What is Crash and Smash Protection?

Burglars use many tactics to enter a home undetected. Some are stealthy, others are fast. Crash and Smash Protection is a proactive Alarm.com safeguard against a ‘fast’ tactic that typically defeats other security systems.

What’s ‘crash and smash’?

A crash-and-smash burglary is when an intruder targets the home’s security panel to prevent it from sending an emergency signal. They ‘crash’ through the front door—the fastest method of entry – then ‘smash’ the security panel as fast as possible.

This technique tries to take advantage of the delay that security systems give the homeowner when they arrive home. It’s typically 30 to 60 seconds, giving you plenty of time to open your app and disarm the system or walk to the panel and enter your code. With a typical burglary, once the panel counts all the way down, it automatically alerts emergency responders. In a crash-and-smash attack, the burglar tries to disable the panel before it can send the signal.

Thirty seconds isn’t a lot of time, but it can be enough for an experienced burglar to locate and destroy the panel with a hammer.

But with Alarm.com’s patented crash-and-smash technology, your system still works even if the panel is destroyed.