Visual verification

I'm not sure about the UK, but in the US, visual verification requirement is only necessary if your local police/sheriff/etc require it (to avoid false alarms - many cities do not require it, and thus cameras are not required).

You might want to call your Simplisafe UK support number and inquire about the regulations, as I believe they use a guard service and may have different requirements (also call your local city's police dept).

There are a couple people on the forums who are from the UK, but not sure when they'd be able to post and answer your questions, so best bet is to call Simplisafe.

My understanding is that some Police Departments will give preference to those incidents that have visual verification of some inside.  That makes sense, over just a motion sensor going off  without visual verification.

Yes, visual verification may be required in some locations, but it will be of value in most locations.

@LTT50 if you need police or fire dispatch you need visual verification.

I am in UK.  Without that a guard will be sent at cost to you unless you opt out of guard dispatch.

Thanks for the replies. I have contacted customer support to ask them some questions. First email was ignored for two weeks and only answered when I prompted. I then sent a follow up email which again seems to have been ignored. If I'm paying money for a service, it would be good to know exactly what I am paying for. They are losing money because all of this uncertainty is holding me back from subscribing to monitoring. Monitoring was the primary reason I went with Simplisafe over other options.

If I do use the camera and there is a burglary but the camera doesn't 'see' this, what happens? Scenario: intruders come in through the kitchen, the alarm goes off, they keep hold of me in the kitchen and steal the money from there but go nowhere else in the house. Yet my camera is in the hall & it looks like no burglary has taken place.

From what I believe, monitoring would ring me as primary contact. I would not be able to answer. Second contact would be partner. They aren't in the house but tell monitoring they don't know where I am. Primary contact number 3 does not answer phone.  

What happens then? Nothing? Guard dispatch? Police dispatch?

There is no third call.

If they do not get a valid safe word from the first or second call, they dispatch police (unless the municipality won't respond to unverified alarms).  In which case they may dispatch a guard service IF you sign up for that.

So if the first caller is me and I cannot answer. The second caller is my partner who does not know where I am or what I am doing. Can they refuse to give the safeword and therefore ensure a guard dispatch is sent? My worry is that the monitoring centre will ring my partner, ask for the safeword, my partner will (quite naturally) give the safeword if asked. Monitoring centre hangs up & closes case & I am left in house on my own with intruders!

I think I would first find out how much your town(or guard service) charges for false alarms, if they do.  Then have a talk with your partner so you're both on the same page about what you both would want to do in scenarios as you described.  No, you can't have everything planned to a 'T' because life doesn't happen that way, but at least if you knew if you'd have to pay for false alarms (or not), then you could decide your course of action per scenario. Ultimately, a false alarm/dispatch would be better than being in a dire situation with no help on the way.

Btw, one can "forget" the safeword while on the phone to Monitoring (in which, dispatch will be sent), or say any word that is NOT the correct safeword, and dispatch will be sent.  That said, you really need to keep trying to call SS for the correct answers, regarding the visual verification and guard service information in your area - that's information you really need anyway.  Try calling early in the mornings when they first open (have no idea about the UK, but in the US it's 9 am, ET).  If the UK phone system has an option to press a number for sales, press it! They may answer sooner.

If you have someplace you spend a lot of time, why not have a panic button mounted there?  You can set it to "silent" and then NOBODY gets called, police/guard is dispatched.  Or mount a camera there, then SS can see the intruders.

Yes, I think my best bet now is to call Simplisafe. I sent another email but again no reply so looks like a phone call is the final option.

I have several panic buttons around the house. I just don't know what the official line is with visual verification but as you mention probably best to call to get an official answer.

Thanks,

Sorry, only just seen this. I know answer to this, do you still need help -- seen other thread with same subject have responded there

PRIVACY - Does anyone else have privacy concerns allowing visual verification? How can we be sure that the cameras will only be used for appropriate purposes and not for the entertainment of bored monitoring center employees?

To calm any worries about privacy regarding camera feeds the only time any monitoring center employee can access your camera feed is when your alarm is activated, at that point the employee is able to view the feed for a maximum of up to 20 minutes, at which point the access is then revoked and there is no way for them to access it again. The only time anything is saved for monitoring purposes is if there is a CONFIRMED  break in and somebody is visible in the home.

Also, if the camera shutter is closed, nobody can see anything.