I just triggered the panic button from my remote, but did not receive a phone call.

@ CJ

Thanks for posting! This is a normal procedure for the monitoring service when an alarm is disarmed very quickly. When they get the alarm signal, your account pops up and they will attempt to contact you. If you disarm the system, it sends a cancel signal and the monitoring sees that you deactivated your alarm and they treat this signal as your safeword so they abort the process. Typically, if the alarm is cancelled within the first ten seconds, it is normal not to receive a phone call. This procedure is to prevent false dispatch of police.

Ryan K.
SimpliSafe Buglar Alarms

I'm not sure this is the best policy. Suppose you are surprised by an intruder, reach for the remote and set the panic alarm. The intruder sees what you did, grabs the remote and turns off the alarm - he has ten seconds to do this. You will not get any help under these circumstances.

The first step is that the monitoring service calls you. You can then give them the PIN or the distress PIN, depending on whether you accidentally triggered the alarm or are in the situation described above.

I don't see how the present policy prevents false dispatch of police. The police are not dispatched right away in any case, correct?

@ pixel

Thanks for posting! The reason for this procedure is if more than one person is operating the alarm, it could cause serious confusion between different parties operating the alarm.For example, if someone at the home accidentally trips the alarm, they have the option to quickly cancel it, otherwise someone not at the home may get a phone call and have police dispatched to a false alarm. Also, if you accidentally trip the alarm, it gives you a chance to quickly deactivate it without having to rush to the phone. Also, when the monitoring service calls, to cancel the police dispatch you must provide your safeword, and saying anything else but your safeword will render a police dispatch.

The best thing to do in a situation where a burglar follows you into your home and tells you to deactivate your alarm, would be to go to the keypad and enter the Duress PIN, which will turn the system OFF and send a silent panic signal with immediate police dispatch. Also, I would practice using your keychain remote where it is not visible to bystanders. We have made the buttons different sizes to make it easy to operate from a pocket or purse. In any case, if someone follows you into your home and is forcing you to turn the alarm off, the Duress PIN would be the safest and smartest solution. We can also remove Cancel Signals from your account, in which case you would receive a phone call for every alarm signal, however the only way to cancel police dispatch would be to give your safeword to the dispatch operator.

Ryan K.
SimpliSafe Wireless Security Systems