Monitor Photo/Russell Slaton
American Watchdog owner Jon Durm, wearing his ubiquitous American flag attire, shows off his patriotic-themed transport storage holding equipment he uses to supply top-notch customer service.

CEDAR CREEK LAKE–To keep an eye on your property and possessions, American Watchdog’s Jon Durm stands ready with his system installation expertise and has multiple glowing references from previous clients to back up his work.
Durm, who owns American Watchdog, has been in the security system business for about 15 years and started his local business in July 2022. His company offers alarms and security cameras, as well as surveillance and network services, to residential and commercial customers.
American Watchdog is licensed and insured. Durm is easy to spot, too. “I’m always American – red, white and blue American flag,” Durm says. “I’m always dressed in American attire, whether it’s a flag shirt, flag shoes or some sort.”
American Watchdog installs the security systems, connects it to a radio base and then passes on monitoring those devices to the owners, or American Watchdog can hook them up with a monitoring service with no contract involved. Even though security monitoring is not directly part of his business, that knowledge still adds to his expertise.
“Most of my technical background is in the electronic audio-video surveillance field, but in order to be licensed in the surveillance industry, because our systems are quote-unquote ‘alarm-like’ systems, it requires you to be licensed as an alarm person, as well.”
Durm says monitoring services are based on the client’s needs. “If the client doesn’t have the ability to answer their phone or they’re out of town a lot, I would recommend them getting a monitoring service,” American Watchdog’s owner says.
If a client is home all the time, or their business is down the street, you eliminate the timeframe of when a monitoring service responds, Durm adds. “If you monitor it yourself, you get the alarm notification immediately, which can eliminate that five-minute delay,” he states. “It’s taking out the middleman. Our systems also give you video detection to help you make that decision on whether you want to call the police or whether you want to come down there and take care of it yourself.”
American Watchdog also handles networking inside homes and businesses, providing a connection to the outside world. Durm’s company can strengthen and solidify internal networks, whether it be Wi-Fi or landline connections. For example, American Watchdog can run cables to make sure plugs are available for voice over internet protocol (VoIP) phones, Durm says.
“Anything that has to do with the networking internet service,” which includes moving signal between building offices and rooms in your home, Durm says, such as incorporating a smart home situation.
American Watchdog also offers a 24-hour response time. “If you call us with any type of problem, whether it be a new customer or an old customer, we will show up to address and assess the problem within 24 hours,” Durm says. “It doesn’t matter whether you’re a new customer or an old customer, if you’ve got something wrong, whether it’s warrantied or not, we will show up within 24 hours to assess and address the problem.”
American Watchdog customers heap praise upon Jon Durm. One of those is David Westerfield, who is co-owner with Thomas-Andreas K Weigl of W Haus Décor & More and Waves by 456. “Jon Durm is a great guy,” Westerfield says. “He stands on his product. Day or night, he is always on call. He’s a super nice guy. I do business with my friends, and he became a friend real quick.”
American Watchdog can be reached at (903) 880-2772.