All new cars on the market have car alarms built in to the car to act as a deterrent against theft. But because thieves expect a car to have an alarm it might not be as big as a deterrent as you might think. Although there are a lot of amateur thieves that would not be able to steal a car without the alarm going off, so maybe car alarms might be worth having after all. What the alarm is supposed to do is to alert people nearby so that they may report the theft. How many of us actually respond to a car alarm? This can be compared to a house alarm where they are largely ignored. When alarms came on the market first they would have been very effective but like everything as they have gotten more common they are becoming less effective.

Maybe they would be more effective if we had fewer false alarms so that when people actually heard an alarm they knew that something had to be done. However the reality is if you are going about your daily life and you hear a house alarm or a car alarm there is a very high probability that it is a false alarm. We have to ask why this is this especially in an age where technology is such advanced. Why can we not make an alarm system that is more robust and yet effective against intrusion? Is it a cost factor or can it be done? Imagine if you lived in a world that if you heard an alarm going off it was very likely that there was a crime being committed. Read the rest of this entry »