The Dangers of Swinger Shutdown
Alarm contractors’ responsibilities should be consistent with statutory requirements, UL, NFPA 72 and industry standards and best practices.
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When an alarm contractor designs and installs a burglar alarm system, they are providing these services for a specific purpose.
First, a security survey should be conducted, which is an exhaustive search of all risks and vulnerabilities. Secondly, a needs analysis needs to be performed by the alarm contractor to ascertain the motivation of why the prospective customer wants to have an alarm system for their premises.
Based upon the aforementioned findings, the system’s design should follow. Of course, there may be mitigating factors that can change what the alarm contractor can install, such as its limitations based on financial budgetary concerns.
Along those same lines, alarm contractors make certain representations to subscribers. Yet, there are choices that alarm companies make, which by design are not disclosed to their customers. With this in mind, the decision to provide information, or not, to a subscriber may be actionable, or it may be irrelevant.
Similarly, the fact pattern as to the reasons why an alarm contractor failed to disclose certain information could just be de minimis.
In other cases, it might have been material, and/or the information not provided by the alarm contractor might have been intentionally concealed, all of which, if the subscriber relied on the contractor’s representations to their detriment, and there is causation, and damages, liability could resultantly exist.
Contractors Have Certain Duties
Notwithstanding the foregoing, alarm contractors have certain duties, and these responsibilities should be consistent with their statutory requirements, applicable UL standards, NFPA 72 standards and nationally recognized industry standards and best practices.
Against the foregoing backdrop, swinger shutdown is not allowed on UL-certified burglar alarm systems–and for particularly good reason.
In sum, swinger shutdown is touted as a false alarm prevention tool that prevents alarms from going off for a specific sensor if it has tripped an alarm condition multiple times in a 5-minute window. Further, there are other variables to swinger shutdown.
However, it is really not all about false alarm prevention, in that once the alarm signal is received, unless the central station operator can verify the signal(s), it is still going to be dispatched.
On the other hand, a runaway condition can surely be a false alarm concern.
But when an installer connects more than one intrusion detection device to a zone, and/or whereby the zone triggered covers an area where high-value items are located, the implementation of swinger shutdown automatically shunting the zone(s) can foreseeably leave the protected premises no longer electronically protected (as the burglar alarm system was originally represented by the alarm contractor to the customer that it would provide), including the representation to the subscriber that the alarm system was being monitored 24 hours a day, seven days a week and 365 days a year by a UL-listed central station.
Dangers Associated with Swinger Shutdown
Importantly, the dangers associated with swinger shutdown is that after the predetermined number of trips on a zone occurs, (being as low as 1 to 2 trips), no more alarm signals can be transmitted from those zones to the central station until the subscriber resets the alarm system.
That said, I have never reviewed an alarm system installation and monitoring contract that explains if swinger shutdown is being enabled, or not, so that the subscriber can make informed choices, and is aware of how this feature can negatively impact upon overall alarm system performance.
Knowing that their alarm system needs to be manually reset, after it is activated, is yet another critical point to those customers who were not provided with this information, on alarm systems employed with swinger shutdown.
Additionally, I have forensically investigated burglary losses across the country where intruders triggered the alarm system, left, and then came back.
Indeed, with swinger shutdown being enabled, all the originally triggered zone(s) that were activated and met the trip count, were then “shunted” as elaborated to above so that subsequent actions by the perpetrator such as intruder movement, did not trigger the alarm system and the central station was not notified. As a result, the subscriber suffered damage.
Subscribers May Not Respond
Realistically, subscribers may not respond to the notification that the alarm system has been activated unless the police call back the central station and tell them that they found signs of forcible entry.
Of course, all alarm signals need to be thoroughly investigated so that access into the interior of the premises can be performed by the responding police, because often times intrusion into the premises happens from an adjacent store and/or from the roof, and/or from an area that is not accessible by first responders.
Consequently, the burglarious entry into the premises may not reveal any signs of forcible entry by the police, yet in actuality the perpetrators are inside the premises committing their felonious act.
