Want An Existing Alarm System Monitored? No Problem!

If you have an old or pre-installed alarm system in your home and would like to be monitored, we can help!

Perhaps you have moved into a new home that has an alarm system already installed, or maybe you had an alarm system installed yourself years ago but have never, or no longer have, it monitored. You have decided you would like your home to be monitored, but aren't sure if you have to get an entire new system installed or if an alarm company can work with what is already there.

Alarm Center has the solution! We can monitor any system, no matter who installed it!

Our customers are monitored through our local U.L. Listed and Approved Central Station; the largest in Baton Rouge. Central Station is never offline and so reliable that it stayed online and functional through Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Gustav, and Issac, keeping our customers safe during and after the storms.

What About Switching?

Do you have a system but are unhappy with your current company or unsatisfied with their response time? Give us a call at 225-292-5276. If you switch to us we'll give you 6 months FREE!

Alarm Center offers flexible solutions for your security needs, whether you're a homeowner who wants to keep their loved ones and possessions safe or a business owner with commercial property to protect. We work with each client individually to build a protection plan tailored to your specific needs.

[Call Alarm Center Security today for a FREE quote on a security system for your home or business - 1-800-97-ALARM - or visit our website to see if you qualify for a $0 down installation - alarm.net]

Alarm Monitoring - What It Is & How It Works

Having an alarm system is an important aspect of smart home safety, but homes with a monitored alarm system are 2-3 times less likely to be burglarized. Alarm Center offers monitoring from a local, state-of-the-art facility known as Central Station.

Our Central Station is U.L.-approved and located in Baton Rouge. The largest monitoring station in the city, it has the most up-to-date, high-tech equipment and software to monitor and process our customers' alarm signals.

Central Station is online 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. In fact, even during the widespread outages caused by Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Gustav, and Issac, Central Station never went offline!

Your Alarm Is Going Off – What Happens Next?

Depending on the signal coming from your alarm panel, which is wired to a phone line, the police or fire department or an ambulance will be dispatched immediately to your home or business. You will, also, be notified with a phone call (to your work and/or cell) within seconds of the alarm sounding and the call going out to the appropriate department.

To break it down even more for you, this is what happens when your alarm is tripped:

1. A signal is sent from your control panel to our monitoring facility.
2. We call your premises to verify the alarm. Your password is on file with us so that you can identify yourself in the event of a false alarm.
3. Our Central Station dispatches the proper authorities. (Police, Fire or Medical)
4. Our operators contact your emergency call list to notify you or your assigned emergency responder of the alarm and dispatch.

But I Don't Have a Home Phone!

We can still monitor you! Alarm Link will transmit your signal to our Central Station even if you don't have a telephone line.

Whether you don't have a phone line at your residence, or want to monitor a location where phone line access is not available, such as a boathouse or garage, our Alarm Link Wireless Monitoring is the solution.

Whatever Your Needs, Alarm Center Has You Covered!

[Call Alarm Center Security today for a FREE quote on a security system for your home or business - 1-800-97-ALARM - or visit our website to see if you qualify for a $0 down installation - alarm.net]

Hidden Keys - Don't Do It!

On September 2, in Monroe, Connecticut, a homeowner came home to find his deadbolt unlatched and items missing from his home, including a video camera, laptop, and $500 in cash. There were no signs of forced entry and police noted that a key he kept outside was missing.

The victim made what is an all too common mistake among homeowners – leaving an extra key "hidden" outside the home. Everyone is familiar with the fake rock that you can buy to hide an extra key in your yard. Over the years, this has evolved into any number of seemingly ordinary yard, garden, or porch items to hide that extra key inside. Those not wanting to splurge on fake yard décor often hide their key in what they already have on display – under the door mat, on top of the door, in a flower pot.

Know who else is familiar with those rocks and rugs and flower pots? The burglar wanting to get into your home!

The problem with all of these "hiding" places is that they are so well-known and so many people use them, and thieves are well aware of this. Other security experts agree - a quick online check shows everyone from  from insurance companies to police departments to simple home protection articles  – advise against doing this. In fact, the only places that believe hiding an extra key outside of your house is wise are the places selling those rocks we just talked about.

Our unfortunate homeowner in Connecticut was hit, likely when he was at work, at a time when the FBI says more than half – 62% - of home invasions occur (precisely between 6am-3pm). Not only are you at work, but so are your neighbors, giving burglars time and leisure to snoop around and find that hidden key.

There are many reasons to need an extra key nearby and many will tell you to place that key in the trust of neighbor, friend, or family member. Yet, that's not exactly convenient if you're locked out and you can't get in touch with them. So what's a homeowner to do?

If you're determined to have that extra key stashed away, the safest option (or the lesser of the evils) is a combination-lock key storage box (pictured right). There's hundreds of brands and types to choose from, and they are widely available.

However, the only real way to guarantee the safety of your home, family and valuables whether you're a convenience-key-hider or not, is to have a fully-monitored alarm system with a keypad panel. This way, even if someone does come across your house key, they're still stopped in their tracks without your alarm password and the authorities are quickly notified that there's an intruder in your home.

Worried a home alarm system is beyond your means? You may be surprised. We have a wide range of security products and features to fit many needs and budgets, such as iAlarm, Alarm Link, as well as fully-monitored alarm systems. You also may qualify for our $0 Down Internet Special, where you can get a home security system installed with no up-front costs with approved credit.

If you'd like to know more, contact us today, or just fill out our online form for a Free Estimate on our Comprehensive Homeowner's Package.

[Call Alarm Center Security today for a FREE quote on a security system for your home or business - 1-800-97-ALARM - or visit our website to see if you qualify for a $0 down installation - alarm.net]

How to Secure Your Home from the Inside

How to Secure Your Home from the Inside on Howcast

[Call Alarm Center Security today for a FREE quote on a security system for your home or business - 1-800-97-ALARM - or visit our website to see if you qualify for a $0 down installation - alarm.net]

Who's In Your Fridge When You Aren't Home?

I once knew an insurance adjuster who worked in the burglary division of his agency and I'll never forget the day he said to me, "You'd be surprised at who's been in your fridge eating that cold fried chicken."

I have never been able to shake that image in my head of someone in my home when I wasn't there, eating out of my fridge, sitting in my favorite chair, rifling through my drawers, and invading my private space. It made me realize it was naïve to think that my home was safe and secure behind my flimsy lock and easily kicked-in deadbolt.  

People's homes get broken into every single day, and though we believe it could never happen to us, I'd imagine all those who have suffered through a home invasion once thought the same thing.

Though we may want to believe we are immune to such misfortune, the odds are not in our favor.  In the U.S., a burglar breaks into a home every 15 seconds.  According to the FBI, 62% of those burglaries occur during the day, between 9am-3pm, when most people are at work and their homes are left unoccupied and are more vulnerable to an invasion. 

Here locally we have cause for even more concern.  Of all the burglaries that occur in the United States, almost half of them - 45% - occur in the South.  

Louisiana itself, especially in and around the Baton Rouge area, has a notoriously high crime rate.  Statistics state that you have a 1 in 27 chance of becoming a victim of property crime in this state; in fact, of the 12,666 property crimes committed in Louisiana in 2011, 4,220 of them were burglary of a residence or business.

And yet, there is something you can do to prevent you and your family becoming a victim.  In contrast to the frightening stats above, it is proven that homes which have a fully-monitored alarm system are 3 times less likely to be burglarized.  If that isn't incentive in these times we live in, I don't know what is!

[Call Alarm Center Security today for a FREE quote on a security system for your home or business - 1-800-97-ALARM - or visit our website to see if you qualify for a $0 down installation - alarm.net]