Way to go St. Charles!

Take a look at the Kane County Chronicle online. http://www.kcchronicle.com/articles/2010/04/26/66667617/index.xml

For those who are unaware, St. Charles, IL (an Alarm Detection community) has been the subject of recent residential burglaries. Specifically, the burglaries had been taking place in Eastern St. Charles in the area of Steeple Chase Road, Persimmon Woods, and Fox Chase subdivision.

Fortunately, the police now have a suspect in custody. And, it sounds like a beautiful joint-effort between the St. Charles Police Department and the community is responsible.

It appears that the community has been vigilant and helpful by taking note of suspicious activities and providing tips to the police department. The St. Charles Police has been conducting interviews, surveying the area, and exercising search warrants.

It's interesting to see some of the detail about the crimes. According to the Kane County Chronicle, "[the suspect] would ring doorbells late at night. Police suspected he would determine if the home was occupied and would later target the home."

It's classic casing of a neighborhood.

How can we at ADS help you minimize the risk that your home will be targeted by a burglary.

First, we have Alarm Detection System yard signs and stickers that you can display on the exterior of your house. These displays are an effective deterrent to individuals casing a location. You're house will look a lot less attractive if it appears that you have a monitored burglar alarm. (These stickers are free to ADS customers).

Second, we have monitored alarm systems. The yard signs and stickers only get you so far. Burglars that case neighborhoods have methods that can identify people who truly have alarms vs. those who don't. They may observe from a distance. they may get information from people (e.g., contractors) who have been in your home in the past. Heck, they may have been in your home at some point.

Furthermore, a burglar alarm will give you piece-of-mind knowing that you have a blanket of protection over your home and family. You'll have push button access to emergency responders if you're ever scared. The fact that your burglar alarm also monitors for fire is icing on the cake.

Third, we have security cameras. Security cameras are more affordable and higher quality than ever.

Fourth, we provide door locks and keys. We have a full-service lockshop at ADS. A good idea is to rekey your locks and regain key control where you're confident that nobody outside of your control has a working key to your house.

The value of being a good neighbor and having responsive police officers cannot be overstated. Often, however, neighbors and the PD gets involved after a crime. ADS can supplement your security and provide additional protection, both before and after a crime occurs. An alarm system or other ADS service may deter crimes before they happen. If one does occur, our services are positioned to minimize the danger to you, your family and property.

Insight into ADS's Central Station

We take a lot of pride in our Central Station. After all, it did win the Central Station of the Year.

An essential element to our success has been finding and maintaining great operators. In this article at securityinfowatch.com, you can see some insight into what it takes to have one of the best monitoring stations in the country, located right here in Aurora, Illinois.

Supercharge your alarm with text alerts

Do you want to make sure that your son or daughter is not throwing parties at your home when you’re away? Do you want to know how long your cleaning person was at your house?

If you have an alarm system, you know the basics. It can deter intruders. It can sound an alarm during a fire or break-in. It can contact keyholders or emergency responders moments after an incident. But, did you know that you can use your alarm to give you real-time updates for who is coming and going at your house?

For just about any event you want, ADS can program your alarm system to send you a text message. You get to decide what events will trigger a text message. For example, your system can be programmed to send you a text whenever someone arms or disarms the system. It can send a text when a certain person arms or disarms the alarm. Or, you can just receive messages if there is a trouble or alarm signal. It is all up to you.

We have found one of the most valuable uses of text alerts is for parents who have children who are home alone. Specifically, parents find that text notification when the child arm/disarms the system is very helpful. In essence, you’ll get confirmation that your child has left and returned to the house, which is especially useful during school when your child to leaves and returns from school at a regular time.

Another common reason for getting text alerts is to track who and when someone is coming and going at your house. For example, if you have a cleaning person who comes to your house regularly, then we can program your system to send you texts when the cleaning person’s arm/disarm code is entered. This will tell you that the cleaning person has been at your house and how long they were at your home.

Finally, you can use text service to make sure that unwanted persons are not entering your home. Imagine that you have a son, daughter, or babysitter who is prone to having guests at your home when you’re away. You can require that alarm is required to stay “armed” while your child or babysitter are in the house. With text service, you’ll know if someone disarms the system to let another person inside.

These are some common examples of when text service is useful. You may have your own creative way to use it to address a problem you are having. A phone call to ADS is all it takes to get text service going. It’s a service that people find very useful, but not everybody is aware of!

Living in the City of Geneva with an Alarm System

Do you live in Geneva, IL and have an alarm system? Are you interested in having an alarm?

If so, you'll want to know that the City requests that alarm owning residents and businesses file for a free permit. You can get the permit at http://www.geneva.il.us/pd/AlarmUserPermitApplication.pdf. The permit is short and easy to fill out. It's the City's way of having contact information if your alarm goes off and nobody is home.

While the Geneva permit is aimed at reducing problems for the police department. At ADS, we also work very hard at reducing the burden of false alarms on the police/fire departments. If you have a monitored alarm system with Alarm Detection Systems, you'll be able to provide ADS with a list of "keyholder"/contact information. Depending on your preferences, the keyholders can be notified if there is an alarm at the your premises. When ADS contacts the keyholder, he/she can specify whether they want to have emergency services dispatched or not.