There is little that we love more than our children and so it has always been our highest priority to protect our kids while they’re at college and university. These education institutions are stepping up their security efforts following several high profile violent acts like the school shooting at VA-Tech university, and the threat of other random acts of violence and worldwide terrorism. While we’d all like to believe that these acts didn’t happen, it’s a safer and better practice to install the best security practices we can (and hope that their use will never come to be). As such, we can provide a full security management system to your school, or university with the best technology available including access control and video surveillance, streamlines for staff entry, visitor management, and vending and controlled access areas across an entire campus.

Many universities have realized the increased safety levels that access control cards provide. It means that strangers or other dangerous persons will be less likely to be in school dorms and classrooms. In fact, it means that only those people with authorized access to a certain area should be able to enter. These precautions can reduce problems of vandalism, theft, arson, and other unwanted and unsavory activities. This means that students and faculty who are working after-hours or in an isolated part of campus will be safer than ever.

We can also with his video surveillance in high traffic areas to remind students, faculty, and visitors that they are being watched and recorded. There is a psychological element to security and it is proven that when people believe they are being watched, crime rates are decreased.

And finally, we can help you establish a crisis management plan so you will know what to do if ever a crisis arises on your campus. The Department of Education recommend that every school has an emergency response system that includes the following:

1. Mitigation and prevention – conduct school assessments to identify possible areas of risk.
2. Preparedness – crisis procedures are instilled.
3. Response – a crisis is the time to follow plans and make use of preparations.
4. Recovery – return to learning and restore the infrastructure as quickly as possible.

We hope that with the use of these security measures that we can keep your school and your children safe. Please contact us if you are interested in learning more about our security system aimed primarily at institutions of higher education.

Moving can be really stressful – there is always so much to do, so much to coordinate. First you have t find a new home, then you have to sell your current home, then you have to pack up all your stuff (which involves its own set of issues – do you keep the drawing little Timmy did in Pre-K or toss it? Do you keep your favorite jeans with the hopes that you’ll eventually lose those last 10 pounds? Do you donate the TV and then plan to upgrade or keep it and save the money?). Where in all that chaos do you think about your security system?

Well, I’m glad to say that we’ve got moving down to a science. If you have a monitored system with us, you’ll need to notify us so that we can disconnect the system. You just need to call your nearest branch’s security department and we’ll send you a form to fill out (or you can download it from here). We’d love it if you know who is moving into your new home or business so we can help them understand the preexisting system and help them set up monitoring if they’d like for us to help with their security.

You should consider changing the locks on  your existing home or business and also for your new space. You never know who has the keys to those locks and it’s always better to be safe than sorry. Finally, once you are settled in to your new place (or even before if you have the time to do so after the old owners move out but before you’re in yet) call us and we can arrange to provide a complete security analysis and recommendations for monitoring. It’s just like how we did it when you first signed up.

And of course, we like to mention here that the success of our business depends on our satisfied customers. Most of our business comes from the referrals of highly satisfied existing customers and we always appreciate when you tell your friends or colleagues about us. To reward you for spreading the news about our good work, we like to reward those referrals that result in the sale of a monitored security system. If you refer someone to use who signs up, we’d like to give you three FREE months of monitoring as our way to saying thank you!

Have you checked out our YouTube page? We have some really wonderful how-to videos as well as some of our specialists answering your questions about our security solutions. It’s worth a look, you’ll be certain to learn something. In this video, one of our best locks specialists will help you understand the difference between high security locks and normal locks.

Back when we were all in elementary school, false fire alarms seemed pretty cool. It meant shorter classes, a free recess, and a chance to chat with your friends outside of class. I remember when I was small sitting in a particularly grueling spelling test and wishing and hoping that the fire alarm would go off. Oh, how the times change!

Now I know that false alarms take police, fire, and medical men and women away from real emergencies just to check up on a false alarm. I now know how annoying it is to be a neighbor of that house that always seems to call the police around – not to mention the obnoxious sound the alarms make in the middle of the night. Hate that!  And perhaps the more harrowing reason why I hate false alarms is that they cause people to become complacent. If you’ve ever had your alarm go off time after time after time, you never know how you’ll react when it’s the real thing. We don’t want to have dull senses and no sense of emergency when the real thing happens.

To help prevent false alarms you should follow a few simple steps before turning on your alarm system: close and lock all protected doors and windows, keep pets, balloons, fans, and heaters away from motion sensors areas, know how to cancel the alarm, have a plan and know what to do if the alarm accidently gets set off, don’t panic.

It helps to keep Allied Fire and Security in the loop on everything you are doing that could set off a false alarm – call the office when you are hanging drywall, sanding walls, painting or plastering, fumigating, replacing doors or windows, installing or removing wallpaper or carpet, adding air conditioning or insulation, installing attic flooring or basement ceiling, installing intercoms, or installing anything near the alarm access panel.  You should also notify us if you decide to hire extra help around the house, get a new pet, if you have plans to sell your home, plans to test your system, or if you want to change your authorized user or call list.