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petersau

4 Messages

Thursday, January 30th, 2020 11:10 PM

Simplisafe monitoring will not send the police

Simplisafe monitoring will not send the police unless they have a visual confirmation with a camera.

We had a previous attempted break in so we installed simplisafe thinking it would notify police as it says it will on their site.

Just got a call today from Securitas who simplisafe has partnered with to inform us there is an intruder alert. He said there was motion detected in my bedroom from a motion detector.

No one was home and we had a previous attempted break-in so I asked him to notify the police. He refused saying he could not see an intruder in the cameras. That is idiotic on so many levels.

1. Why bother calling me if he wasn't prepared to take action?
2. All cameras are downstairs. The alert came from my upstairs bedroom where there is no camera, only a motion detector. He said if he couldn't see an intruder in the downstairs cameras so he didn't see the need to call the police. I tried to explain that the intruders may never come downstairs in front of the cameras- but he wouldn't budge.
3. He said he was connecting me to a supervisor - but you know what he really did - no one picked up the phone.
3. So simplisafe requires its customers to have a camera in every room otherwise the police will not be notified without a visual confirmation? So what's the point of all the other detectors - entry and motion and glass break?

Stupid policy. I recorded the frustrating call I had with the monitoring guy on my phone and am looking for where I should upload it. Please suggest.

Simplisafe is a garbage company for not letting its customers know before hand that it will not notify police without a visual confirmation with a simplicam.

How can these guys save us from crooks if they're crooks themselves?

Please share this so others are informed of the truth.

Thanks and namaste

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6 months ago

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captain11

Captain

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6.2K Messages

5 years ago

@ Petersau when you got your system did you contact the local police and ask if visual verification was required to dispatch? In some areas this is a requirement and it appears this is a requirement where you live. Suggest you contact the local police and ask for a clarification. Please post your outcome here. Thanks.

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sevensiamesecats

2.2K Messages

5 years ago

Who is "Securitas"?   SS is monitored by C.O.P.S.

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tech_aiden

24 Messages

I think this:

US= C.O.P.S monitoring (https://www.copsmonitoring.com/)

UK= Securitas monitoring (https://securitases.com/services/security-monitoring/)

4 years ago

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coltmaster1

2.8K Messages

5 years ago

^ In the UK?

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dandydons

371 Messages

5 years ago

Yes its UK monitoring.

Intruder alert

Cameras open

Intruder seen on camera - police dispatched

Intruder not seen within 30 seconds to 1 minute - call to you confirming activation.  

Cant confirm safe word or you do not answer - guard dispatch

Answer and select option for guard - guard dispatched , or call a neighbour and ask them to check for you (if dont want them as official keyholder)

Fire alert

Again visual required- same process followed.

My set up

Camera outside back garden- if someone is trying to force way in that will spot them within the timeframe, come in via kitchen or patio door or play room or front door . I have 3 internal cameras.

Fire... effectively I have entire downstairs covered in camera but no cameras upstairs . But I do have SS smoke alarms in every bedroom if alarm goes off when out at least i will know and will decide how best to proceed at that point.

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60ampfuse

57 Messages

5 years ago

That's not a SimpliSafe problem, that's a problem with your local laws. It would be the same for any security company in your area.

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adam000

1 Message

5 years ago

I'd rather not put cameras in my home due to privacy concerns. I'd put them in the garden, as long as I won't get a notification every-time a cat walks past.

It poses the question, if I only put a camera in the garden, and the camera captures a would-be burglar lurking, wouldn't the Simplisafe guy need to wait for the burglar to actually break into my home before he calls the police? Otherwise it's trespassing.

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lance843

1K Messages

5 years ago

The reason to have the ss cameras inside is for visual verification so if you have the ss cameras outside and someone breaks in the alarm will sound and once the alarm sounds then the monitoring company can look and get verification that yes they see someone rumbling through your home and when they call the police they tell them they have video of it right now and the cops will show up a hell of lot faster. Camera's outside then they will not see anyone as the alarm will not go off untill they get in then you cant see them, plus ss nor the monitoring company can see the through the camera untill an actual alarm event and it has the privacy shutter. I have a completely different camera setup outside.

