Safeguard upgrades guard monitoring techniques

Safeguard Security has upgraded its security guard monitoring techniques to monitor the patrols carried out by its guards at premises they are guarding and ensure they maintain contact with their control centre, especially during the night.

"Guarding premises at night, when everyone else is sleeping, is no easy task. It would be easy for a guard to fall asleep if he is sitting in one place," Safeguard group chief executive Andrew Mallon said.

"We require our guards to regularly patrol the premises they are guarding. We are able to monitor this through our new real time monitoring system.

"The system makes use of Dallas Chip technology which incorporates the use of a radio link between the premises where the guard is stationed and the Safeguard monitoring or control centre.

"When a guard arrives for duty, he logs in electronically with the control centre at the first of a number of portals at the premises he is guarding. As he patrols the premises he similarly logs in electronically when he reaches other portals on his patrol route.

"If he fails to log in at any portal at the expected time an alert will appear on a screen at the control centre. Radio contact will be made with the guard to find out if all is well and why he has not logged in at a particular portal. If there is no response then a supervisor will visit the premises to find out what is happening.

"This means we can tightly monitor the patrols and ensure that the guards are carrying out their duties as assigned and that our customers are receiving the best possible guard service," Mr Mallon said.

"With improved internet and cellphone infrastructure, we are also able to monitor staff in remote locations in the same way via the internet," he added.

He noted that all guard duty violations are automatically recorded and can be used for future reference should there be persistent violations by any particular guard.

He went on to say that Safeguard places great emphasis on monitoring the service it provides to ensure that its customers receive the excellent service it is committed to providing.

"We have invested in satellite and closed circuit monitoring of our personnel so that we can satisfy ourselves that the service we are providing is effective.

"Our rapid response vehicles are all satellite tracked so we can tell the exact location of any of them at any given time.

"Our cash-in-transit vehicles, which are also satellite monitored, have CCTV cameras installed so that we can see and hear what is going on when the trucks are doing their rounds.

"We have the capacity to provide this sort of monitoring for our clients too. This service is particularly useful for companies that have large fleets of vehicles. We can guarantee that monitoring vehicles will significantly reduce the wear and tear on the vehicles, as well as operational costs," he said, adding that Safeguard is happy to offer a free demonstration of this monitoring.