Danny, our house was broken into a couple years ago, during the day while we were at work. They used my tools to break open the safe in the bedroom. Anyway after that I did some research on security systems and monitering services etc..... What I found was our local Police dept claims to have a 7-10 minute responce time, from when they are called. Most services will first try to conact you when there is an alarm, before notifying local police, which can take 3-4 minutes. So in the end, if a burgler comes in and hears the alarm, he knows he has 10 minutes to get out of there. And that's all he needs. So I will save the $300-400 in monthly charges annually. Also, if they see from outside that you may have an alarm, all they have to do is snip the phone line.
Pete