Crash and Smash Protection - How it Works?

Imagine this scenario: while you’re away, an intruder breaks into your home when your alarm system is armed. After the entry delay (usually 30 seconds), the siren sounds. The intruder hunts down the alarm system – and these guys know where to look. He smashes the alarm control panel before it can dial out to the monitoring center. The police never come, and he gets clean away, with your cash, jewelry, and electronics. This really happens – and when it does, it’s called “Crash and Smash.”

I left out the part about your phone line being cut, since we have already covered that in my post on cellular monitoring – and that doesn’t stop a FrontPoint system! Today I’m focused on Crash and Smash, and what happens with a traditional alarm system, vs. a system with Smash and Crash protection. The good news? Someone figured a way to beat Crash and Smash, and that someone is Alarm.com, FrontPoint’s technology partner. Through its patented Interactive Monitoring services, the Alarm.com radio sends a cellular signal as soon as the first sensor is triggered, and treats the signal like an intrusion – so it doesn’t matter if the panel gets smashed or not. Your home is still protected.

We have a customer in Michigan who actually had this happen, but it was his store that was broken into. The patented Crash and Smash protection worked: the signal was sent, and even though the panel was destroyed, the police were dispatched – and the perps were caught in the act. Here’s a link to the story, with a video testimonial on how his FrontPoint system beat the bad guys.

How Crash and Smash works

The safest home security systems use smart Crash and Smash technology.  The moment an intruder triggers an alarm sensor (door, window, motion, etc…), a signal is sent and is ready to sound the alarm with the monitoring station.  If no pass code from the home owner is received, that alarm is sent, and the proper authorities are notified – and dispatched. Alarm systems with Smash and Crash technology are virtually impossible to defeat, and keep you one step ahead of any intruder.

So there you have it – part #5 of my Smarter Home Alarm Systems series. Crash and Smash is one of my favorite features of next-generation home protection, since it really  separates FrontPoint from the crowd in the arena of interactive, wireless home security. And when that intruder even tries to get a foot in the door – we’ll already know about it!