If your business relies on a traditional alarm system — motion sensors, door contacts, glass break detectors — there's something you need to know: police across Canada are increasingly treating unverified alarm calls as low priority. In many jurisdictions, they're the last call to be dispatched, and in some cases, they're not dispatched at all.

This isn't speculation. It's a direct response to decades of false alarm data.

The False Alarm Problem Is Massive

Industry-wide, traditional alarm systems generate false alarm rates between 94% and 98%. That means for every 100 alarm calls police receive, fewer than 6 are actual emergencies. The rest are triggered by pets, weather, equipment malfunctions, employee errors, or faulty sensors.

For police departments already stretched thin, responding to hundreds of false alarms per month isn't just wasteful — it's dangerous. Every false alarm dispatch is a car that's not responding to a real emergency.

What Municipalities Are Doing About It

Many Canadian municipalities have responded with escalating penalties:

False alarm fees — starting at $100-200 for the first false alarm, escalating to $500+ for repeat offenders
Alarm permits — requiring businesses to register alarm systems and pay annual fees
Deprioritization policies — unverified alarms are dispatched only after all verified calls are handled
Non-response policies — some jurisdictions stop responding entirely after a threshold of false alarms from the same address

The trend is clear: if your alarm isn't verified by video, it's going to the bottom of the pile.

Video Verification Changes the Response

When a monitoring operator can see what's happening via live video, the dispatch call changes fundamentally:

Without video: "Alarm activation at 123 Main Street. Motion sensor zone 3."

With video: "Two individuals on-site at 123 Main Street, entering through the east fence. One is approaching the equipment yard. Both wearing dark clothing. No vehicles visible in the lot."

The second call gets an immediate response. Police know it's real, they have descriptions, and they can plan their approach. The first call goes into the queue behind every other unverified alarm in the city.

The Two-Way Audio Advantage

Video verification doesn't just improve police response — combined with two-way audio, it can prevent the crime entirely. When our operators detect an intruder, they can activate on-site speakers immediately:

"Attention — you are on a monitored property. You are being recorded. Police have been contacted."

In many cases, the intruder leaves before any theft or damage occurs. The incident is still documented, the video is saved, and the police are notified — but there's nothing to steal because the intruder was deterred in real-time.

What Edmonton and Alberta Businesses Should Do

If you're currently relying on an unverified alarm system, consider these steps:

Add video verification — either upgrade your existing system with cameras linked to a professional monitoring service, or switch to a provider that includes video verification as standard
Choose operators, not software — automated "AI-only" systems that send notifications to your phone aren't verification. Police want a professional operator who can describe what they're seeing in real-time
Ask about two-way audio — the ability to speak to intruders through on-site speakers is a force multiplier that most traditional alarm companies don't offer
Check your municipality's false alarm policy — know what fees you're exposed to and how many false alarms trigger non-response

Get Video-Verified Monitoring

Video Armed provides professional, video-verified monitoring with live Canadian operators and two-way audio capability. We process over 350,000 alarm signals per month and verify every one by video before dispatching police. Contact us to learn how video verification can protect your Alberta business.