When Thomas and Karen Mitchell leave their home in New London County, Conn., for a weekend or a vacation, about the only security precautions they take are asking the neighbors to watch for anything suspicious and wedging wooden clothespins into the window frames to try to make a break-in more difficult.
All that is about to change.
“We’re building a big house way out in the woods, far from any neighbors to keep an eye out,” Karen Mitchell said.
In their new house, the Mitchells plan to install an electronic alarm system, joining the growing ranks of homeowners who have caused a billion-dollar boom in the home security business amid increasing concern for protecting families and belongings.
J.P. Freeman & Co. of Newtown, Conn., a security research and consulting firm, says that the amount spent on installing and monitoring residential security systems increased 67 percent between 1988 and 1993, with $15 billion being spent during that period.
What accounts for such growth? Linda S. Gimbel, director of communications at the National Burglar and Fire Alarm Association, a trade group in Bethesda, Md., noted that the systems are increasingly cheaper and easier to use. She also cited a general perception, even in the suburbs, that no one is safe from crime.
Crime and health care topped the American public’s list of important national problems, according to a New York Times/CBS News Poll taken in mid-July. Of 1,339 respondents in the nationwide telephone poll, 19 percent cited crime as “the most important problem facing this country today,” replacing unemployment and the economy, while another 19 percent nominated health care.
There is a common perception that alarm systems make a home more secure. Do they? Are they enough?
The answers appear to be “maybe” and “no.”
The trend toward home security systems is certainly good news for the home-building industry.
“In the last two years, basically every house I’ve designed has included a security system,” said Mark Comeau, the Mitchells’ architect.
The Mitchells’ system, a basic plan, will include wired contacts at windows and doors along with a wireless device in the first-floor center hallway to detect the motion of any intruder who may be starting up the staircase. Like many systems, it will be linked to a central monitoring station, which will notify the police when the system is disturbed.
More elaborate systems place additional motion detectors near artwork or other valuables. Prices range from $1,000 for a basic plan to more than $10,000.
Comeau said many clients “basically want the security company’s sign out front saying they have a security system.”
A survey of 428 builders in February by the National Association of Home Builders, a trade group based in Washington, found that electronic security systems were being offered as standard features in 13 percent of new homes and as options (along with things like air-conditioning) in 63 percent of new homes.
At the same time, though, residential burglaries nationwide have decreased, from 7.4 percent of all American homes in 1981 to 4.2 percent in 1992, according to the Justice Department.
J.P. Freeman & Co. attributes the burglary decrease partly to an increase in home security installations. The company predicts that by 1997, 1 in 5 homes in the United States will be protected electronically, compared with the 1 in 6 homes now covered.
One danger of this trend, however, is that alarm systems may provide a false sense of security, causing homeowners to overlook low-tech but highly effective measures, said Georgette Bennett, a New York criminologist who has written widely on this topic.
“People may not realize that an alarm system is actually the last line of defense when it comes to home security,” Bennett said. “If your alarm goes off, someone has already gotten into your home. Yet, quite often, people think of alarms as their only line of defense against burglars.”
Indeed, a 1992 Temple University study of burglary patterns in three towns outside Philadelphia concluded that, in most alarmed residences that were burgled, residents had taken no other precautions.
Bennett said homeowners also should make sure that there are strong locks and secure windows, good outdoor lighting, and landscaping that doesn’t provide easy hiding places for criminals.
The majority of home burglaries, Bennett said, are committed by amateurs who select a home for its easy access or the perceived affluence of its residents, rather than for specific items they may want to steal. She said the average break-in occurs in just 60 seconds; the more difficult the break-in, the more likely the intruder will leave.
But up to half of all burglars enter homes through doors or windows that have been left unlocked, meaning that many people often fail to take even the simplest of security precautions.
Moreover, Bennett said, many buyers of security systems picture the police arriving on the scene immediately after a system alerts them. But the average nationwide response time for a police call is 14 minutes.
“Routine residential alarms are not a high priority versus, say, responding to an accident with multiple injury victims,” said Sgt. Pat Chila of the police crime prevention unit in Greenwich, Conn.
Are electronic alarm systems any more effective in deterring crime than, say, a barking dog or strong locks?
“There is very little good research on what works and what doesn’t,” said Bennett. “A lot of studies contradict each other.”
In a 1988 survey, Figgie International, a security company based in Willoughby, Ohio, asked 589 people imprisoned for property crimes to rate the effectiveness of various security measures. The prisoners’ responses were tabulated on a scale ranging from 0 (not effective) to 2 (very effective).
Alarm systems linked directly to police stations ranked highest, at 1.5. Most alarm systems now are linked to central monitoring stations. If the alarm company sends a car to respond to each alarm, that is probably just as effective as a hook-up to the police station, Bennett said.
Electronic sensors in windows ranked second, at 1.35. Exterior lights were rated at 1.2, and barking dogs at 1.1.
Burglar alarms that function like car alarms-simply creating a lot of noise-were rated at 0.83, while deadbolt locks were rated near the bottom, at 0.78.
“I’ve interviewed prisoners about this,” said James Garofalo, a professor of criminal justice at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. “The professionals say alarm systems are no big deal-they can get in and out in a hurry. These alarms will stop the non-professional burglars, but so will good strong locks and windows.”
Bennett said: “Most break-ins are opportunistic. . . . The street thug, the junkie, any kid trying to impress his peers. You stand a good chance of deterring this kind of burglary by setting up barriers.”
According to the 1992 Temple University study, vulnerable homes are those within three blocks of a major thoroughfare familiar to the criminal or near a park or wooded area or on a cul-de-sac that borders on a wooded area, all of which allow the intruder easy escape.
As for burglar alarms, the Temple study, conducted by Andrew J. Buck and Simon Hakim, professors of economics, concluded that homes without alarms were three times as likely to be burgled. The study also noted that the total value of items taken was considerably less when an alarm system was present.
