Re: Don't think it will help me
"Your security system can't turn on the GPS itself when it's needed?"
Turning on GPS means 2 things in the Android world. There is the GPS setting which determines if GPS can be used as a whole and there are GPS updates which determine whether the GPS receiver is actually active and updating it's location.
While there are various hacks about, the first option is only configurable in Settings (or the power widget) and cannot be changed by installed applications that aren't system applications. Only when that is on can applications enable/disable the GPS updates.
As I said, there are various hacks about, so it's possible they're using one to change the OS setting, for e.g. there's a bug in the power widget that can be used to toggle GPS, prior to 4.0 there was an intent you could send out, but these are all undocumented methods that may stop functioning with any given OS update.
So just a heads up, if your app is turning GPS on/off itself, make sure it still works after updating your OS.