Jessica was monitoring our Portland accounts last night when she received an audio activation from the storage areas of a home entertainment retailer. She could hear banging and scraping noises and a faint male voice – it definitely sounded like someone was trying to gain entry. Jessica dispatched Portland Police and alerted the emergency contact for the business. Officers arrived in under four minutes and arrested one man, who also had a previous warrant out for his arrest. The man was reportedly well-known to police as a troublemaker. While there were no signs of forced entry, a few locks on the business’ electrical boxes were broken.

This arrest underscores the value of silent alarms for catching crooks in action. When the activity of the suspect triggered the audio sensor’s impact sensor, Jessica was able to listen in. Had a loud bell sounded instead, the suspect may have given up and wandered back out to the street to try another business or home. Silent alarms are definitely not the norm for the electronic security industry, but Sonitrol Pacific is not known for doing things like anyone else. Impact-activated audio and silent alarms are not always as easy to grasp as motion detectors and sirens, but when it comes down to it they simply work better and help police keep criminals off the streets.