Certainly, the danger exists in that there have been cases where an intruder entered into the premises and activated one or more zones multiple times, and then they leave. Instead of the alarm system being ready to detect a subsequent intrusion, with swinger shutdown enabled, all of the zones that have been programmed with swinger shutdown, cannot technically detect an intruder.
To that end, no subsequent alarm signals are transmitted to the central station. Coming full circle, alarm contractors need to make sure that the decisions they make in the way in which the control unit is internally programmed, are consistent with the electronic protection needs of each subscriber.
Finally, in my opinion, swinger shutdown has too many vulnerabilities, as to what can happen to the system once it is enabled. Accordingly, I do not adopt the use of swinger shutdown in any alarm system installation.
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About the Author
Jeff Zwirn, SSI Contributor
Jeffrey D. Zwirn, CPP, CFPS, CFE, FACFEI, CHS-IV, SET, CCI, FASI&T, MBAT, writes Security Sales & Integration’s “Security Science” column. He is also president of IDS Research and Development, an alarm and security consultation, expert witness and training authority providing nationwide services on all issues related to alarm and security matters. He can be reached at 800-353-0733.
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The Benefits of Swinger Shutdown
Alarm professionals need to focus their efforts to deter and detect actual break ins.
An assessment of the user’s goals and the alarm site’s vulnerabilities is always a good idea.
As the number of alarm systems in use has expanded and the demands on available public safety officers have increased, the need to avoid false dispatch requests has also increased.
Since the invention of alarm systems, we have come a long way in fine tuning our equipment and protocols to balance alarm system response with avoiding false dispatch requests.
Swinger shutdown is a recognized part of that evolution toward balance. Think twice before you abandon a valuable tool.
What is Swinger Shutdown?
Here is how the ANSI/SIA CP-01 Control Panel Standard defines it.
4.3.2. Swinger Shutdown
A programmable swinger shutdown shall be required for each burglary type zone, such that a programmable one to as many as six trip(s) shall shut down the zone. The zone shall be restored by a manual reset or may be reset automatically after eight (8) or more hours with no further trips on the zone. The default setting for this option shall be two trips for swinger shutdown.
NOTE: Zones disabled by swinger shutdown shall not transmit restoral signals until they are returned to service by either of the following events:
• After the panel is disarmed or:
• After disarming and then rearming.
NOTE: A Swinger Trouble code may be transmitted upon the occurrence of additional trips on the zone.
NOTE: Swinger shutdown may be disabled on any non-fire zone that does not require police response.
Why You Need Swinger Shutdown
• When a balloon is loose in a room, it moves around. Each time it moves the motion detectors are activated.
• When a door is not securely locked or is warped it sets off an alarm each time the wind blows or when someone pulls on the door.
• If an animal is loose in a room, it moves around. Each time it moves the motion detectors are activated.
• When the temperature in a room rises and falls it can set an alarm each time a change happens.
• When a loose wiring connection expands and contracts as the room changes it can generate multiple alarms.
• Multiple alarms can be activated when an alarm owner adds or changes curtains, furniture, a sign or display or redirects the HVAC vents.
What are the Benefits of Swinger Shutdown?
• It prevents multiple dispatch requests to alarms from faulty equipment or installation.
• When you request public safety to respond to multiple false alarms (especially over a short duration) it leads to the assumption that the system is faulty. This may eliminate or delay a response to an actual burglary and endanger officers who assume the alarm is false.
• Swinger shutdown only shuts down the one zone. All the other zones remain active. So it you designed the system with reasonable redundant coverage an intrusion can still be detected,
• Using swinger shutdown avoids multiple alarm dispatch requests (and the resulting fines) which makes the system more credible and effective.
Swinger Shutdown is a Recognized Best Practice
The ANSI/SIA CP-01 Control Panel Standard is a public safety and Industry best practice that recognizes the value of Swinger Shutdown.
• The False Alarm Reduction Association Model Ordinance requires alarm professionals to use panels that comply with the ANSI/SIA CP-01 Control Panel Standard.
