
Related: Florida Public Schools Must Have Mobile Panic Alarms by 2021-22 Academic Year They are typically unsupervised, and just don’t deliver the level of reliability required.
DURESS SYSTEM BLUETOOTH
We use Bluetooth for transmitting music from our phones to our earbuds Wi-Fi for streaming media Zigbee and Z-Wave for home automation and we have come to assume there is cellular coverage no matter where we are – even though we are often disappointed – but none of these were designed for life-safety applications. Wireless Protocol Must Be Designed for Life SafetyĪ mobile duress system must be designed for the purpose of life safety and use a wireless protocol appropriate to it.
DURESS SYSTEM PASSWORD
Because any mobile duress device must be immediately available, a password or pin-protected phone is of little use in an emergency. These are combined with the logistical issues inherent to using a cellphone itself. If a phone’s battery dies or loses its connection, or the app crashes, there is no way of knowing. Not only are there the challenges of coverage, which we’ve all encountered using our cell phones, but there is usually a complete lack of supervision.

Mobile duress apps on cellphones are probably the least secure option. And if those systems are unsupervised, there is no way of knowing if alarms are being missed, or if the system is even operational. Mobile duress solutions that use wireless technology that has not been designed for life safety, such as WiFi and Bluetooth, can sometimes provide location, but not the reliability to ensure the alarm messages are delivered. But the assurance that the system is operational, and that alarms are getting through, must be the priority.īy necessity, every mobile duress system relies on wireless protocols to transmit alarms. It should be flexible enough to allow it to be used with virtually any existing security system, and integrable enough to allow for a variety of responses.įor instance, when a mobile duress alarm button is pressed, it might be configured to initiate the school’s lockdown procedure. However, a dedicated network does not mean that a mobile duress system should be incapable of integrating with the security system already in place. Related: How RTLS Mobile Duress Technology Protects Healthcare Workers Because supervision alerts and check-in messages are sent over the same network as alarm messages, they must be delivered with the same life-safety level of reliability. Mobile Duress Needs a Dedicated Network, Ability to IntegrateĬomplete supervision also requires a dedicated network for your mobile duress system. “There should be no more than 200 seconds between check-in intervals, and supervision must include every device in the infrastructure,” says Grace. The interval between check-in messages must be close enough to ensure that inactive devices can be replaced or repaired without compromising safety.

If the head-end does not receive a check-in message from a device in a pre-determined interval, then it will consider it to be inactive and also send an alert. In a fully supervised system, each device will also send a constant stream of check-in messages. It also means that the system must send alerts to campus security personnel if one of the devices has been tampered with, ensuring that a bad actor can’t intentionally disable it. This means something as simple as alerting system administrators when a device’s battery is low, granting them enough to time to replace it. If any component in a mobile duress system has an issue, it must send an alert so it can be immediately resolved. Because reliability in a life-safety system can be a matter of life and death, there is no room for error. This requires a secure, supervised wireless network. It must be able to tell you that you have complete coverage and that everything is working properly. Supervision refers to a mobile duress system’s ability to monitor its own health. Supervision is necessary to meet those requirements and standards.” What Is ‘Supervision?’ But every wireless life-safety system must meet all the same reliability requirements as its wired counterparts, as well as all the same regulatory standards. “During my time as security director for Littleton Public Schools, we used mobile duress, and it was fantastic. “Mobile duress is a critical component of school safety that has been a priority for me for years,” says Guy Grace, chairman for the Partner Alliance for Safer Schools.

DURESS SYSTEM INSTALL
Related: Charter School Will Be First in Broward County to Install Panic Buttons
