Over the years, we’ve developed a robust infrastructure of 24 hour control rooms and mobile patrols to keep our guards and our clients’ interests safe every minute of every day. Security just isn’t secure without this level of back up for our guards, especially out of hours. Things don’t tend to go wrong during the nine-to-five; it’s in the dark hours of the night that you need us to be paying full attention to the security of your business.
Unfortunately, budget security services provided by unscrupulous companies don’t bother with such essential infrastructure, leaving both your site and the person hired to protect it at great risk.
Here are two common problems encountered out of hours, and how we’d solve them compared to a budget security service.
Our 24 hour control room will monitor the situation, increasing the rate of our check calls to make sure they feel alright. If they sound unusual, tell us that they feel too ill to continue or if they’ve stopped responding, we’ll send round our mobile patrol so that a manager can assess them. If they can no longer continue working, the manager will hold down the fort until a replacement guard can be found.
For our clients, this whole process happens automatically and invisibly. We’ll inform them of what happened, but under no circumstances should their service be interrupted. The absolute worst case scenario where a guard becomes unresponsive interrupts service for no more than half an hour, keeping our guards and your premises well looked after.
One of the biggest costs to running a security company is keeping an active, 24 hour control room. This is the first thing rogue operators cut to bring down their hourly rates, leaving their guards and your site vulnerable out of hours.
If one of their guards starts feeling ill, they have no one to call in to and definitely no one to replace them, so all they can do is deal with it until their shift ends. Not a big deal if it’s an upset stomach, but this is potentially fatal if it’s something more serious. We once had a guard suffer a heart attack at around 2am and we were able to realise something was wrong and provide assistance within twenty minutes. Without back up, he may have died.
If one of our guards suspects a site they’re protecting has been broken into, they’ll immediately call into our control room so a mobile patrol can assist them. We have multiple patrols running at any one time, so even if more than one site is at risk, we’re able to respond rapidly.
Our mobile response unit will then remain with the site until the police arrive, then once the police have filed their report and left, we can provide additional security if the site had been made more vulnerable by the break in. If there have been any damages, for example, a broken window, we can contact glaziers to get it repaired as soon as possible.
Without any back up, the only option the guard would have is to call the police. Unlike our mobile patrols, the police aren’t going to prioritise the security of your site over a situation where a member of the public is in danger. Response times for a break in at a commercial premises can reach around 20-30 minutes depending on what part of London you’re in, plenty of time for a lot of damage to be done.
Even worse, if the guard was attacked and knocked out, no one would know. Like the heart attack situation I mentioned above, the guard could be left in a critical condition until morning, leaving them with permanent damage, or worse. And remember, if the security company doesn’t have insurance, you could be found to be responsible for the guard’s injuries and any claims they make against you.
These are just two examples where our infrastructure has proved essential, but we deal with unique and highly dangerous situations that budget security simply wouldn’t be able to handle, from fires and floods to terrorist threats requiring us to call in fifty additional staff.
Don’t leave the safety of your site in weak hands. Call Magenta today on 0800 772 3786 to learn more about our award winning security services.
Stay safe,
Abbey Petkar
