Panic button randomly went off

I have a panic button in my family room. Got a text in the middle,of the night tonight. Said it was a tamper. Told dispatch to disregard through the app as a button came up to allow me to. Seems redundant

Dispatch then called. Aren’t they not supposed to call when a panic button is triggered and just dispatch?

Looked at the panic button. It’s in it’s plastic holster. No evidence of the device opening up. How can this be a tamper and why would it activate as a tamper? Why would dispatch send police for a tamper?

This button has been in the same place for a long time (years) without issue or being touched

Put my alarm in test and called dispatch. It took a long time for each panic button signal for dispatch to receive. Dialer delays are all set to disabled.

In regards to the button in question, signal was never received or tamper when I opened the case despite red light going on. Changed battery and then dispatch received signal when pressed. Checked programming and it said it’s supervised.

If it was a low battery’, why would it not say that and instead send a tamper signal where dispatch sends the police?

I see the reason for the confusion here. The panic button didn’t just send a tamper. Take a look at your event history a couple minutes before the tamper alert. It also sent a panic alarm signal prior to the tamper.

I don’t see a lot of issues with panic buttons. I do see activity like this sometimes if a panic button gets run through the washing machine or something like that. damaging it.

If your panic button sent tamper and alarm signals without input I would replace it. That button sounds like it is simply malfunctioning given the full description.

Dispatch then called. Aren’t they not supposed to call when a panic button is triggered and just dispatch?

Operators will not use 2-Way or call the premise number on a panic. They will immediately dispatch police, then call cell contacts to inform. If a cell contact confirms false alarm they will try to cancel dispatch (this is what happened here)

Thanks for the response

Do you ever see issues when contacts, panic buttons, motion sensors, etc trigger when the batteries get low?

I worked with dispatch and triggered all my panic buttons. The one is question would not send a signal. Changed battery and it sent signal. I suspect a low battery somehow caused this. But I can’t tell why a low battery alert wasn’t sent despite it having monitored and reporting enabled.

Do you ever see issues when contacts, panic buttons, motion sensors, etc trigger when the batteries get low?

Issues, yes, but not really like what you are describing.

Signaling will typically get weaker and you might have supervision errors even before a low battery report. This is common.

Rarely, I’ll see issues with improper operation when battery runs extremely low and the device dies, but this has been with actively operating things like thermostats. For example I’ve seen a CT100 have its relays stuck shut when the battery died completely with the owner on vacation, after a prolonged period of low battery reports and none of the batteries were replaced. This ended up running heat for something like 36 hours straight and melting candles in the home. Batteries should always be replaced when low.

Those kind of failures are very rare, but they happen. In the case of the button, it is not actively transmitting, but it may be possible the device malfunctioned and sent those signals as the levels neared the point the device fails.

I really can’t say if that occurred here. I generally wouldn’t bank on it, and if a button is old and activated on its own, I would replace it to be sure.