What’s the point of car alarms? (and alarms in general)

You’ve probably been walking down the street one day, maybe to get some groceries or maybe to simply enjoy the day. But everyone has probably heard a car alarm at one point in their lives. There are the simple car alarms that loop a loud and annoying sound over and over and over. And then there are the complicated car alarms which switch sounds every five seconds for the purpose of irritating any bystanders nearby. But what’s the point? In my eyes, car alarms are the most useless security feature that I’ve ever witnessed. What do you think of when you think of car alarms? A majority of people would say that car alarms are simply an annoying mix of sounds that has the purpose of driving somebody insane. The truth is, most people don’t even think about what a car alarm is meant to do: prevent car theft.

People just don’t care enough about other people’s property to actually take action when they hear a car alarm. Most people decide to simply walk away or pretend nothing ever happened when their lives are interrupted by an alarm. When I personally hear a car alarm, I automatically assume that it was an accident. I’ve never actually witnessed a car being stolen and a car alarm preventing that car from being stolen. And I believe that most other people haven’t either. First of all, let’s discuss what a car alarm is supposed to do.

Obviously, it’s supposed to prevent car theft, but how? Who ever thought of a loud noise which could somehow prevent car theft? The alarm’s main purpose is to basically “scare” the criminal in question by transmitting an ultra loud, ultra annoying noise. Now, as bystanders, we don’t view this car alarm as scary or intimidating. But let’s look through the eyes of a criminal:

The criminal was planning to hit the supermarket not too far away, but before long, his eyes spotted a nice ride. With closer inspection, the sedan had keys in the vehicle and the windows remained down. This is the time where the criminal has to make a judgement call, not that he has good judgement anyway. If he had good judgement, he wouldn’t be stealing anything. But the criminal has to decide whether getting basic food and nutrition is more important than getting a sweet new ride. Any normal person would know that basic food and water is the right way to go, but this criminal’s mind is distorted with a bad history. He knows he wants the car, not some food off of a local supermarket. The car would give him purpose, money, and a way forward. And so, without question, the robber chooses the car. By now, the criminal is anxious and paranoid. People might be staring at him, and suspicion’s must be rising. And so the robber goes on with his master plan, and reaches for the keys inside the car through the open window. Beads of sweat drip from his chin as he shifts his eyes around like a hawk, watching for any witnesses. He gets closer and closer to the keys and suddenly it happens. The alarm goes off. Every single eye in the parking lot makes its way to the robber. The robber is thinking, “I’m done. It’s over.” He panics. He dashes away from the car and runs as far as possible. And like that he’s gone.

Now you might be thinking, “wait a minute. So the car alarm did have an effect. It distracted the robber and ended up saving a car.” But it’s not what the robber is thinking that determines whether the car or all cars in general are safe. It’s what the bystanders are thinking. Because the bystander acts as the witness for everything and anything. And what they’re thinking could be the difference in a car stolen and a car driven.

Let’s say we have an average Joe walking to the local supermarket to get some groceries for his wife and his son, Jim. Joe is well rooted within the middle class and both him and his wife are being paid decent salaries to support a family well. Today isn’t a special day for Joe at all, as going to get groceries falls within the “routine, boring activity” category. Joe doesn’t want to do this, but he really has no choice, and when it all comes down, he isn’t willing to argue for it. As he gets closer and closer to the supermarket now 0.3 miles away, he hears a car alarm to his left. He shoots a casual glance to the car and sees yet another man mistakenly setting off his alarm. With this, Joe faces forward and continues on his journey to the supermarket.

This would be an example of the average middle class citizen’s reaction to a car alarm. They wouldn’t really care for it and they definitely wouldn’t care so much to the point of taking action. But it is true that in this example, Joe didn’t see the criminal wildly running off into the darkness. Would Joe’s reaction have changed if he did see this? Maybe, but the overall outcome would be the same: no action taken.

Let me sum up this reaction with Joe. Let’s take him to an alternate reality where he did look at the car more than five seconds. He’s walking to the local supermarket when suddenly a car alarm goes off to his left. He shoots a glance towards the car and finds another mistaken car “theft.” But wait. The so thought driver now runs off, away from the car, looking panic-stricken. Joe is shocked. But what can he do that can have any effect on the inconvenience? Joe decides to look straight ahead and keep walking. He quickens his pace and tries his best in avoiding any involvement in the car theft attempt.

