Socal you are right about the cops. In our area I have contacted people in the past and ask them why they did not lock their doors. Their answer was they did not want to repair the door because no one would hear the crook breaking in. It is the same with an alarm, if no one can hear it the crooks then do not worry. If you live in a city the response time will be substantially shorter. If you live in the county then it could take an hour or more because alarms are not a priority. If you add snow or other environmental factors it could take until Spring. A hot prowl or a burglary in progress is a priority when someone is home but otherwise it is when they can get to it. So now what do you want to do, obviously keep people out. If you have an alarm and video then that has a deterrent effect. I want that but I also want to catch the dirt-bags too and video will do it better. They now have alarm systems which will alert you on your smart phone and will even allow you to watch live from the cameras in the house. Things I want in an alarm system would be the alarm, video, strobes both inside and out, and lastly an audible alert inside the home. The audible alert is important if it differentiates between a break in as apposed to a fire alarm. Mine says "Fire get out now". I recently had a complete remodel and I am going to replace my 20 year old system with a new wireless system. I'll let you know how it works when I get it.

One additional thing you said you live at the end of a dead end street. One thing some people are doing it getting with their neighbors and setting up camera at the entrance. This takes pictures of vehicles coming and going. It would give you a chance to find out who your neighbors are and what they are like. It never hurts to get the neighbors talking to each other.

Just my 2 cents