I’ve often been asked why we are so insistent on installing motion detectors on every new system we install. If all the windows and doors are protected with sensors, then why do we include a motion detector in the design of the security system?

The quick answer is, even with all your openings secured with sensors, if someone gets into your home or business without opening a window or door the system will not sound. For instance, a secured window has to be opened for the alarm to sound and a signal to be sent to the Central Monitoring Station. If someone were to break the window and crawl through the broken glass, they could get in without the system knowing.

We install a motion detector to protect against a scenario like the one above. No matter how a person gets into a home or business, if they walk through an area protected by a motion detector, the security system will sense them. When it does, the alarm will sound and the Central Monitoring Station will be notified.

A motion detector works like an invisible trap. When I was a child, every winter the mice would try to come into the garage and storage shed of our home. My father would set mice traps to catch them. He taught me to put the traps along the baseboards because that was where the mice would run. They avoided running across the floor in the open.

In the same way, we put the motion detector in the path that a burglar would logically walk through. That is usually in front of the master bedroom, down a hall or near large glass openings. In that way we have a good chance of catching the rat…or criminal.