By all means, this idea might just apply to me and maybe my city, but I can see everybody in the country doing this at some point in their lives. It’s either that people don’t care enough to take action, or that they’re too scared to. Being involved in a car theft in anyway is not what anybody wants to experience, and so people try their bests to avoid experiences like these. Yet, the occasional bystander will make an effort in calling 911 or taking some sort of minor action. But what’s the point of taking a risk depending on bystanders, when the car itself could call for help?

The last couple of years, people have been worrying about their houses security to the point where many have bought their own home security system. The most basic home security systems will include detection for all entrances to the house including doors and windows. The more advanced systems would also include motion detection, but let’s not get into that. All alarms have some sort of function to contact local emergency stations. My question is why can’t cars have that function as well? I’ve had a decent alarm system in my house for quite some time and when it does go off, it can be quite intimidating, even for people living in the house. Literally the whole neighborhood can hear this, and there have been moments when this alarm has gone off at midnight or at some point during early morning. But this brings me to my next point. When have alarms gone off when there is legitimate threat at hand? When that car alarm goes off in the parking lot on the way to the supermarket, it’s probably someone who unlocked the car from inside when it was already locked. The car alarm was first made to protect cars and their owners. But its evolved into a more accidental annoyance. Accidents and mistakes have made their mark on alarms everywhere, so when somebody hears any kind of alarm, they automatically assume it’s some sort of mistake. Now, I might be the only to trigger a house alarm in the middle of the night, but I’m willing to bet that almost everyone has heard a mistaken car alarm go off in a parking lot. This is how the functionality of alarms is decreasing rapidly.

Because I was previously talking about house alarms, let’s go back to that point. Or you could apply the following concept to all alarms. It really depends on what you own. But anyway, let’s talk about the history of alarms. The first and most basic alarm system was made in the 1850’s which simply consisted of a circuit and an alarm. When the circuit was broken, the alarm would go off. Pretty simple. But let’s rewind even further back in time. Before alarms were ever in use. Imagine a primitive neighborhood with dozens of houses. None of these houses had any sort of mechanism or device which could distract or disrupt robbers. And so house robberies were virtually inexistent during that time period. But companies needed money and some sort of new product. And so they introduced the basic latch lock. These companies claimed that robberies had gone up, but in truth the level of theft had stayed the same. Now, with this new lock mechanism, to-be robbers got interested. They wanted to figure out how to bypass these locks, and so they did. By this point, house robberies started increasing for real, and so companies simply took advantage of this opportunity and made more and more products until they reached the house alarm. Think about it this way: before house alarms, if you left a door open, nobody would think of coming in and stealing property. After house alarms, doors are locked more than once and armed with advanced motion detection, which actually motivates robbers to find ways to get in the house. In my eyes, these alarms are actually counterproductive and are giving robbers incentives to rob houses. Now let’s talk about the consumer’s point of view on all of this. Before locks, the consumer didn’t need locks. He or she could leave the house while leaving the door open, and they could be almost guaranteed safety. But with the new lock mechanism, these consumers got frightened and they looked to the locks to protect themselves. And this cycle went on and on and on up until it finally reached the burglar alarm.

That’s what I’m trying to say. Alarms in general are scams. But of course, you shouldn’t remove alarms now that you’ve read this information. Because burglar alarms have already done their damage. Robbers already have an incentive and part of that incentive is frightened housekeepers. The more anxious the housekeepers are, the easier the robber can do his work. Alarms have already taken their toll and there’s no more going back. Alarms are simply a marketing strategy to make money. Nothing more. To put this into comparison, let me bring up something way off topic: the iPhone. Before the iPhone, nobody needed an iPhone, because, well, it didn’t exist. But the release of the smartphone brought a new era of consumer interests. People suddenly needed iPhones for whatever reason. And it all came down to making money for the company.

Hopefully you got something off of this post. But, as I mentioned before, alarms have already done their damage. So don’t try to disarm your house and your car in an effort to be smart. There is no going back. But I’m simply trying to make people aware of the scams they’ve been going through all their lives. Our life and the way we live is made up of scams and self-interest. We just have to learn to deal with it.