Burglar Alarms

In some of the houses in which I have lived, the burglar alarm control panel has been situated at some distance from the door. This tends to necessitate walking a few metres into the house with shoes on.

If one was wearing slip-on shoes (as I do nearly always since going to Japan) one could possibly remove them in time to get to the control panel, but it would be hopeless with lace-up shoes.

Is it really necessary for the control panel to be such a distance from the door?