Guard panic alert
A guard holds one button for Panic, Assist, Medical, Fire, Intruder or Other. Every other guard of the society and the office are alerted at once, and the guard sees who is coming.
PLANSEvery plan
The problem it solves
- A guard at the back gate faces a drunk visitor alone, and the phone to the main gate is never picked up.
- The guard at the main gate does not know which colleague is on duty tonight, or at which gate.
- The committee asks what happened at 2 am, and there is no record of the call for help.
How it works
- The guard opens Alerts & panic, or presses Panic / call for help at the top of any page of the guard screen.
- If there is a second, the guard types a note on where and what is happening.
- The guard holds the button for the kind of help for 2 seconds: Panic, Assist, Medical, Fire, Intruder or Other.
- Every guard of the society's gates and the office get the alert at once, with the gate, the note, a photo and the position.
- One guard presses I am responding. The sender is told who is coming.
- When it is over, someone presses Resolved and writes what was done. If nobody responds within 2 minutes, the office is alerted again and gets a to-do.
Everything it does
Raising an alert
- Kinds: Panic, Need Help (Assist on the button), Medical, Fire, Intruder and Other
- Hold for 2 seconds so a stray tap does not raise the alarm; a short tap says Hold for 2 seconds to send
- Each alert records the guard, the time, the gate, the note, a photo and the position (a link to the map)
- Sent to every guard of the society's gates and the office, not to the sender. Or only to people the guard picks, to ask one colleague to come to the gate
- Each alert gets a number from the society's sequence, such as ALR/2026/00012
Answering an alert
- Statuses: Open, Responding and Resolved
- I am responding: one responder per alert; the others see who it is
- Resolved with a note of what was done, who resolved it and when
- Nobody responding within 2 minutes: the office is alerted again with a to-do, and the alert is marked escalated (checked every minute)
Knowing whom to call
- The Guards list on the same page: guards and the office, with their gates, on duty first
- On duty means the guard page or the Guard app was open in the last 15 minutes; the list shows when and at which gate
- Call on a guard, or on the sender of an alert, opens the phone's dialler
Residents' SOS in the same list
- A resident's SOS (Medical, Fire, Intruder, Lift stuck) arrives on the same Alerts & panic page, with the flat
- Guards answer it with the same I am responding and Resolved
In the back office
- Visitors > Gate > Safety > Alerts lists every alert, with I Am Responding and Resolved
- Write Up Incident turns an alert into an incident report, linked both ways, where your plan has it
- Alerts are never deleted; archived ones are only hidden
Who uses it
GuardRaises an alert, answers other guards' alerts and residents' SOS, and calls a colleague from the Guards list.
Society officeGets every alert, the reminder when nobody responds, and follows the alerts in the back office.
Facility managerNames the Guards in Charge of each gate, who receive the alerts, and reads the record of each alert.
Where you use it
- Web: the guard page at /guard, Alerts & panic, and the Panic / call for help link on every page
- Web: Visitors > Gate > Safety > Alerts in the back office
- The SmartMy Society Guard app: Alerts in the Menu (built and in testing, not in the app stores yet)
- Not a hardware panic button: alerts are raised from the screen or the app
- Not for the whole society: for an evacuation use the emergency broadcast, where your plan has it
What you control
Settings
- Guards in Charge on each gate: who receives the alerts
- The office: users with the manager access of the society
- The 2-second hold and the 2-minute wait before the office is alerted again are fixed
Notifications
- Security Alert (Panic): to the guards and the office, sent at once by app push, SMS and in-app
- Security Alert Answered: to the guard who raised it, when someone presses I am responding, by app push, SMS and in-app
- Both are transactional and cannot be switched off. SMS uses paid message credits. Push reaches the Guard app once it is set up with the notification service. In-app notices always arrive
Questions
Who receives a guard's alert?
Every guard in charge of the society's gates and the office, except the guard who raised it. A guard can also send it only to chosen people, for example one colleague.What if nobody answers?
After 2 minutes with nobody responding, the office is alerted again and gets a to-do, and the alert is marked escalated.Can a guard raise an alert by mistake?
The button must be held for 2 seconds, which stops alerts from a stray tap. A mistaken alert is closed with Resolved and a note.Does it reach a guard whose phone app is closed?
By SMS, and by push once the Guard app is published with its notification set-up. Until then, keep the guard page or the app open on the gate phone during the shift.Is the panic alert in the Starter plan?
Yes. Guard alerts, residents' SOS and the Guards list come with every plan. Turning an alert into an incident report comes with Scale.Related features
GATE, GUARDS AND KIOSKResident SOS to every guard and the officeA resident presses SOS on the portal or the Resident app, picks Medical, Fire, Intruder or Lift stuck, and confirms. Every guard and the society office are alerted at once with the flat, and the resident sees who is responding.GATE, GUARDS AND KIOSKGuard app and guard web pageOne screen shows the guard who is expected, waiting for a flat's answer, inside or pre-approved, and which children wait for a parent. It runs in any browser at /guard and as the SmartMy Society Guard app.SECURITY OPERATIONSEmergency broadcast and muster listSend one emergency to the whole society or only the towers affected, on every channel at once. Residents, guards, the office and the visitors and daily help inside are told. A red banner stays on every screen until the all clear, and the muster list serves the roll call.SECURITY OPERATIONSIncident register for residents and guardsResidents and guards report a theft, damage or a hazard with photos or videos. The office gives each incident an owner, a follow-up date and a police reference. Residents follow their report and the office's answers.MANAGEMENTIncident reports and analysisA resident's SOS, a guard's panic alert or a problem found on a patrol round becomes an incident in one step, linked both ways. Print the incident report for the police, the insurer or the general body, and count incidents by month, type and severity.SECURITY OPERATIONSShift handover between guardsThe outgoing guard leaves a note for the guard taking over: a delivery expected, a broken barrier, the keys, a visitor to watch. The next guard sees the note marked New and presses Got it, and standing instructions stay on top for every shift.
See it set up for your own society.
Tell us how many towers, flats and gates you have. We will show you and your committee the resident app, the guard app and the office screens, set up that way.