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sevensiamesecats

2.2K Messages

5 years ago

The cameras are designed for outdoors, and will likely get a lot more notices.  But those hotices only go to you, so the monitoring service will not (actually CAN NOT) look at them until the alarm is going off.  At which time, the BEST you can hope for is seeing them run away.

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satshah

2 Messages

5 years ago

Hi, so can someone please let me know - does simplisafe require a confirmation or not?

In my current UK house I have a security system. Here is what my current company does which is a mix of set up by us and also the law is in London (NW8):
- Burglar breaks in & trips the alarm, the security company waits up to 2 min to make the phone call to us asking if everything is okay after verification via security word
- If the burglar trips a second sensor, then it leads to an immediate dispatch phone call to us so it doesn't wait for the 1-2min
- If we say we are not home & the alarm must be real, they dispatch to the police
- if we don't pick up the phone, they will try 2-3 times and then within 3-4 min post second trip of sensor, they will dispatch the police

So in summary, there is no requirement for a sight verification. And the Police tend to be dispatched fairly quickly when a burglar enters. We had our house broken into so this is VERY important to me.

So my question, does Simplisafe follow the same approach OR is sight verification required.

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coltmaster1

2.8K Messages

5 years ago

^ You have to call your local police, whatever precinct serves your area (and/or call the guard service too), to determine if visual verification is necessary.

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satshah

2 Messages

Thanks, understood. So if the law is „visual verification" not required than they will call the police once they can not reach me and/or they reach me but I say no one is home so it must be an intruder?

5 years ago

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usmaak

343 Messages

5 years ago

I have always felt the same way about having cameras in my home.  The thing that's great about the simplicams is the shutter.  You can have it set to closed when the alarm is set to off and the camera will not be able to see anything.  When the shutter does open, it makes quite a loud clicking noise.  You can't miss it.

I really like these cameras.  They're one of the best parts about the system.

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coltmaster1

2.8K Messages

5 years ago

^ Since we're in the US, and you're in the UK, it's hard to advise because your area may have different requirements. (plus, we have police or sheriff's dept. here, you have police or guard service).  You should call the UK number for Simplisafe, ask your questions, and make sure you have also confirmed with your police or guard service (which ever responds to alarms) whether visual verification is required or not.

Here's a thread with similar questions:  https://simplisafe.com/forum/customer-support-forum/emergency-dispatch/visual-verification-0

In the US, the monitoring company responds similar to your current alarm company, but it's much faster (they don't wait up to 2-4 minutes, it's much less and they don't try to call more than once)  But again, your questions would be best answered if you called SS, because you need the CORRECT answers for your location.

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dandydons

371 Messages

5 years ago

@sat.shah see my response further up in this thread

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blueroon1

11 Messages

5 years ago

Dandydons and 60ampfuse are both 100% correct, as what dandydons described is almost completely accurate in the current policy and procedure that is set up for monitoring, as well as 60ampfuse is also correct is it due to your local laws that Securitas was dispatched instead of the police as securitas is the one contacted and at that point it is completely up to them on whether or not the police are called.

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info_0bb038

1 Message

2 years ago

I just had a similar thing happen to me. The monitoring center told me that they were dispatching police but they called some guard service called Securitas instead. I waited an hour but noone showed up so I called a relative to check on my house instead. After the relative stopped by and told me that it was a false alarm, I called Simplisafe to cancel the request for police. They said that was no problem. A couple of weeks later, I get a 75USD bill for dispatch of a guard who never showed up. This happened in the US.

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davey_d

Community Admin

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5.7K Messages

@info_0bb038​ it sounds like your property is located in a municipality that requires Verified Response for false alarm reduction. This means that your local authorities would typically refuse to dispatch for calls from an alarm company, unless they had an eyewitness account of a crime in progress.

So for some locations, SimpliSafe works with third parties to send an agent on location to assess the situation.

If you're in such an area, we should have sent notice that Verified Response is in place. We would also have that info displayed on your account, under Menu > Monitoring > Alarm Permit Requirements. For further info, please reach out to our dedicated Permits team (who also handle other local municipal requirements), via permits@simplisafe.com.

2 years ago

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