Using Alarm.com alerts and cameras to Protect your Community

Alerts warn your neighbors in an emergency When your smart home security detects an emergency, it alerts both you (via smartphone) and your 24/7 monitoring station, where security professionals are on hand to assess the situation. Did you know it can also alert your neighbors? By adding them as emergency contacts in your Alarm.com app, you can ensure that they'll receive a smartphone alert in an emergency such as a break-in or a fire, making them aware of the situation and enabling them to take action to stay safe. Video helps your local police identify burglars Criminals who target homes often commit a series of break-ins around a town or neighborhood, stopping only when scared away or apprehended. Video footage of a bogus caller or burglar, captured by a smart security camera, can provide a breakthrough for local police. It could even identify the criminal outright, speeding up the investigation and saving other homes in your town from being targeted. Smart home security systems come with extra safeguards to ensure the capture and storage of video footage. For example, clips recorded in an alarm event are stored in the cloud and delivered to your smartphone, enabling you to share them easily with law enforcement. You know that a security system deters criminals from targeting your home—but does it simply divert crime to your neighbor's houses instead? Not at all, says a study by Rutgers University: instead, it deters them from targeting your neighborhood altogether. Based on five years of police data in Newark, NJ, the study found that neighborhoods where security systems are densely installed have fewer burglaries across the entire community. Rather than deflecting crime to less protected homes in your neighborhood, your smart home security system makes your whole street and your community safer from crime.