Almost none of these are true for where I currently live, the only thing lacking, which it pretty much has to given the reality of invoking the police on wild g

Almost none of these are true for where I currently live, the only thing lacking, which it pretty much has to given the reality of invoking the police on wild goose chases, is action beyond the building when the phone line goes down. But in that case the local alarm most certainly goes off ... but not very often at all! AT&T at least here is near rock solid. Do you think insurance companies would give discounts unless the benefits were per their actuaries real? I'm sure the sign does a lot of good, but it's just part of a system of defense in depth which starts there (or perhaps not living in a bad neighborhood).