Business Alarms:
Keep in mind that an alarm during the day is completely different than an alarm going off at night when nobody is inside your business. My concern for a business being open is this.
Crook enters bank, office, grocery store, liquor store, whatever. Crook pulls out a gun to do a robbery.
An employee hits the alarm and the audible goes off signifying a problem. Crook can run and take his or her chances. Or our worst nightmare, the Crook can panic.
What’s the worst case scenario? Crook gets mad and shoots the person who hit the alarm or anyone they think might have hit the alarm or how about a hostage situation? You don’t think a Crook with a gun is going to think about hostages? People react different ways to panic. I don’t like the way Crooks react.
Same scenario as above only the employee hits a SILENT ALARM notifying US but not the Crook. The Cops set up outside and wait for the Crook to exit. Crook gets whatever it is they are after, and we deal with them OUTSIDE.
Thousands of you reading this have already been in this situation. In a bank when it was being robbed. Most of you didn’t even know, because an arrest was made outside the bank after the Crook left the bank because of a silent alarm.
Many of you had to go through the ordeal of an aggressive robbery attempt. The Crook pulls out a gun and has all the customers hit the floor, takes the stash and leaves. Again, a silent alarm reduces the panic going through a Crook’s mind. The Crook is more than likely already panicked before he enters the bank. Or they could be high on dope. It is ALWAYS better for the Cops to confront the Crook OUTSIDE.
Business owners can contact Crime Prevention Officers from their local Law Enforcement agency for advice and consultation in regards to what type of system could best meet the business needs.
My agency also provides training for Bank Tellers and Bank Personnel. A few months later with cooperation of bank management, we follow up by sending in staged suspects to pull off a bank job. Complete with (empty) guns pointed in the teller’s face. You’d be surprised how many times we get 6 different descriptions from 6 different teller’s, for 1 suspect! Panic does different things to different people. Practice does make perfect, and with enough practice, remembering details about a subject’s appearance becomes 2nd nature. CALL your local Police agency and inquire as to what kind of crime prevention programs they offer.
If I was going to give my own opinion (and this is based straight from experience in responding to the aftermath) I would have to say consider this.
Open for business with customers and staff inside? A Silent alarm system with panic buttons.
Closed for business? Audible system preferably monitored.
