New Blog on my days as a Security Guard

Yes I now have a new blog which talks about all the places and experiences I had working as both an Armed and unarmed Security Guard
While I went to trade School and got my business of the ground .
It will definitely curl some hair after you read  all I went thru as a guard

Enjoy '   

http://thesecuritygame.blogspot.com/

Another Devious Burglar Alarm Device -The Floor Pressure Mat

When Motion Sensors and break the beam sensors  where not yet  developed  . But then where available but they where  as large as a shoe box, expensive  and where not attractive in a home .

There was the Pressure  Switch Mat. They could be used Closed Circuit like under a large art item where when pressure was taken off mat object was sitting on broke electrical circuit and caused an alarm or more typically Open circuit where an intruder stepped on the mat under a rug and closed the electrical circuit activating the alarm.
They where also used as a back up alarm  in early alarm systems which had Phase II protection as it was known so that if an intruder opened the door to a home and set of the local only alarm which means it did not call police which was common in early days .The Alarm then shut off after 15-30 minutes and if the intruder came back in the alarm would not go off as the primary loop was tripped but as soon as he stepped on the mat on the floor or stairs the alarm would go back off again.Do to Phase II protection loop which was Open Circuit

Of course there was a problem some panels only accepted closed circuit loops so they made a converter to change the mat from open to closed circuit operation for the panel by means of a sensitive  relay

The mats where devious as to how and where they where being used just like the trap wires  and where responsible for many burglars being caught , but also a pain dogs and cats  could set them off and if they got wet from cleaning rug or water leak they shorted out and needed replaced .You always needed to male sure you arranged furniture so it was not on mat etc.
One customer one time had a small roof leak and put a bucket under it and yep you guessed it the bucket filled got heavy enough and set off the alarm. Needless to say very few are still in use but still available thru United Security Products  for special tasks like knowing if some one has fallen out of a chair or bed etc. 

http://www.unitedsecurity.com/pages/pressure.html

Thinking of sub Leasing Your Building Space watch you do not open a Pandora's Box

You see signs all the time Space Available as you ride by warehouse and manufacturing buildings . With the economy bad and if you do not need all the room why not sublease and make a few extra hundred dollars a month.
The problem with out careful planning you could be opening a Pandora's box which could cost you your business.

First off does your community's zoning  rules allow you to do it. If not your in violation and can be shut down. 2nd does your insurance cover you for such use of your building. If not should there be a injury claim your screwed.
3rd If you do it are you changing your zoning and is your building in proper code compliance in the first place .
This is what gets companys in trouble .
Something happens a fire or burglar  alarm goes off authorities arrive and investigate and the next thing you know you have a violation notice . What if they do not pay with out a proper lease your screwed.

That partition wall you put up is not fire proof worse yet that wall you cut thru  violates the firewall code. You can then be given a citation and given 30 days to comply with thousands to hundreds of thousands in costs because you may well have to install a sprinkler system . Worse yet some one your leasing to gets hurt or some one they invited in the building gets hurt and your tennat has no insurance. Your screwed.   Even worse yet one of my customers sublet to a wood shop the owner was viewing and trading Child Pornography on the property. He could have had his building seized.
Thank god in his lease he had a provision which prohibited illegal activity or he could have well lost the building he still had to get an attorney involved  which cost thousands.
 So how do you avoid Pandora's Box. 

1st check with your local zoning and code enforcement to see if you can do it and what you need to do to comply.

2nd check with your Insurance carrier if you have all proper coverages needed and if not how much it is going to cost you .

3rd consult and have an attorney write you up a proper enforceable lease to protect you and your property in many cases they will want you to separate the building from your business with a separate corporation. If the building is sued they can get the building not your business. Go to a proper Small business attorney familiar with this work not your brother in law.

If you fail to do the above 3 steps you are 1 step away from opening Pandora's Box.  Do not loose your business over something stupid like some of my customers have had happen to them.

If Manufacturers want to sell more Card Access Systems The price of the Cards has to come down

In the 30+ years of doing alarm system I have only sold about 20+ card Access systems
The single biggest barrier being the cost of the cards and fobs used by personnel to enter in some cases they can be 2-3 times the cost of the equipment You can buy a 2 door control unit for under $1000.00 and depending on the electric lock which runs $150-500.00  You can install for around $1500.00 and make a decent profit for a days work,  till you add in the cards or fobs which run $3.50 a piece and up if you have 100 users thats  $350.00 dollars additional or $3500.00 for 1000 cards if you have a  employer or social  club with a high amount of members or employees .
Its is no wonder people will not put in card access and go instead with the headache and non security of keys which can be easily copied because they will not spend the $6.00 a piece high security keys cost. Until they can get prices down forget it. Will they listen I guess will see. With so much stuff being made overseas you would think cards would be no more than $1.50 dealer cost.