• Several State laws (including Delaware, Mississippi & Texas) require compliance with the ANSI/SIA CP-01 Control Panel Standard.
• Multiple municipalities require compliance with the ANSI/SIA CP-01 Control Panel Standard.
What about UL and NFPA 72?
Swinger shutdown does not apply to fire zones, so NFPA 72 does not apply.
The vast majority of burglar alarm systems are NOT certified or listed. While the equipment is UL listed for safety, it is not required to be listed for effectiveness.
If you are installing a rare UL certificated system you may not be able to use swinger shutdown. But then again, in a certificated system, the responding keyholder would visit the site after each alarm and when they reset the system that would reset the swinger shutdown.
In any event, the swinger shutdown feature that complies with ANSI/SIA CP-01 Control Panel Standard gives you the flexibility to balance security with reduction of dispatch requests.
Conclusion
Swinger Shutdown is a valuable tool to reduce false dispatch requests. You have flexibility in how it is programmed to meet your customers’ needs.
Learn how to use it and why It was created before you throw it away based on uneducated advice.
Being Aware of Legal Liability, Risk, and Help in Protecting Subscribers from Loss is Mission Critical Advice, Not Uneducated Advice.
The professional and technical community of the alarm and central station industry does not provide Warnings to subscribers about this feature, and it is not fortuitous that UL does not recognize it.
Before an alarm contractor uses this feature, they need to understand the risks because failure to do so can result in an increase in Liability. Given that, you entirely exclude the criticality of Liability in your response, and the fact that this feature, when enabled, is not disclosed to subscribers so that they can make informed choices. With this in mind, your unilateral failure to see these Risks is nothing short of remarkable.
Jeffrey D. Zwirn, CPP, CFPS, CFE, SET, FASI&T, CHPA-IV, MBAT, NFPA 3000(PS), President
http://www.alarmexpert.com
What is remarkable and ill advised is to recommend against a practice by implying that it applies to fire and hold up alarms when it only applies to burglar alarms. It is ill advised to ignore the need to balance detection with false alarm reduction. It is important to remember that UL standards for system design apply to a very small minority of systems that have a UL certificate.
By your argument, alarm professionals should not use ECV, cross zoning, or dual technology sensors or change a signal to a cancel or add a shunt to zones on powerup or use any other feature designed to reduce false alarms.
You are also saying that you want to specify all the design and programming choices that are made (along with there possible impact) in the contract. That is not practical or legally wise.
My point is that the customer hires the alarm professional to design a system that balances detection with false alarm reduction. Swinger Shutdown is a part of that equation.
If you ignore industry standards that reduce false alarms in favor of those that increase the rate of police dispatch requests – you reduce the value of the system and your customer’s satisfaction with it and you.
In any event – if you stop using swinger shutdown you should stop sending the police to the resulting repeat alarms from the zone until a technician or the customer can at least investigate why the multiple alarms continue from the same zone. To send the police over and over to a repeat event that is now blocked by swinger shutdown is remarkable and ill advised.
When it comes to reducing risk, your formula does not work. The concern here are the risks associated with the business of alarm contracting and central station monitoring. First and foremost are the risks to subscribers. Notwithstanding, each and every circumstance is different, and when there is a loss it is important that certain tasks have been met beforehand. Nationally Recognized Industry Standards and Best Practices are important, but just as important is disclosure and differing fact patterns can create liability. If you fail to recognize these risks, an alarm contractor and/or central station does so at its own peril. My involvement in the forensic study of alarm systems since 1980 for both Plaintiffs and Defendants Nationally, and in being an active certified and licensed alarm contractor in two states, and starting in the alarm industry over 45 years ago supports the reliability of my opinions. Finally, my concerns do not only apply to UL Certificated Burglar Alarm Systems. In closing, it is certainly fine for you to disagree with my article, but you have no expertise whatsoever in the forensic study of alarm systems so I would caution you to not provide opinions on what you do not know.