19 January 2011

Security Alarms ringing out at Amaroo School

| Brianna
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Hi Rioters,

I live in the neighbourhood of Amaroo School. I often hear the alarm ringing. It’s not an actual ringing sound but a very high pitched, piercing wail.

I have called the school to ask them who their security system is with and have been told that it is with ADT Security. Many times that the alarm is triggered, the wail goes on for hours at a time. I have informed the school about this but they say there is nothing they can do as it’s up to the security company to respond to and stop the alarm.

I now have a 1300 number for ADT security and everytime I hear the alarm ringing for more than an hour or so, I call them. I tell them that I live in the neighbourhood and that the alarm has been triggered. Almost everytime, I have been told that they are aware of it and “something is being done”.

Tonight I have rang them yet again to tell them that I have heard the alarm going and I have heard it every day for the past 4 days! Once again, I get the now standard response of “something is being done”. Being the school holidays, I am concerned that there may be criminal damage to the school. What is the point of paying for security when nothing seems to be done?

I have tried to email ADT security but the standard complaint form is insufficient for what I have to tell them. I am unable to use the phone.

Do my fellow Rioters have any good suggestions for this problem? Don’t tell me to move! I like where I live.

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A mate of mine who works for ADT said they don’t even have any security guards. They contract all alarm responses out to other companies (Mainly use CSS or SNP in Canberra).

As for the actual, issue not much I can suggest. Perhaps just continuously hassling the school and ADT til something gets done. Usually the hardest way to get something done but most effective as well

Looks like there might have to be an unofficial noise complaint made. With a hammer.

wildturkeycanoe9:44 pm 19 Jan 11

If it was me, I’d by now be tempted to go over there and using any methods at my disposal, make sure that audible alarm does nothing in the future except make a suitable home for a friendly spider or wasp. At least then you could report that there has been suspicious activity. If it was tyres squealing for several hours, the police and EPA would be there in a flash!
Interesting responses though about the lack of authority all our protective services have over these annoyances. If the police don’t care and the EPA doesn’t want to care, whose to stop me putting a 90 decibel siren out the front of my house and leave it going 24 hours a day for 2 weeks while i go on holiday? Makes you wonder about how guidelines and bureaucracy has made our world a much more wonderful place.

At my workplace in Mitchell, we have been back late some nights conducting stocktake. A different security company car drivers up to the warehouse, tests that the doors are closed & drives off. They don’t check that we aren’t stealing thousands of dollars worth of goods, especially since we have 3 trucks parked out the front, which could be filled up with half of our stock.

bitzermaloney3:58 pm 19 Jan 11

Call ADT immediately the alarm goes off (not an hour later)… and every 10 or 15 min until it stops.

If that fails, file a civil law suit against ADT & DET for harassment, making sure you record the times and durations that the alarm goes for to prove is being for an unreasonable period of time. (Even better if you can get a class action case together with a number of other neighbours).

The problem with ADT is that once the alarm goes off, they will ring the school/organisational contact person to tell them the alarm has gone off. It is then up to that contact person to decide whether to go into the school/organisation themselves in the middle of the night and turn off the alarm (which obviously takes some time as someone has to drive there); or pay an exorbitant fee to get ADT to go and check it out themselves.

It completely begs the question why we have these alarm services if the staff still get called up in the middle of the night and sent to check out their premises; or otherwise have to pay an even bigger fee for ADT to do their job… It’s a particular issue for community organisations that simply can’t afford to pay the extra money, and have to go out and be a security guard themselves. On the other hand, these places can’t afford not to have any security at all…..

There have been similar problems with a burglar alarm going off in our street. FYI the police can’t help since they don’t attend alarms unless something suss is reported (eg. people snooping around, broken windows). Canberra connect / the EPA are equally useless with the noise pollution aspect as they don’t deal with alarms on private property. The EPA also don’t have access to personal info & are unable to just contact the owner. The best they could do was send a form letter out to the owner. Stupidly, there were no quick/easy solutions.

Someone at Canberra connect semi-jokingly suggested someone might throw a rock through a window, giving the police reason to investigate….

Does the Amaroo school have expensive facilities such as new computers?

Just asking…

DET.CommunityLiaison@act.gov.au

Try e-mailing above address ….

Call ACT Policing (131444) and tell them there’s an alarm. They’ll call ADT, who may be more likely to attend if called by the police.

Rawhide Kid Part310:02 am 19 Jan 11

Put a noise complaint in…..

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