Security and technology have always been tied. From the invention of the lock and key all the way to IPCCTV systems, technology is constantly evolving to make our world safer.
Just in the past 20 years that I’ve been running Magenta Security, technology has transformed nearly every aspect of how a security company operates. Here’s a few of the ways recent technological advances have helped us to protect sites across the UK and even the world.
It’s hard to think of any recent technology that’s changed the world more than smartphones, and the security industry is no exception. Internet connected smartphones provide a wide range of tools that have made our security services more transparent, efficient and safe than ever before.
All of our security guards are logged into a system that connects them with our control room, mobile patrols and our clients. As they do their rounds, they use online forms to immediately fill out their security reports. If something’s wrong, they can time stamp the event, take a photo and send it to our control room and to the client, providing essential security information immediately rather than waiting for a report to be sent physically, as we had to do when we first started business.
We’ve also recently made use of NFC (Near Field Communication) tags that can monitor the guard’s location to the nearest three metres, which is even more precise than GPS. This allows our control room and our clients to see the guard’s progress in real time. If the guard is off schedule, our control room can call in straight away to check their status.
This also benefits our guards, who in the past may have been accused of sleeping on the job or worse if something went wrong on the site. Now, with NFC technology, they can prove exactly where they were and when. Our NFC equipment also has level sensors built in, so that if a guard has passed out or has been attacked, the sensor will detect that they’re on the ground and alert the control room immediately rather than having to wait for the next check call.
Every second that we’re providing our security services, we’re gathering data. How long patrols are taking, security risks on the site, how long it takes to respond to an incident, feedback from our customers and our staff, the frequency and types of incidents across various locations and sectors, the list goes on and on.
This data reveals immediate and long term ways that we can improve our service, whether it’s for a single contract or across our entire company. This is one reason why our customer satisfaction is so high: if there’s a problem, we’ll usually spot it before you do. For example, if a patrol is taking longer than estimated, we’ll know from the very first shift and can get in touch with the guard and our client to figure out why and find a solution as soon as possible.
We can also interface directly with any systems you may have set up on site, such as remote door controls, lighting, alarms, visitor management systems – just about anything that’s connected. As I write this, we’re currently monitoring the temperatures of freezers in Sweden. The possibilities in this connected, global world are truly limitless.
If the worst does happen and there’s an incident on site, we can pull up all information about that location – from security checks to CCTV footage – and compile it into an exhaustive report which can be sent immediately to our client, the police or insurers via email, helping you get your business back to normal as soon as possible.
Looking forward, we’re pursuing the introduction of real time video recording into our patrols. We experimented with this a few years ago, but back then the battery packs required to power a good quality live feed were enormous and cumbersome. But now, power drain, camera quality and battery size have all reached a point where it will soon be feasible to have real time video recording for our patrols.
I look forward to telling you more about that when it’s ready, but for now, if you have any questions about the technology we use or how we might complement your existing systems, feel free to email me at abbey@magentasecurity.co.uk or call our office at 0800 772 3786.