Trip Wires The Fiendish Burglar alarm device before Motion Sensors

Before there where Photo Electric break beams and Motion Sensors there was a fiendish device known as the Trip wire. Which took some science and skill to place to trap burglars .
At left are some trap wires as shown in an old Ademco catalog in 1981  they could be wired Open Circuit where pulling the wire across a door way caused the clip to pull loose causing contact and an alarm trip or Closed Circuit where the wire going across the door way could cause an alarm by either pulling wire and clip fell out breaking the circuit or cutting the wire. The far left unit was a pressure sensitive unit  cutting the wire and pushing or pulling on wire tripped it in case a burglar bumped the wire and then stepped away it would still trip unlike  the simple open or closed model .

You could put these units all over a business to trap a burglar  such as across a window AC unit if they tried to remove it or attach the wire to an item on a shelf and when it was removed wire was pulled or across a door way or a foot up from floor across a garage door, across an aisle way etc etc. when I worked for Holmes Protection they had this big old warehouse in the south side of Pittsburgh  that was a Rexall plumbing supply it was always a pain responding there for an alarm  they  had 42 of these trap wires and after the alarm went off usually false from a raccoon getting in the warehouse and gnawing on things  police  would walk thru and it took an hour to walk around and reset them all. But as simple as they where they caught burglars all the time. Once beams and motion sensors became widely available and cheap trip wires went away like foil but there are still some out there being used. I have not seen them lately in any catalogs But USP- United Security Products  and GRI -George Risk Industries  still makes something like it.  They even used this special thin trap wire thru duct work to keep thieves from crawling thru duct work they would put 1/4 inch hollow  wooden tubes thru the duct then pull the wire thru them. and wire walls and anything else you could think of that could move to keep burglars out. Any cut to the thin wire the alarm which in Holmes case was silent and you did not know the armed   Holmes armed  responder guard  or police where on the way
Old technology but a very devious one like floor mats which I will talk about in a future article .

The Disrespected Dry Stand Pipe If needed will it work in your building

The Dry Stand Pipe  many buildings have them yet many of them when called on will never work.
The Dry Stand Pipe is a piping system empty of water which is run thru multi story buildings which have no  or limited sprinkler protection   to supply fire fighters with water source  should they catch fire.
Firefighters carrying Highrise Packs  which  usually consist of a  100 foot section of 1 1/2 inch hose a nozzle and spanner wrench and  carry these packs into the building on fire to the floor where fire is or above or below it depending how bad it is and hooks up to this dry pipe which is then hooked up to outside at the FDC Fire Dept Connection and water is pushed thru this pipe by the firetrucks pumps  to firefighter . The truck operator must be careful to deliver the right amount of pressurized water so a firefighter can effectively fight  the fire but yet not blow the stand pipe apart which is a big issue as many buildings have old rotting and in some cases missing stand pipes .

The pipes are suppose to be tested annually but they are often overlooked and are essential in fighting multi story building fires as it is very difficult to get fire hose up a stairwell  and operating properly.
yet every year there are reports of stand pipes failing.  The other big problem  thieves stealing the caps and even the brass valve fittings off these  dry stand pipes which happened in this building because the large amount of money they bring for scrap. In some cases alarm company's now pressurize these pipes with air and monitor them with pressure monitor switches  in case some one try's to steal a valve the loss of air causes a supervisory condition at panel which results in a dispatch of service personnel to check whats wrong.
these pipes provide essential life safety but too many are not getting the message and when you have lax enforcement in an area you find incidents where pipes fail.

http://firegeezer.com/2011/07/30/asheville-lodd-controversy-over-standpipe-arises/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standpipe_%28firefighting%29

Do you really need Credit Monitoring ? Consumer Groups say No.

Identity theft can be a nightmare for the person who has it happen to them it can takes weeks even months to straighten it out  especially if your going for a car or house loan and find some one has stolen your identity. With this in mind some enterprising individuals have started credit monitoring services to help prevent this from happening but as you can see in the article below seems they are not worth the money to pay for.

http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2010-05-13/news/cracking-life-lock-even-after-a-12-million-penalty-for-deceptive-advertising-the-tempe-company-can-t-be-honest-about-its-identity-theft-protection-service/

In fact many consumer groups and credit experts recommend  not getting this protection at all . 
Instead you can set up and do a simple credit freeze which prevents individuals from opening accounts up in your name.

http://www.experian.com/consumer/security_freeze.html

However there can be drawbacks as it takes time to remove the freeze should you want to get credit. 

One of the best way to prevent problems is by checking on your credit score which  is free 3 times a year  for accuracy and then reporting problems immediately if you find them.

 This service is free but be aware of  the free credit report . com sites they try to get you to sign up for services you do not need. follow the link below to find out about how to get a truly free report.

http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/credit/cre34.shtm

You can keep criminals from getting your identity but it takes an effort on your part.