Monday, October 12, 2009

Is a Personal Alarm the Only Genuine Self Help Solution?

A personal alarm is nothing more than a glorified siren. The theory behind it is relatively simple: if someone attacks, or the likelihood of being attacked is very high, you simply switch it on and the personal security alarm will start screaming with an impressive 120 or 125 decibels. If you are lucky enough, this will draw attention and the attacker will leave you alone.

Of course it is crucial that a person alarm cannot be stopped by an attacker. This is achieved by using a hidden switch that only the person owning it knows about. It is also crucial to understand that a personal alarm only has a certain effectiveness. It will not always deter attackers. This is why non lethal weapons are commonly used in conjunction. Personal alarms and mace pepper spray make a very good combination and are also very effective in deterring attackers from pursuing their course of action.

The personal safety alarms for personal protection are not the only way in which these can be used. Child safety personal alarms have the same basic construction, but serve a very different purpose. They are usually there to ensure that if a child gets lost; his parents will be able to locate him or her in the shortest amount of time.

Another interesting application of the personal alarm is its usage in locating a person after a catastrophe, like a hurricane or earthquake. With the recent occurrence of such events it might not be too long until these will surpass in popularity the traditional personal safety alarms, pepper spray included. Obviously this would only be true for those certain areas where this sort of event has a higher probability. The technology used by this new breed of personal alarms is inspired by that used by skiers to protect against avalanches, which contain a GPS enabled beacon, and a loud siren which goes on intermittently (in order to preserve battery power). As technology will advance more still, it is quite possible that these devices will become more and more effective.

The online market for devices such as the personal alarm has seen an explosive growth in the recent years. The offer though is slightly limited. The size of the device is constantly decreasing and so are the performances, while the prices stay relatively fair. This happens as the competition is getting more fierce by the day, with more and more manufacturers joining this promising market.

Altogether a personal alarm is a useful thing to have around. In conjunction with pepper spray it decreases your chances of getting harmed greatly and in the case of a disaster it can quite literally save your life. Of course some areas are more dangerous than others. The decision to purchase ultimately belongs to you, but it does seem a sensible thing to take precautions against these events even if the odds are relatively small.

Monday, August 3, 2009

Intruder Alarms Don't Worry Burglars!

a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgADDGYjonBJY_CEtLK0P23tXyEdL-_tgBqC5EgmyxjfPbb56JYTameVNtU7fWWPYjpXSCiHtqUpC6QvNoIp88mChQsbml1hJInNRDksV-dtHXvNBFo71AZaSpMrFI2W99WxuW_X4bF0xEC/s1600-h/1281fk5.jpg">Professional Burglars claim an intruder Alarm does not put them of.A recent survey has found that intruder alarms do not present any difficulty to professional burglars; the reason is because homeowners often forget to set the intruder alarm or fails to lock their doors and windows properly. Despite the many improvements in home security systems if homeowners fail to use them properly there is little benefit achieved.

Almost half of the persistent burglars interviewed for a recent survey said they believed home security has improved over the last 10 years but they also felt that the improvements would not be enough to stop them breaking in. Only 20% of those surveyed said that a good security system was the most common reason they abandoned an attempted break-in, 40% said being disturbed by the homeowner was the main cause of them giving up a break-in attempt and 40% of those surveyed said they would be put off if there was a noisy dog on the premises.

67% of those surveyed said they always followed the same pattern of searching a house once they are broken in, normally starting in the main bedroom, because this is the usual place that valuables are hidden, they then cover the remaining bedrooms and the main living room, this has proved to be the most efficient way of finding valuable possessions. One interesting fact that emerged from research conducted with burglars currently serving jail sentences was that they consider children's rooms to be the least profitable to search.

The average time that a housebreaking takes is as little as 20 minutes, the average age in which the first burglary was committed was 13, and two thirds of burglars prefer to work alone. Almost all professional burglars go out with the intention of committing an offence, that is to say it is planned rather than opportunistic though obviously if a ripe target presents itself they will take that opportunity to steal.

The main motivation to commit housebreaking is as one would expect money, over 80% of those surveyed cited this as their major motivation, they would search for a suitable target judging the potential value of that home by the type of car on the drive, any obviously valuable items that can be seen through the windows, the amount of cover that was provided by such things as fences or trees, the presence of an intruder alarm or dog, and signs of owner occupation.

It should be noted that most of those surveyed said that even though they were not put off by an intruder alarm they would normally move on to an easier target if one was available, also one has to take into consideration the bravado of the people being surveyed, do remember they were all convicted burglars serving time in prison at the time of the survey.



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