False alarms

A false alarm, also called a nuisance alarm, is the deceptive or erroneous report of an emergency, causing unnecessary panic and/or bringing resources (such as emergency services) to a place where they are not needed. False alarms may occur with residential burglary alarms, smoke detectors, industrial alarms, and in signal detection theory. False alarms have the potential to divert emergency responders away from legitimate emergencies, which could ultimately lead to loss of life. In some cases, repeated false alarms in a certain area may cause occupants to develop alarm fatigue and to start ignoring most alarms, knowing that each time it will probably be false.

The term “false alarm” refers to alarm systems in many different applications being triggered by something other than the expected trigger-event. Examples of this those applications include residential burglar alarms, smoke detectors, industrial alarms, and signal detection theory.

The term “false alarm” may actually be semantically incorrect in some uses. For example, a residential burglar alarm could easily be triggered by the residents of a home accidentally. The alarm is not necessarily false – it was triggered by the expected event – but it is “false” in the sense that the police should not be alerted. Due to this problem, false alarms can also be referred to as “nuisance alarms.”

In the United States, between 94% and 98% of all burglar alarm activations are falsely triggered.

Residential burglar alarms can be caused by improper arming and disarming of the system, power outages and weak batteries, wandering pets, and unsecured doors and windows. In the U.S. false alarms cost police agencies up 6.5 million personnel hours, according to the International Association of Chiefs of Police. A 2002 study by the U.S. Justice Department estimated the cost of false alarms to be as high as $1.5 billion. Due to this cost, many cities now require permits for burglar alarms, have enacted verified response protocols, or have introduced fines for excessive false alarms.

This is typically caused by simple mistakes like entering the wrong passcode or letting too much time pass before entering the code. These types of false alarms can be prevented by taking more time to disarm systems, and entering a home with at least one hand free to properly disarm one's system.

Untrained users can be anyone who may need to temporarily access one's home but is unfamiliar with one's system. Common untrained users include cleaning crews, repairmen, dog walkers, or babysitters. Better educating temporary users about a particular system can prevent them from accidentally triggering it.

If a power outage occurs on system with a weak backup battery it can cause the alarm to trigger. Preventing this type of false alarm requires alarm owner to periodically replace the backup battery. Most people should have surge suppression on the AC power as well as the RJ31X area. If properly installed, the surges should bypass the system. So to help prevent a feedback loop up case ground, never install the RJ31X surge suppression inside the burglar alarm panel, and only ground it to the ground lug of the AC surge suppression. To even reduce more false alarms, tie three to four knots in the phone line between the RJ31X Surge suppression and the panel as well as three to four knots in the low voltage AC power source feeding the panel after the AC surge suppression.

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Wikipedia