Crime prevention center uses Optex detectors for its demonstration

Optex detectors are at the heart of The Community Safety House (Center of Excellence for Crime Prevention) used by the UK West Midlands Crime Prevention Design Advisors to demonstrate the benefits of security systems to local businesses, schools and local authorities.

In partnership with Cougar Monitoring, Vicon and local installers, a ‘typical' security system comprising cameras and detectors linked to a remote video response center has been installed at Brownhills Community Safety House to promote the concept and benefits of remotely monitored CCTV.

It is also providing awareness training for Crime Prevention Design Advisors and Crime Reduction Officers from other Police forces as this the only center of its kind in the UK.

The system that Martin Dews, Business Development Officer at Cougar Monitoring, and a team from the Security Design Center have installed includes a number of Optex external detectors and an outdoor PIR detector with one of the highest detection rates and lowest false alarm rates in the industry.

Police Commissioner Darren Robbins says the feedback from those visiting the safety house has been very positive: “More than 3,000 people a year visit the centre and all have found the advice and displays very useful,” he says. “A number of schools in the area have suffered from vandalism and already use CCTV systems but they do not tend to be monitored. We are trying to show how with some minor adjustments the retrospective CCTV can become proactive and actually prevent break-ins or acts of vandalism.”