Salt Lake City: Livability in the 21st Century

PEAK ALARM COMPANY, INC.
Headquartered in Salt Lake City, Peak Alarm serves nearly
14,000 customers in a variety of residential, commercial,
and industrial markets within its five state service area. It
has become a national leader in the security alarm industry,
with 250 employees providing electronic and onsite security
services including high-performance and custom home
audio and video systems from facilities located in Idaho
and Utah.
Jerry Howe founded the company in 1969 with limited
funds, saved from working technical positions at two
Oakland, California alarm companies, a family loan, and
two used Volkswagen trucks.
A veteran of four years’ U.S.
Navy service, Jerry incorporated
Peak Alarm in 1972, after his
commercial security business grew
through knocking on doors and
referrals from satisfied customers.
Although he often worked all
night, Jerry was a devoted father to
his two young children. Since he
had scant “family time” in the early
days, his wife, Gayle, would prepare
a bed in his van for the children
to sleep while Jerry installed and
serviced alarm systems, and the
two of them would take Rick, 5,
and Julie, 2, with them on calls.
“Gayle would play with the kids
in the back while I was inside, and
the kids could go to sleep there,”
Jerry recalls. “When I was driving
we were all together.” After a typical
twelve hour day, Jerry would return
home to monitor his alarms and
run service calls. Working from their home basement, Gayle
handled billing and correspondence on her grandmother’s
1930 Underwood typewriter.
When the owner of Day and Night Alarm Company
announced that he wanted to sell his business, Jerry quickly
agreed to purchase the company’s commercial accounts,
making Peak Alarm a significant part of the Salt Lake
business community. Over the next forty-five years, he bought
many more companies and accounts, and soon new offices
in St. George, Utah, Idaho Falls and Boise, Idaho, displayed
the Peak Alarm name.
Starting with one employee, who remained after the Day
and Night acquisition, Peak’s revenues from commercial
alarm services then totaled approximately $50,000. Today
the company serves almost 14,000 accounts in the
Intermountain West and beyond, and approached $15 million
in gross sales in 2013.
Peak opened its own central station in 1977 with nine
dispatchers working around the clock, establishing its
headquarters at 2182 South West Temple. After several
enlargements and improvements, the company built a
20,000 square foot building at 1534 Gladiola Street.
Since 1969, Peak has diversified into three companies:
Peak Alarm, Peak Security, and Peak Audio Video. All have
grown in both stature and size.
Peak purchased General Alarm Corporation, and
computerized its billing and alarm monitoring in 1985,
becoming the first Intermountain West company to develop
and build a fully computerized, Underwriters Laboratory
listed central monitoring station. Peak Security, Inc.
now has more than 150 officers guarding government,
residential, industrial, and commercial sites. Its security
officers are trained in emergency procedures, including
first aid and fire prevention, electronic security and
video monitoring.
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