The short answer
Most false alarms come from a handful of causes: people (wrong codes, doors left open, areas not set properly), detectors in the wrong place or seeing heat, movement or animals, poor maintenance such as failing batteries and dirty sensors, and badly tuned CCTV analytics. Fix them by reviewing your activation history to find the pattern, getting your installer to service and reposition detectors, training the people who set the system, and having every activation assessed before anyone is sent.
Why they matter
- Police response. Forces record false alarms against each system. Too many and your response can be downgraded or withdrawn — see will the police respond to my alarm.
- Cost. Call-out charges, keyholder time, engineer visits.
- Trust. A system that cries wolf trains everyone to ignore it, including on the night it is real.
Find the pattern first
False alarms are rarely random. Look at the activation history: the same zone, the same time of night, the same day of the week, the same weather. A zone that goes off every Monday at 6am is a cleaner; one that goes off on windy nights is a door or a banner; one that goes off when the heating comes on is a detector looking at a radiator.
The usual fixes
- People. Make sure everyone who sets the system knows how, has their own code, and checks doors and windows first. Many false alarms are the last person out.
- Detector placement. Move detectors away from heaters, air vents, windows in direct sun and anything that moves. Pet-tolerant detectors exist for a reason.
- Maintenance. Batteries, tamper switches and dirty lenses all cause faults. Keep to your installer’s service schedule.
- Outdoor detection. Fences, foliage and wildlife trip external detectors. Trim vegetation and have detection zones set to ignore the edges that cause trouble.
- CCTV analytics. Good analytics react to people and vehicles, not cats, rain or headlights. If one camera keeps raising activations, its rules need adjusting.
An operator in the loop
Even a well-maintained system will sometimes go off for nothing. Having every activation assessed by an operator before anyone is called stops a false alarm becoming a wasted call-out or a police attendance. Where a site keeps generating activations, we come back to you with what is causing them, rather than quietly absorbing them.
Talk it through with us
Every site is different. Tell us about yours and we will tell you plainly what we would do.