Ever since I was a wee lad (hard to imagine, I know) I
have had a fascination with statistics, facts and figures.
Like most boys, it all began with sports. In my case, it
was when my dad showed me how to keep score at my first
baseball game, circa 1970, as the Los Angeles Dodgers hosted
the Pittsburgh Pirates. Not only was I a first-rate junior
statistician but — much to my father’s chagrin (and my
own since the early 1990s!) — I became a lifelong fan of the
visiting team. I also later became a sports editor, before discovering
the security industry.
To this day, I remain a box-score junkie (anyone else
out there grow up on Strat-O-Matic?). You see with numbers,
providing you have a firm grasp of the context, you
can uncover the stories within the story (e.g. a batter homers
twice but strikes out in the ninth with the tying run at
third base). In addition to being fun and informative, on a
personal, business or industry level, numerical data can be
invaluable. That is why, under my watch, SSI has become
one of the industry’s leading providers of authoritative research,
statistics and analysis.
So it was with great anticipation that I sat in on the
Alarm Industry Research Educational Foundation’s
(AIREF) meeting during the recent Electronic Security
Expo (ESX) in Nashville, Tenn. (see coverage on page 12).
There, AIREF — created by the National Burglar and Fire
Alarm Association (NBFAA) in 1977 “to engage in initiatives
critical to public safety, the consumer, and the alarm
professional” — revealed the preliminary results of “The
Impact of Home Burglar Systems on Residential Burglaries,”
a new study conducted by Rutgers University.
The study examined the impact of home burglar alarm
systems on residential burglaries in Newark, N.J., during
2001-2005. Although promoted as and widely believed to be
a burglary deterrent, precious little data exists to support
that premise. I am here to tell you this study not only rectifies that discrepancy but has the potential to make even the
staunchest alarm industry critics reconsider their position.
“The findings of this study are substantial and confirming.
It is not only methodologically advanced from prior
studies but also employed various numerical and spatial
analytical tools,” Seungmug Lee, Ph.D, Rutgers School
of Criminal Justice, told me. “The public assumes
a burglar alarm
may keep would-be
burglars away from
their houses. This
study examined
and supported this time-honored assumption.”
The study found an indisputable correlation between an
increase in registered (permitted) residential burglar alarm
systems and a decrease during the five-year period of more
than 40 percent in residential burglaries. Still, detractors
claim, alarm systems merely deflect burglars to unprotected
premises. However, the Rutgers research shows such systems
not only protect homes without displacing burglars
to nearby houses but, in fact, also provide houses in close
proximity protection from burglars. How cool is that?!
“A preliminary review of the study indicates we now have
supporting data about the effectiveness of a residential
alarm system when talking to consumers,” says John Jennings,
chairman of AIREF, CEO of Scottsdale, Ariz.-based
Safeguard Security and Communications, and a member
of SSI’s Editorial Advisory Board. “It also gives us the data
to support the idea that law enforcement resources are
conserved by the use of residential alarm systems. These
are substantial findings for the alarm industry. Whatever
we can do to reduce the workload of our law enforcement
partners by deterring crime not only helps them but creates
a more secure and stable society as a whole.”
I urge you to share the findings of this research with your
local law enforcement, municipalities, media outlets, etc. to
help validate the importance of alarm systems in the community.
As a bonus, this study also unearthed demographic
information savvy salespeople will want to exploit to their
advantage. The industry is indebted to the volunteers who
comprise AIREF’s Board of Directors and those who financially
and otherwise support the nonprofit organization.
For more information about AIREF and its research
projects, visit www.airef.org.