The police will generally not respond to a bell only alarm, unless there is additional evidence of a crime being committed.  The police will respond to a confirmed alarm that has been passed to them from an Alarm Receiving Centre.  This can still be subject to their workload at the time, but their priority is far higher that with a ‘bells only’ system.  The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) publishes a code of practice relating to the Police response because of the growing problem of false alarms. If you opt for a monitored system you need to be aware of these rules relating to false alarms that we are obliged to record and liaise with the Police.

The level of police response is reduced after two confirmed false alarms and is withdrawn altogether after a further three false calls in any twelve month period. Any system that loses police response will have to be upgraded. The three levels of police response are:

Level 1 – immediate response.
Level 2 – police response is desirable but attendance may be delayed due to resource availability.
Level 3 – keyholder response only.

The police response can also be withdrawn.  This is where the police cease to respond at all due to the unacceptable amounts of false alarms.

Most police forces follow these procedures but there may be some regional variations.