When your intruder alarm or fire alarm goes off, or your CCTV detects an intruder, we at K9 Protection understand the importance of a fast and professional alarm response service. Through the use of our "predictive positioning", the data within our guard management system is continually analysed and optimal standby positions are suggested for our alarm response team.
An alarm response service provides businesses with a trained security professional who can attend their premises when an alarm, monitored CCTV system or other security system activates. Instead of relying on a member of staff to travel to the premises, investigate the cause and deal with whatever they find, K9 Protection provides a 24-hour professional response service designed specifically for this purpose.
Our Current Service Area
K9 Protection’s alarm response teams operate from Cardiff and Newport, delivering coverage across South East Wales, from Chepstow and Usk in the east to Barry and Penarth, and north through the valleys including Caerphilly, Blackwood and Pontypool. Current real-time average response times, for example, include NP20 averaging . minutes and CF10 at . minutes.
Our alarm response service operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year for contracted clients. Response times vary depending on location, traffic, weather and the availability of the nearest response officer, which is why we publish live response-time information rather than simply quoting an unrealistic headline figure.
About Our Service
K9 Protection are the trusted security partner for many companies and provide a fast alarm response service to businesses in South Wales. You can see our current live response times on our website at any time. Our licensed, vetted and experienced mobile security guards will respond to your alarm call and attend as quickly as possible to ensure the security of your premises.
Our alarm response service can work alongside existing intruder alarms, fire alarms, CCTV monitoring systems and Alarm Receiving Centres. In most cases there is no need to replace your existing alarm system or monitoring provider. The monitoring station simply contacts K9 Protection when an attendance is required and our response procedure begins.
Businesses use professional alarm response services for many different types of premises, including offices, warehouses, construction sites, industrial premises, residential developments, shops and other commercial buildings. The service can be tailored around individual escalation procedures, access arrangements, known risks and nominated contacts.
With K9 Protection's keyholders handling your alarm response, the typical flow is as follows, although this can be fully customised to your needs:
- Intruder Alarm or Fire Alarm is triggered, or suspect activity is detected on CCTV and a call is subsequently received from your ARC (Alarm Receiving Centre) or CCTV monitoring station (occasionally from police and members of the public too).
- The ARC or monitoring station calls K9 Protection's dedicated response hotline, and we'll log the incident.
- The incident is passed to the nearest mobile patrol including general location details and the SLA timer is started.
- The security patrol guard will accept the task, at which point our system will send them a map, a reference number to the keys they'll need, and any codes they require.
- When the security patrol arrives on site, they will show as "on scene" using GPS technology. The first thing they'll do is check the perimeter before making their way to the alarm panel. The next thing they'll do is snap the security seal on your keys in order to remove them from the safe and let themselves in to the premises.
- Once our guard reaches the alarm panel, they'll silence the alarm and check the log to find out what caused the activation and carry out a detailed check of the area to allow us to understand the cause.
- When the area that caused the intruder alarm to trigger is discovered and assessed, our mobile guard will either:
- When an intrusion is found - we'll follow the instructions we have, whether that be to arrange boarding up and re-securing, contact the emergency services where appropriate, or call a member of your team.
- When no intrusion is found, but a cause is found - we'll do our best to remove the cause, whether it's a poster flying in the air conditioning or a crisp packet shorting out an electric fence, then we'll reset the alarm.
- When no intrusion is found and we can't find a reason - when our guard has exhausted the available options and can't find a cause for the intruder alarm to sound, they will reset the alarm, lock the premises, and wait for a 15 minute period to make sure the alarm doesn't reactivate.
- When a legitimate user has been found - it happens! Our keyholders will occasionally get to your site only to find out that the intruder was in fact a legitimate visitor; maybe a delivery or a member of staff dropping things off. If this happens, we'll do our best to verify their legitimacy and identity, either allowing them to stay or asking them to leave in line with our assignment instructions.
- Once the premises is all locked up and secured, our guard will "clear down" the job and fill in their report, including any useful photographs, suspicious people and vehicles, and a detailed account of their actions. You'll receive a copy of the report automatically the following morning to peruse with your morning cuppa.
Why do I need an Alarm Response service?
