Home security tips & guides for Texas homeowners

Alarm permits inside Dallas city limits are issued by the Dallas Police Department’s Alarm Permit Compliance Unit, administered through the city’s Special Collections office. Dallas is one of the strictest cities in Texas about this: no valid permit means the department will refuse police response to your alarm. Here is the cost, the false-alarm schedule, […]

If your home or business sits in unincorporated Harris County — outside Houston city limits and outside every other city in the county — your alarm permit comes from the Harris County Sheriff’s Office Alarm Detail, not from a city hall. Inside Houston the fees and the false-alarm rules are different, and our City of […]

If your home or business sits inside Houston city limits — or anywhere that gets a Houston Police response — your burglar alarm permit comes from the City of Houston Burglar Alarm Administration, run by the Administration & Regulatory Affairs department. If you are outside the city, in unincorporated Harris County, the Sheriff runs a […]

If your home or business sits in unincorporated Travis County — outside Austin city limits and outside every other city in the county — your alarm permit comes from the Travis County Sheriff’s Office, not from a city hall. Inside Austin city limits the rules, the fees and the fines are different, and our City […]

If your home or business sits in unincorporated Bexar County — outside San Antonio’s city limits — your alarm permit doesn’t come from SAPD — that only applies inside San Antonio city limits, where you need our City of San Antonio alarm permit guide instead. Your permit comes from the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office Alarm […]

Short answer: older home automation systems age badly — they lock you into a dealer for every change, rely on clunky keypads and dated apps, lack real conversational voice control, raise privacy concerns, and quietly become obsolete. A modern AI-driven control platform like Josh.ai — whose Josh Core controller can run the entire home, directly […]

Short answer: crime in San Antonio fell sharply in 2025 — overall offenses dropped about 13%, with property crime down roughly 18% and violent crime down about 9%, according to the San Antonio Police Department. That’s encouraging news for homeowners, but the city’s totals are still large, and break-ins remain a daily reality. Here’s a […]

Short answer: for most homeowners, yes — a monitored security system is worth it, mainly for the protection it provides when you’re asleep or away and the peace of mind in between. It can deter break-ins, get help dispatched fast, lower your insurance, and catch fire or CO emergencies. But it’s not for everyone, and […]