Urban Alarm Office Moves to Park Center

Urban Alarm is excited to announce we have moved our administrative offices to the Josephine Butler Parks Center in Mt. Pleasant. Located at 2437 15th St. NW, the Parks Center is centrally located in Mt. Pleasant and buttressed against beautiful Meridian Hill Park.

You can look forward to Urban Alarm's new Community Safety Seminars and other community events at this location, which will begin during the summer. Be sure to check our blog and email newsletter for upcoming events.

One of Urban Alarm's key community partners, Washington Parks and People, also calls the Josephine Butler Parks Center home. Over the past year, Urban Alarm has partnered with Washington Parks and People on multiple neighborhood and community security projects and is thrilled to be able to continue to this work at our new location.

Please note that even though our offices have changed, our mailing address has not; you may continue to send all mail to 5505 Connecticut Avenue NW, #306, Washington DC 20015.

Social Media in Blizzard 2010

DC's blizzard of 2010 has highlighted the main-streaming of social media as an emergency communication tool. In our house in AU Park the battery operated emergiency radio was no where in sight despite the 30 hour power outage. Replacing it were two iPhones and twitter feeds. While twitter has generally been a vehicle for the masses, we followed a number of government and infrasturecture authroities who kept us informed on a minute by minute basis.

Not only were the feeds informative but also two-way. While I got solid busy signals trying to notify PEPCO of a downed line behind our house a twitter message to DDOT was met with a quick response:

The dialog with DDOTDC was extensive with residents tweeting information on problem areas, pictures of unplowed streets, and DDOTDC acknowledging resident concern passing information to and from the DDOT snow response command center. Other District agencies provided excellent information on bus routes, school closing, and more.

The tweeting was also valuable on a smaller scale. Broad Branch Market twittered hourly updated on the status of the store and availability of high-demand blizzard items (e.g., milk and toilet paper). zBurger announced their $1 "snowburger" to the local inhabitants and got a tremendous response.

While the ability of officials to be so responsive on a one-to-one basis may be diluted as adoption and volume of messages increases there is no doubt that social media will serve an increasingly critical role in emergency and community communications.

We have created a list of twitteres we found particularly useful durring the snow emergiency. Check with stores you frequent in your neighborhood to see if they use social media. While you are at it be sure to follow Urban Alarm on twitter as well.

Securing your Freedom of Speech (or, at least, your yard signs)

Political yard signs can trigger emotional reactions in heated elections. Stories abound of yard signs "walking" away. So what can you to to secure them?

I saw a story last week about few people who have taken to video surveillance to monitor their their yard sign and maybe nab a disgruntled activist gone thief. Video is great as it shows you who took it and gives some excellent You Tube fodder. But it is not the most cost effective solution.

So we at Urban Alarm have taken a lower cost approach to protecting our political voices in the week leading up to election day.

Wireless alarm systems offer tremendous flexibility as the sensors can go just about anywhere. We can use a simple wireless contact sensor, wrapped in a plastic zip lock to protect it from moisture, and bury it in the ground taped to the yard sign and corresponding magnet.

The solution is simple but effective if you want to run out and nab the thief in the process. However, you may not want the who house alarm going off, and the police being dispatched (or maybe you do) when the sign is pulled. And, you want to know about it even if the alarm system is disarmed.

This can be addressed in the alarm system by using a special sensors group. The GE alarm systems we install have special sensor groups just for "chime" or "enunciate" sensors. These are sensors that do not trigger an alarm but simply announce "Garage Door" or other meaning full report. It is similar to how a sensor would behave when you turn on the "chime" mode but it acts this way at all times (e.g., without chime turned on and even when the alarm is armed) and does not trigger a full reported alarm.

Of course, there are many other applications for wireless sensors and these special sensor groups which is why we take the time to understand our customers concerns and come up with solutions that address them. For example, we recently installed this sort of special sensor on a pool gate so that adults are notified when the smaller kids enter the pool area. Give us a call and we can discuss your specific concerns and how security technology might be used to address them.

Reading Crime Statistics on the Internet

Crime statistics in the local paper has evolved as much as classifieds or any other reference information. It is now easily available online. Online Websites take it one step further by creating "mashups" with Google Maps overlaying crime information right on the map.

Crime report mashup websites can be an excellent resource for researching crime events. Information can be easily broken down by crime type, timeframe, and location. A summary of the crime information from police reports is available to clicking on event icons. This can be particularly valuable.

We regularly review the information to see how criminals entered the homes and businesses. With that information we can provide better guidance on how to secure properties with an alarm, video, and access system. For example, a recent month showed that in almost half of the residential burglaries in NW DC the burglar gained entry to the home through a basement window. This is a natural point of entry because it is generally out of site of passers by and gives the burglar the sense they are less likely to be detected.

Since basement access is usually a visible space it is an important part of securing a home. We often advise that all basement windows are secured and that, if feasible, a secondary motion sensor is located in a basement that is armed even when residents are at home.

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