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Home Security Systems

Crash and Smash Built-In Protection

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By: Gilbert Cho
September 24, 2014
5 comments

Crash and Smash Built-In Protection

If a burglar breaks into your home and you have an alarm system, the siren will go off. And when it does, the burglar will usually have one of two reactions: to run away as fast as possible or to search for the alarm and try to disable it.

What happens in the rare instances that the burglar attempts to smash your system? Will the alarm signal still reach the monitoring center and authorities?

The answer is yes – as long as your alarm system has Crash and Smash Protection, a built-in defense for when your Control Panel is destroyed by a burglar.

Crash and Smash

Crash and Smash Protection is an additional layer in your home security’s defense. It ensures that your alarm’s signal reaches the monitoring center and authorities even when a burglar desperately tries to disable your system.

In outdated alarm systems, there’s a 30-60 second delay after a sensor is triggered before the siren sounds. And then there’s another delay of 30 seconds or more before the signal is even sent to monitoring center! This gives a burglar plenty of time to locate and disable the system before the signal is ever sent.

This glaring hole does not exist within Frontpoint alarm systems thanks to the patented Crash and Smash.

The moment a sensor is triggered, the signal is immediately sent to the monitoring center. At this point, there will be a delay to give users time to enter their code in case it was a false alarm. If the code isn’t entered, the siren will sound and now the event will be treated as an alarm. So when the burglar smashes the system, the monitoring center will already be working on dispatching the authorities.

Protection for Your Protection

We know that the last thing you want to find out is that a burglar destroyed your system and that’s the reason why an alarm was never sent. That’s why we offer Crash and Smash Protection: it helps us ensure the superior level of protection that our customers have come to expect from us. It’s home security that has your back.

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Comments
Edgar K.
October 2, 2014
Awesome feature. What happens if an intruder somehow manages to smash the panel before the alarm is triggered? Is there some type of a heartbeat signal in place to monitor the panel?
Reply
Jamie Botzer
October 3, 2014
Hi Edgar, this is a great question and I’m happy to clear up how Crash and Smash works. If your system is armed, once any sensor is triggered it automatically notifies the panel and Alarm.com that the sensor was opened, movement was detected, etc… This does not trigger the alarm or the siren in the Control Panel. After this point, if the Control Panel loses connection with Alarm.com, Crash and Smash ensures that Alarm.com treats the inactivity as an alarm. In the scenario you propose, an intruder would have to gain entry to your home and smash your panel prior to tripping a sensor in order to bypass Crash and Smash. This is highly unlikely, as our Security Consultants are trained specifically to design a system that prevents an intruder from gaining access to your home without setting off at least one sensor. Frontpoint does not have a heartbeat signal, however, we do regularly ping your system to ensure that we have not lost connection. There are ways to set up notifications so that you’ll be aware if we do lose connection, and we also have a team dedicated to contacting our customers should this happen. We want you to rest easy knowing that we have your back and your home is safe.
Reply
Jamie Botzer
October 3, 2014
Hi Edgar, this is a great question and I’m happy to clear up how Crash and Smash works. If your system is armed, once any sensor is triggered it automatically notifies the panel and Alarm.com that the sensor was opened, movement was detected, etc… This does not trigger the alarm or the siren in the Control Panel. After this point, if the Control Panel loses connection with Alarm.com, Crash and Smash ensures that Alarm.com treats the inactivity as an alarm. In the scenario you propose, an intruder would have to gain entry to your home and smash your panel prior to tripping a sensor in order to bypass Crash and Smash. This is highly unlikely, as our Security Consultants are trained specifically to design a system that prevents an intruder from gaining access to your home without setting off at least one sensor. Frontpoint does not have a heartbeat signal, however, we do regularly ping your system to ensure that we have not lost connection. There are ways to set up notifications so that you’ll be aware if we do lose connection, and we also have a team dedicated to contacting our customers should this happen. We want you to rest easy knowing that we have your back and your home is safe.
Reply
Michael Cook
August 21, 2015
Just to clarify, according to article. Timeline A. Door equipped with sensor opened starting 30 second timer to disarm system. B. 30 seconds expired, sounding alarm and starting 30-60 second grace period(for other alarms). C. 30-60 second grace period expired without proper passcode, prompting alarm signal to be sent on other systems. Question: does the frontpoint base send out the first signal indicating an alarm condition at timeline point 'A', the moment the contact is opened? If a Frontline system does send out a signal immediately upon detecting an open contact, then the position of the base station should not matter, including hiding from outside view.
Reply
Gilbert Cho
August 21, 2015
Hi Michael, that's correct! Frontpoint systems do send out a signal immediately after a sensor is triggered, but no action is taken within the first 30 seconds, giving you time to disarm the system. So even in the event a burglar finds your system within that time, the signal has already been transmitted. However, although there is this Crash and Smash protection, we still do recommend that you hide the Control Panel from view. Hiding your system in plain sight may give the burglar the illusion that he could disable it, causing him/her to continue to break into your home.
Reply
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