Home security companies seeing increased business

Last Updated:

caption

BAY AREA (Bay News 9) -- While many businesses are suffering from an uncertain economy, home security companies are responding to a growing demand.

Michael Connors with the City of St. Petersburg has noticed that the number of residents applying for alarm permits has gone up steeply during the past two years.

"There's no question there's a curve showing the intensity and increase in the number of security systems that are being placed online," Connors said.

The numbers have increased from an average of about 500 new permits a year since 1994 to about 2,000 a year in the last couple of years.

The jump in permit requests has happened despite crime statistics that show a decreasing trend in some cases.

But Fran Thiry with Guardian Security says perception is reality to many of his clients.

"Definitely the ones that are being affected directly that have a burglary or their neighbor was burglarized," Thiry said. "Closer it is to them, I think the more concern they have."

Guardian Security's sales went up 35-percent from last January/February to this January/February. An ADT authorized dealer in Clearwater says the company saw the best sales at the start of the year than at any other time in their history.

Comments

You must enable Javscript for comments to function.

IMPORTANT: Vulgar, obscene, and offensive language will not be tolerated. Anyone who uses such language in their post will not be allowed to participate in future comments. While we value freedom of speech, we also wish to protect our visitors from exposure to inflammatory content. Thank you.

COMMENTS BY USERS ARE NOT ENDORSED BY SERVICE PROVIDER: You can access the User Agreement at any time. Your use of and/or registration on any aspect of the Service will constitute your agreement to comply with these rules.