p.m.
NW Riverside Dr., Evansville, IN 47708
