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I personally think the only thing these systems may be good for is psychological. The burglars will generally be long gone before any police get there... There was a TV show (20/20?) once where they tested different systems and the only time the thief got caught was when a neighbor saw him breaking in... Most thieves (according the the ex-thief they used for the simulated break in) are in and out in just a few minutes (less time than it takes the alarm company to determine a real break-in vs. the much more common false alarm)... or worse (as happened to my neighbors with a monitored alarm system), they'll do a "home invasion" and rob you when you are home and the system is turned off (they followed them in through the garage). In the meantime any reduction in your insurance may be offset by the "license" your local city often requires to offset their cost of responding to false alarms (or just because they feel the need to tax everything, and if you have enough money for a monitored alarm system, you can pay them $50-100 / year ).
I suppose if you're on a street where nobody else has a system, then you might get the bad guys to try to skip your house - but then, all you really need for this is a sign claiming you have a security system - which I believe I saw a study that said this was just as effective as a full blown system... and if they're good at being bad guys, they may decide to hit your house since having an alarm system must mean you have "good stuff".
I have an elaborate system that came with my house, but I don't pay to have it monitored. When we were moving in, my young son pressed the panic button accidentally, and it took about an hour to get it turned off (had to track down the previous owner to get their "secret word" - or call the police and have them charge me $150 to call the alarm company to have them turn it off). Nobody paid any attention to the loud alarm, no police or rent-a-cop came in the 20 minutes it took to track down the alarm company (or hr it took to track down the previous owner).
Then again, if it will make your wife feel safer, than why not?
Stan
posted by 76.224.122...
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