Voice Alert Head Office
Home Security in Cape Town

[To avoid crime, you must understand it; not how it ‘was’, but how it ‘is’. We urge you to invest a few moments to digest this section; it may save you a fortune… it may even save a life.]

Crime:

 Then…A decade and more ago the law had ‘teeth’. Crime wasn’t a career lightly taken.Police aside, if the homeowner caught you on his property, there was a good chance you’d wind up on the losing end.Because of these ‘difficult-to-do-crime’ conditions, there was much less crime and, consequently, more time for police to hunt down criminals even after they’d run.

Even worse news for burglars back then was the sheer bulk of the booty; VCRs and microwaves were hottest items – but not exactly something you could stuff into your pockets and walk down the street as just another pedestrian.…And NowToday’s Robbers are after your cell phone, your wallet, iPod, laptop and key (to safe and car).But, what do these valuables have in common? You carry them with you.So – for a burglar, there’s no point in breaking in when you’re out – so the burglar changes his modus and the definition of his crime to become a robber and targets you; personally; when you’re home.And, playing right into the criminal’s hands; the police and courts are overwhelmed, and the average citizen much less likely than in the past to resist.

So the threat is ‘personal’ – ‘you’ are the target.This statement is not to be alarmist – it is to give you a realistic understanding of the current state of crime. With this knowledge and understanding you can design your security more appropriately, spend your budget more wisely, and save a lot of money.
Intelligence (not Drama) is your key to safety.
Every crime victim you talk to has an alarm system with a working siren; so how did they become a victim of surprise attack?Like everyone else, they deactivated their system and siren the moment they arrived home! Even though “we put it on when we go to bed though…“, this didn’t help them during those vulnerable hours when they cooked, relaxed and entertained. Somehow they think that it’s only when one’s asleep that one is vulnerable.When we ask, “But why don’t you turn your alarm on?“; their answer is always the same; “I can’t live with my alarm active all the time“.But, why not? “Because the siren and armed response (and intricate setup of zone exclusion) are too much of an aggravation to bother with“.
Our clients initially want ‘me-too’ solutions

 
Because they’ve not thought the situation through and are just repeating the same outdated popular ‘wisdom’, every client who inquires about our systems wants a siren and automated armed response when the system triggers.Yes, we can provide these facilities, but, remember, it’s precisely the sirens and automated armed response that cause clients to not use their systems; putting them right back where they’d be with a standard alarm – in which case, why bother adding our system to their standard alarm?
Popular wisdom – “a siren will sort the problem out” – is totally outdated. The tragic evidence is in every newspaper you open. Crime has changed its profile. What used to work no longer works:
Think Like a Thief

 
To understand crime you first need to be ‘in a criminal’s mind’.Criminals come in two varieties – both categories include individuals and syndicates, and both have well planned and orchestrated as well as opportunist specialists:
1) Professionals
Who make it a career out of crime. They do their homework and come well prepared; and
2) Drug Dependants

 
Who are desperate and simply don’t care. They’re brutal and take massive risks no sane person would; and are therefore not halted by ordinary security measures that are designed to dissuade a sane person!Both groups target you When You’re Home, and both groups are deadly dangerous.Because you might find it interesting, we’ll cover these two groups in more detail further down this page. But first – Why do they target you ?
Economics of Crime

 
Like any business, crime is a risk-versus-reward enterprise: The greatest reward for the least risk.As a law-abiding citizen, you’d imagine that the ‘risk’ is risk posed by your dogs, electric fences, armed response and even the home owner’s firearm; but, sadly, none of this is true. Remember – one group comes prepared, the other group is totally irrational.Criminals, by their very definition, don’t follow normal rules, they break them:

• They brutally deal with dogs
• When they break down your electric fence they know it triggers an alarm, so when they breach your fence they’re not intending to get over the wall or fence there and then. They know it will take days or weeks to fix, during which time your gua