Help adding remote alert/arm/disarm to older HKC house alarm

Beware hkc app subscription price can vary. Lowest is 5/6 euro a month per household plus once off app download free. However if an installer helps you it can be priced at around 20 euro a month not including any annual maintenance or anything.

If you want a discount on house insurance it needs to be professionally installed although typically you have no contents cover except when it is armed.

If paying someone to come on site itight be worth splashing on newer model. Note gardai will not respond unless CCTV confirms issue.

Could you link please to where you discovered that Gardai will not respond to Alarm Activations " unless CCTV confirms issue "

The Gardai respond to what are known as verified alarm activations, if a system has been designed and conforms to the appropriate standards then Gardai will respond to the activation.

Other than technical stuff, that I know all about, should you have any further queries on Garda response criteria then I would encourage you to query them on same.

They have a document which they released some years back and it particularly addressed their alarm response criteria.

This document was released after quite a lot of consultation with us involved in the industry.

Gardai have always had a lot more to deal with than Intruder alarm activations.

When they released their criteria for their response to Intruder alarm systems, it meant a system had to have been designed and certified to EN 50131/2/3 etc, that the premises had a unique number as issued by Gardai and that the system was capable of transmitting a verified alarm signal.

That means 2 different detectors going into alarm condition during the same activation phase, so that could be for example, some toe rag after breaking a window and an inertia shock sensor detecting and the system activating from that, the system now transmits a " pre alarm condition "

So the toe rag reaches in now through the broken glass and now opens the window, this then is picked up by the Control Panel and it transmits a " Verified alarm condition "

As you can appreciate from the above, the chances of a crime taking place in the second example is a lot greater than the first ( whereby it could have been a ball hitting a window )

Personally I think Garda resources should be best dispatched in the Verified activation as there is a clear indication there electronically that a crime is actually taking place.

Other forms of verification are recognised, such as a monitored CCTV system whereby a monitoring company can actually see a break in occurring while checking the alarm activation.

However the mention above of having to have CCTV footage for Garda response is not factual

Of course under the constitution, should any of us have a need for Gardai, they will respond.

Yes as you stated, there has certainly been issues with Gardai not responding to calls and of course I am sure a lot more serious than a verified alarm activation call.

Monitoring stations do not ring " local Garda stations ", there is a system in place whereby they call dedicated lines in Garda Communication centres, of which there are a handful in the Country.

The process is obviously a lot more professional than you think.

You seem to know more about the response of Gardai than what I do.

Anyway all I can say is, they have in black and white their response criteria with regard to alarm systems.

I have no experience of them not responding to same and in all logic, it is best in a court that the accused is caught " red handed " and that is something which electronic security systems can relay to Gardai.