This has nothing to do with HE, but I can't think of a better group of people to ask.
Recently a house across the street from us was broken into, in broad daylight, and one of the residents returned home to find the perps still in the house. This really shook up my wife and to be honest, me a bit also.
We have a very good alarm system with professional monitoring, but that doesn't do much good while we're home (and not asleep). I work at home and my wife is retired, and it's really not practical to arm the system during the day. So I got a few wireless panic buttons to place around the house.
The question now is whether to have them trigger a silent or audible alarm. I could make a case for either.
Thoughts anyone?
I'm a supporter of audible alarms. I would add that improving your deterrents is important - Signage that says 'Property security monitored' are useful, Motion Lighting in areas were lurking can occur, anything that can make the culprits change their minds will lower your risk and increase your peace of mind. Blatant security cameras with big red lights really do help too.
HAHAHA and blatant FAKE security cams with big red lights help to, especially if they augment more hidden cams without red lights. Let them smash the fakes and get that on camera.
We do have several ring cameras, floodlight cams and a video doorbell. Any motion detected after sunset turns the front yard lights up to 100% for few minutes.
What I'm really concerned about in this particular case is someone trying to break into the house during the day. There's usually always at least one car in the driveway but still, you never know what some crazy person might attempt.
The siren on the alarm panel is fairly loud, but we don't have an external siren. I can (and probably should) install one though.
I mounted one panic button right next to the front door. My reasoning for that is if one of us opens the door for someone who appears to be a legit delivery person or whatever and that person forces his way into the house, at least you could have one finger on the button in case something goes wrong.
We've got two Ring floodlight cams in the back yard (fenced in) and another on the side of the house, as well as a Ring pro2 doorbell. Motion after sunset causes various outside lights to turn on, or go to 100% brightness for a while.
I've been considering adding "real" cameras that can record 24/7, like dome cameras mounted on the soffits at each corner. Don't want to turn this place into a fortress though, and we can't watch cameras 24/7 so I'm not sure how much that would add to real security vs. just making us feel better. I'm more interested in prevention vs providing footage after the fact. If the police manage to catch anyone, the judges are just going to let them out anyhow.
Hard to know where to draw the line between practical security and going overboard.
Let them smash the fakes and get that on camera. 
