Nobody works alone unnoticed
SOS panic button, check-in timers and live position — so if an officer stops responding at 3am, you find out in minutes rather than at handover.
Three layers, because one is never enough
A panic button only helps if the officer can press it. Real lone worker cover needs the cases where they cannot.
SOS panic alert
One control in the app sends officer, site and live GPS to the control room and any nominated manager. Discreet to trigger.
Check-in timers
The officer confirms they are fine at a set interval. Miss it and an alert raises automatically — no action required from them.
Man-down detection
If the handset registers an impact or stops moving unexpectedly during a shift, the system prompts the officer and escalates if there is no response.
Live position on alert
The alert carries a location, not just a name. Your responder knows which gate to go to.
Escalation chain
Set who is told, in what order, and after how long — so a 3am alert does not sit in an empty office inbox.
Recorded response
Every alert, acknowledgement and outcome is logged. That record is what an HSE or insurer conversation will ask for.
What happens when an alert fires
The sequence is deliberately boring. Boring is what you want at 3am.
- The officer triggers SOS, or a check-in expires.
- The control room dashboard raises the alert with name, site, shift and live position.
- Nominated managers are notified in parallel, by the routes you configured.
- Somebody acknowledges the alert. The system records who and when.
- You call the officer, send a responder, or escalate to emergency services.
- The outcome is logged against the shift and stays in the audit trail.
Lone working in the UK security industry
The Health and Safety Executive does not prohibit lone working, but it does expect employers to assess it and manage it. In a security context, the questions a risk assessment usually has to answer are:
- Do you know, at any moment, where each lone officer is supposed to be — and where they actually are?
- Can the officer summon help quickly and discreetly if they are threatened?
- Would you notice within a reasonable time if an officer became unable to raise an alarm at all?
- Is there a documented escalation route out of hours, with named people and response times?
- Can you evidence, after the fact, what was known and what was done?
SMS-Patrol gives you a defensible answer to each of those, and the audit trail to show it. That matters commercially too: increasingly, tenders ask what lone worker provision you have in place before they ask about price.
This is general information about common industry practice, not legal or health-and-safety advice. Your own risk assessment and duties are specific to your operation.
The feature your officers ask for
Tracking is something you do to a guard. Lone worker protection is something you do for them — and it changes how the whole system is received.
Easier adoption
Introduce SOS and check-ins on day one and GPS stops feeling like surveillance. In our experience this is the single biggest factor in officers taking to the app.
Better retention
Officers on difficult overnight sites notice when an employer has bothered to protect them. It is a cheap differentiator in a sector with high turnover.
Stronger tenders
Demonstrable lone worker cover, with logs, is a straightforward tick in a procurement questionnaire that many smaller competitors cannot provide.
Lone worker questions
Any officer working without close or direct supervision — a single guard on a static site overnight, a mobile patrol driver, a key holder responding to an alarm at 3am, or a receptionist alone in a building after hours. Most security work is lone working, which is why the sector takes it seriously.
Under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, employers must assess risks to lone workers and put reasonable measures in place. HSE guidance expects you to know where lone workers are, keep in touch with them, and be able to respond if something goes wrong. This page is general information, not legal advice — check your own risk assessment.
The officer holds the SOS control in the app. An alert goes straight to your control room with their identity, site and live GPS position. You can configure additional recipients so an out-of-hours alert reaches a duty manager's phone as well.
The officer sets an interval — say 30 minutes. If they do not confirm they are OK before it expires, the system raises an alert automatically. It covers the situation where somebody cannot press a button, which is the situation that matters most.
Alerts need a signal to reach you, as with any system. Where a site has known dead spots, the practical answer is to plan the patrol so the officer passes through covered areas at intervals, and to use check-in timers set to that pattern.
For most security operations it does the job, because officers always have their phone and will actually carry it. If your risk assessment calls for a certified BS 8484 alarm receiving centre connection, keep that — the two work alongside each other.
Check-in timers use almost nothing. Location reporting during a shift uses a low-frequency mode built for long shifts. A standard phone covers a 12-hour shift comfortably.