When your business is closed and your intruder alarm goes off, you have three choices: attend yourself, ask an employee to attend, or pay a security professional to attend. A professional keyholder and alarm response service working to BS7984 will often attend very quickly and immediately carry out a detailed check of your premises; only calling the emergency services or disturbing your evening if there's a problem that needs your urgent attention.
The main purpose of an alarm response service is to remove the responsibility and risk of attending alarm activations from employees and managers. An alarm activation may turn out to be a false alarm, but until somebody attends the premises there is no way of knowing whether they will find a simple system fault, an insecure door, criminal damage or an intruder still on site.
Using the services of a professional company means that you're not disturbed, your employees who would have acted as keyholders don't lose productivity through sleep deprivation as they have to return to the workplace, and the alarm activation is investigated in a methodical way by someone who does so as a profession.
All of our response services are provided within a framework of KPIs, and several areas of service delivery are monitored by our management team:
- Keys are "sighted" each month by an independent member of staff.
- Codes are checked at least six-monthly with yourselves to ensure we're up to date.
- Response times are monitored and any SLA breaches investigated to ensure we can work to prevent repeats.
What should I look for in an Alarm Response company?
When choosing an alarm response provider, price is only one part of the decision. The company needs to be capable of attending your premises reliably at any time of the day or night and should have suitable licensed, vetted and trained staff operating within your area.
It is also worth asking how the company monitors response times, how keys and alarm codes are controlled, what happens when an intruder or damage is discovered, whether incidents are documented, and whether you will receive evidence of what happened during an attendance.
K9 Protection provides its alarm response service using locally deployed mobile security officers supported by our own guard management technology. Response activity, arrival times and incident information are recorded, while our management team monitors service performance and investigates exceptions rather than relying solely on an estimated attendance time.
Benefits of an Alarm Response service
Using a professional key holding company to carry out your alarm response duties is one of the smartest things that any senior management team can do. Traditionally, responding to the alarm would be left to someone within the business, whether decided on seniority or proximity to the premises. Even with a well maintained alarm system where false alarms are few and far between, a single alarm event is capable of causing a trail of disruption that can often be overlooked.
Firstly, there's the requirement for the on-call members of staff to plan their lives around the on-call element of the job (or inform you of their plans). This can often feel invasive, and something that gets overlooked when people do things spontaneously. That one time they manage to score tickets to Wales v England, or front row for Taylor Swift, is guaranteed to be the one time that the alarm goes off and they're needed back at the ranch; often causing a scramble to find a secondary keyholder that's available to attend to the alarm.
Secondly, imagine the scene: the intruder alarm goes off at 4AM and the person living closest that's tasked with attending is your transport manager. The transport manager has to attend the alarm and deal with whatever they're facing, and be back in work and productive the following day to ensure the fleet and drivers are ready for the day ahead. The reality is if they're not there the department will suffer by missing their experience, but on the flip-side, the department will likely suffer if they attend work but are over-tired from the night before.
Thirdly, our security responders are trained and experienced security professionals with a 24 hour open channel of communication to the rest of our team. Combine that with some of the most up to date lone-worker safety systems available, including our guard management system and live-streaming body-worn video, and they're in a safer position than most. On top of this, there are a handful of common intruder systems and even fewer brands of fire alarm in widespread use, and due to the volume of alarm calls we handle, our team are likely to be more familiar with their operation than someone using it once in a blue moon.
Professional Alarm Response in South Wales
K9 Protection Ltd provides 24-hour commercial alarm response services throughout Cardiff, Newport and surrounding areas of South East Wales. Our mobile security officers respond to intruder alarms, fire alarm activations, CCTV incidents and other requests for security attendance, investigating the cause and securing the premises in accordance with each client's individual instructions.
For businesses comparing alarm response providers, our approach combines locally deployed response officers, published live response-time information, controlled key management, GPS-recorded attendance and detailed incident reporting. Clients can use K9 Protection alongside their existing alarm installer, Alarm Receiving Centre or CCTV monitoring provider.
To talk to us about alarm response services for your business, fill out the form below or call us now on 01633504543.
For information on how a professional alarm response service can differ from an app-based response service, our blog post (Professional Response vs App-Based Aggregators) outlines some of the key differences.
