curity solutions, known for the apprehension of burglars and intruders, celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. Since pioneering verified surveillance alarms with its first franchise in 1964, Sonitrol has dedicated the past half century to refining and updating its unique impact-activated audio verification technology to deliver 100% volumetric coverage of businesses, schools and homes — all monitored in real-time.
The company was founded to maximize the efficiency of local law enforcement agencies’ time and resources,
In 1964, Robert Baxter and Al Cronk, based in Daleville, Ind., co-founded Sonitrol when they began to use technology from Baxter’s pest extermination company to detect larger intruders – humans.
The acoustic device used to pinpoint the exact locations of termites in walls was adapted and modified to become an early model of the modern-day impact-activated audio alarm verification technology available through over 125 Sonitrol Dealers around the United States, Canada and the UK.
Cronk, a veteran of the Anderson Police Department in Indiana, recognized the benefit of Sonitrol’s audio verification technology, and how it could be applied to better inform local police about the real-time details of an activated alarm. This breakthrough in technology, far ahead of its time, established the standard of alarm verification throughout the security industry.
“When Al Cronk walked into Bob Baxter’s office 50 years ago, and told him that, as a police officer, he had never actually caught a burglar in-progress because of an alarm system — but he had an idea of how to do it — Sonitrol and verified security alarms were born,” said Bill McNabney, Founder, Sonitrol U and Sonitrol’s first employee. “That was the inception of verified alarms. They were created by a police officer — for police officers.”
Since 1977, when Sonitrol began recording apprehension statistics, the verified electronic security company has assisted local law enforcement agencies throughout the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom in over 170,000 apprehensions — a rate of one apprehension every 111 minutes.
In the past decade, the United States Department of Justice reported that up to 98% of all burglar alarm activations are false alarms, and that in just one year, approximately $1.7 billion was wasted on funding law enforcement responses to these false alarms. That has led to efforts to use verified security procedures.
Sonitrol Security of Delaware Valley provides a single source for security solutions for intrusion, video, access and fire, all backed with professional monitoring, according to a release.
As of December, 2013, Sonitrol recorded 170,425 successful apprehensions. For more information, visit www.sonitrolde.com or contact Joe Allen, vice-president/owner, Sonitrol Security of Delaware Valley at (302) 652-3060.
