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In a previous life, I was an executive at one of the largest alarm companies and I am here to tell you alarms for mobile equipment like we travel in are extremely problematic. As mentioned, you have to have an open communication line. While cell phones offer that possibility today, we have all experienced the problems with service in many parts of the country. Next is the problem of what to do if an alarm is received by the monitoring station. What emergency or police service should be dispatched. Even if you are connected to some locater like GPS, there are rules and regulations to be followed. As an example, it is illegal for an alarm company outside of Maryland to alert police or fire inside the city of Baltimore. The industry is rife with these sorts of arcane regulations. Finally, there is the problem of false alarms. In the industry, fewer than 5 % of the alarm events received in a monitoring station are dispatchable. Of those that cause emergency dispatch, nearly 95 % turn out to be false alarms. As a result, most police and fire departments require registration of the alarm system before any action can be taken. Violations result in onerous fines.
So, what to do. 1) get some stickers warning that you have a security system. Even in normal residential communities the most effective deterent is the yard sign. Next, get a dog or other loud noise maker to draw attention to the situation. And finally, as most of these break-ins occur in storage yards, make sure they have adequate security. They may even allow you to connect into their system.
Dave
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