The latest ACPO statistics covering intruder alarm activations should make for encouraging reading among security industry practitioners and the police service alike.

Systems boasting a Unique Reference Number have risen by 20,000 from 2004 to 2005, generating 368,105 false alarms. That represents 63,000 fewer false activations than in the previous survey year. Undoubtedly an excellent result.

In addition, the average number of false activations per system - the industry's ‘preferred' measure of achievement - has fallen to the "unprecedented" low of 0.33. Overall, 37 of the 43 police forces in England and Wales have reported "significant drops" in false alarm numbers. Positive indeed.

As chairman of the ACPO Security Systems Working Group, Peter Davies is right to suggest that, like any robust set of figures, the questions provoked by these numerics are perhaps more numerous than the answers they provide.

For example, is there a causal link between the burgeoning number of security systems and reductions in burglaries (whether commercial or domestic)? To what extent might we accredit these improvements to better system design and manufacturing, improved installation techniques and monitoring regimes and enhanced on-site inspections?

Crucially, is the fall in the number of genuine activations - which now stand at a little over 40,000 across UK plc - a sure sign that security systems are now a genuine deterrent in the fight against crime? Or is it merely the case that the reported fall in arrest numbers owes rather more to a reduction in prompt police attendance?

‘Unpacking' the figures and being able to answer such questions in fine detail isn't easy, not least because the 43 forces exhibit variations in recording technology and procedures. On the industry side, commercial considerations can make competing organisations very reluctant to share too much detail. Understandable. It's a dog-eat-dog world.

That said, we can no longer accept this status quo. The industry desperately needs a joint approach to data gathering. "An approach," states Peter Davies, "enabling the police service and the security sector to test a variety of hypotheses, and then discover what has the most impact on system performance and how it might be improved." ACPO must strive to deliver on that aim as soon as possible.

Source

SMT