Where to Place Your Panic Buttons: Keep Calm and Think Strategic

Home security systems can protect more than just your doors and windows when you’re away from the home! By adding a panic button to your system, your security alarm can protect you and your family when you’re home, whether or not your system is armed! A panic button can be a safety measure that ensures that your family is always protected. When hit, the panic alarm will sound the siren in your system and alert the authorities of an emergency situation, if you have monitoring service. This is much faster than calling 911 and also lets your neighborhood know what’s going on! Alternatively with a SimpliSafe panic button, if you don’t want to alert an intruder to the authorities, you can set your panic button to ‘silent alarm’ or ‘duress’. Discover the great features of a panic button and learn where to put them to keep you and your family safe!

Where to Place a Panic Button:

A panic button can be placed nearly anywhere in your home. A common location is in bedrooms, right next to the bed. This way, if you hear someone in your yard at night, you can be quick to sound the alarm- literally! A great place for the panic button is on your nightstand or on the wall next to your bed. You can do the same in your children's bedrooms! Make sure to talk to your kid’s about the purpose of the button and that it’s only to be pushed in an emergency! It’s important to talk to your family about where your panic buttons are, how to use them and when to do so. You can even have them help you test it, so they know what happens when it's pushed.

When considering placement of your panic button, think of places that you may be situated in your house for awhile, and perhaps alone. A home office is a great location for a panic button. You may be working late and you’ll likely be seated at your desk. You can easily mount a panic button under your desk, and then you’ll always have a quick way to alert others in an emergency.

If you own a small business, you can also use a panic button with your system to keep your employees safe. A panic button works great under a store counter, receptionist desk, or in a room where you keep valuables! Many professionals, such as therapists, teachers and HR representatives, keep a panic button under their desks as well, as extra protection for when they are in a one-on-one situation.

Silent or Audible Alarm?:

When you set up your panic button, you will need to decide if you want your panic alarm to sound the siren of your home security system, or if you’d rather it be a silent alarm. SimpliSafe lets you choose! Ask yourself who will be using the button, how close your neighbors are (would they hear your siren?), if you live alone or with others, if you want to have monitoring, and how close your local law enforcement is to your home or office. Monitoring is a necessity for a silent alarm. This way, a signal will be sent to the monitoring company and they will immediately dispatch your local authorities. If you have an audible alarm with monitoring, it will trigger the alarm and they will first give you a call on your primary numbers you selected when you activated the monitoring service. If they’re not able to reach you and get the safe word, they will then dispatch your local police. Often, an intruder will not stick around while a siren is blaring, as others will becoming to see what happened and what caused the siren!

You can easily make these changes to your SimpliSafe system through the Easy Setup Wizard on your key chain remote, or if you have the Interactive Monitoring plan, you can do so right through your customer account online! Before you set your panic button to silent, however, always make sure to test it first, and never test the button while its set to silent. You can easily test your panic buttons in test mode with SimpliSafe Once you make the switch through the Easy Setup Wizard, simply save your settings and then sync your key chain remote with your base station!

Panic buttons are great components to have with your system. By placing them around your house, you’ll protect yourself, your family and your employees whether its day or night. Keep in mind, too, your key chain remote has a panic button and so does your keypad! Though hopefully you’ll never have to use them, it’s important to locate them strategically throughout your house, and know how they work!

Where did you put your panic button? Share in the comments!