Fast Protect™

@lenfricke Wow, 30-60 minutes!  Fortunately I live in a jurisdiction where police will be onsite within 5 minutes. I know, unfortunately, due to several false alarms ove rthe past dozen or so years, mostly my own doing but two, both classics, clearly on Simplisafe. (Spoiler alert, I am diffenitely in the lead for causing false alarms by a long shot).

Fast Protect allows SS monitoroing agents to proactively view your premises on SA camaras (Simplicams don't cut it for this proces but do for video verification) and speak directly to the possible intruder.  I have three SA cameras that cover about 90% of my entire first floor.  They can confirm an intruder is present and communicate to dispatch for a faster response, however, given your own specific juridiction, your "mileage may vary".  When the program started, I was very skeptical and, of course, tested it myself. Set off the alarm and was almost instaneously greeted by the SS monitorring agent on camera who asked who I was. Replied a neighbor and was asked to stand in front of the camera, not to move and they would call the account owner. As my phone rang, I smiled for the camera, stated it was a test and provided my safe word. Apoligized profusely and confirmed with the agent if I moved or the account caller could be reached, disptach would be made advising the authorities suspsect on premises confirmed.

A visit the next day at the police station confirmed that priority is given to calls that confirm suspect on site vs a general alarm. Sign me as convinced and I sent an email to SS apologizing for the "test" and keep me on the plan.

All of that said, I don't know if this would have any measurable effect on such terrible response times for over 60 minutes in some cases, but it certainly wouldn't hurt and could be a deterrent to motivate an intruder to leave. You will have to judge that for yourself. You can also call SS to discuss further.

Good luck with your decision.

The only response time that SimpliSafe has any control over is how quickly they contact emergency services from the time the alarm goes off at your house. Once emergency services are called it's 100% out of SimpliSafe's hands. As captain noted, 30-60 minutes is not good but there are a lot of factors that play into their response time including but not limited to:

- Where you live

- How well staffed your emergency services are

- What else your emergency services may be dealing with at the moment they are called (which is directly tied to the crime rate in your area with regards to the police)

- The nature of your emergency

I can tell you that I live in a metro area of 1.5+ million people and there are 2 police substations within 10 minutes of where I live in the suburbs. I've never seen a police officer at my door in less than 15-20 minutes whether it was my calling 911 or SimpliSafe contacting them. As a matter of fact, about a month ago I called 911 around 1AM to report that I was literally staring at 3 people standing across the street from my house changing the tire on a vehicle. I was calling because I had just witnessed one of them walking into multiple driveways (including mine) to check car doors to see if they were unlocked. It took 27 minutes for the first police officer to arrive.

I'm not defending the response times you're reporting but I am suggesting there could (could) be legitimate reasons why response times are so slow. That said I'd really like to hear their explanation for response times like that if those are normal response times.

Hi @lenfricke ,

Great question. Fast Protect™ technology is the name we've given to our streamlined system - all of our services together to keep you alerted and get you the help that you need faster. Captain11 does a great round-up of what that means in his post below!

To further clarify, Fast Protect™ Technology is present throughout all our services. But to take advantage of everything it has to offer, we recommend that you subscribe to the Fast Protect™ Monitoring Plan - our plan that includes all services from 24/7 dispatch, unlimited camera recordings, Smart Alerts to phone and email, and more. You can read about the differences between our Monitoring Plans here.

Worthing is very right as well. Monitoring Service is a bridge between your actual alarm system and cameras at home, and your town's local emergency services. We can get the word to them faster, but your experience with your local department may vary. That being said, many police departments may prioritize dispatch if they have an eyewitness account that an actual crime is in progress. And that's where features like Visual Verification and Live Guard protection come in!