How Much Security is Enough?

Imagine that you are the victim of a terrible crime, in which

• Burglars come to your house with a U-Haul moving van, then they
• Steal everything inside
• Set fire to your house
• Spread salt over your lawn to kill your landscaping
• Cut down any trees and haul them away to saw into lumber
• Shoot your dog, and then
• Drive away, and
• Nobody saw a thing

Pretty grim, huh? But this chain of events is really unlikely. It’s what the security industry calls “Possible Maximum Loss.” Insurance companies use it, too. It’s fancy language for “worst case scenario.”

“Probable Maximum Loss” is the worst scenario that’s actually likely to happen. An example of “Probable Maximum Loss,” for security purposes, is a lot less dramatic. It would be more like this:

• Burglars come to your house with a car, then they
• Break a window to get inside
• Steal your cash, some of your jewelry, your guns, and maybe a laptop or your wide-screen TV, and
• They drive off

Figuring out your Probable Maximum Loss is part of what we try to do when you call us for a security system. We do it this way because of three principles that should always guide real security planning:

1. Security will never be 100% effective
2. It’s impossible to plan for the worst case scenario
3. If you could plan for the worst case, it would still be too expensive

Instead of planning for the worst, we protect against the worst that’s actually likely to happen. This keeps you safe, but it doesn’t cost more than the value of the stuff that criminals are likely to steal or vandalize. The idea is to protect your property, not to get our hands in your pockets for products and services you don't need.