Sonitrol, the provider of verified electronic security, announces the successful implementation of a Sonitrol TotalGuard system for 4EverReady Home Care, located in Cincinnati and Dayton, Ohio. TotalGuard, innovated by 3xLOGIC, has alarm verification capabilities that detected an incident outside the premises, which led to a successful resolution of a potential false alarm situation.
4EverReady Home Care is a privately-owned home care agency based in Dayton, Ohio. The organisation is committed to providing clients with the highest quality care possible, while allowing them to maintain both freedom and independence in the comfort of their homes.
Incident triggered alarm
4EverReady has two locations, in Cincinnati and Dayton. Late on a recent evening, surveillance video from inside the Cincinnati location showed a person standing outside the office when suddenly a car drove by the intersection. The person in the video made a hasty retreat from the building and crossed the street. What had happened?
“We recognised the man in the video, he’s often in the neighbourhood and because our offices are all glass looking out to the street, we can observe him and others walking up and down the nearby sidewalks,” recounted Lisa Roberts-Rosser, Executive Consultant for 4EverReady. “Because this incident triggered an alarm from our system, Sonitrol of SW Ohio brought the video to my attention, I was the first person called. I knew the man in the video, and I’d never seen him move that fast.”Sonitrol operator was able to quickly determine that the offices were not in danger of a break-in, therefore, this was not an active alarm
Area under protection
The Sonitrol operator was able to play the video with the related audio to figure out that the passing car had actually fired (turned out later) a paintball gun at the man in front of 4EverReady’s offices, causing him to flee. More importantly, the Sonitrol operator was able to quickly determine that the offices were not in danger of a break-in. This incident occurred outside the area under protection; therefore, this was not an active alarm so no further action was necessary.
“We installed the Sonitrol TotalGuard system back in April and our system’s two cameras give us all the visibility we need. Our office is essentially one big room and the cameras give views in the office and through the windows into the immediate neighbourhood,” Roberts-Rosser explained.
Motion detection technologies
In addition to video surveillance with video and audio alarm verification, the TotalGuard system includes glass break detection and motion detection technologies. 4EverReady has also installed a Sonitrol Cloud Access, which provides key fob entry through the office main entrance. Roberts-Rosser and any other staff with privileges can remotely arm and disarm the TotalGuard system with a smartphone through the available Sonitrol mobile app.
“TotalGuard provides us complete alarm verification capability, and the mobile app definitely works well for us,” she explained. “If there is a time that someone has forgotten to arm the system upon exiting at the end of the day, I can arm the system from home or wherever I am.”
Legitimate alarm situation
4EverReady has a consultant that uses the office space for meetings after hours, to prevent any interruption of the normal daily work flow. Roberts-Rosser can program the TotalGuard system from anywhere, at anytime, to grant the consultant access when it is needed.
The sensitivity of our system is impressive, when it was first installed it was alarming because of loud music outside, cars backfiring, and other loud noises
In addition to TotalGuard picking up an incident outside the area of protection, Roberts-Rosser said there has been a process to calibrate the system to be as effective as possible. “The sensitivity of our system is impressive, when it was first installed it was alarming because of loud music outside, cars backfiring, and other loud noises. Once a neighbourhood child pulled on the door while horseplaying around and that definitely caused an alarm. Working with Sonitrol, we’re able to verify all of these incidents to make sure we are only contacting the police when it’s a legitimate alarm situation.”
Highly-effective system
As is becoming abundantly clear in recent years, police forces are not unlimited resources. Sonitrol TotalGuard has proven to be a highly-effective system in cutting costly, even dangerous, false alarms.
“TotalGuard is a technology package no other company is offering security customers, it is a genuine game changer, and this incident proves the technology goes above and beyond in protecting customer’s property, even if the action is well outside the area under surveillance,” said Alison Shiver, Marketing Manager, Sonitrol of SW Ohio.
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