Frequently Asked Questions

FAQ's - Frequently Asked Questions

1. Question 1, Is the information from your company exactly what we should follow for a lockdown procedure?
2. Question 2, Are your lockdown solutions recommended by NaCTSO and NPCC?
3. Question 3, Can you create a complete lockdown procedure for our school?
4. Question 4, Do you consider simple emails a solution when going to lockdown of our site?
5. Question 5, What about overhead messaging for communications on-site?
6. Question 6, Can we simply use 'word of mouth' to communicate at lockdown?
7. Question 7, Stay Safe principles offer good advice with firearms and weapons attacks?
8. Question 8, How can I easily communicate between our multi-occupancy sites in emergency?

Answer 1:

While we offer some advice on many aspects of creating a proactive and dynamic lockdown procedure that will certainly help, we refer back to the NaCTSO and NPCC guidance notes which are also found as links on this website. Where your local authority is involved (for example Birmingham City Council and Schools) then you should also take in to account that other information when creating dynamic lockdown procedures. Our comments are based around the technologies we can supply that some advisors may or not be aware of.

Answer 2:

NaCTSO and NPCC do not recommend ANY products from any company whether in the UK or otherwise.

Answer 3:

We cannot draw up a complete lockdown procedure for your school, academy or university. Dynamic lockdown procedures cover many aspects of operation within your establishment which we would not know about the specifics. However, we can help with advice regarding our lockdown solutions and their suitability for specific needs. We can also advise about integrating our equipment in to other systems and other technical aspects of paging and radio solutions.

Answer 4:

One of the main problems with emails is that necessary staff need to be 'available' at or near to a computer and that is not always the case. For email to mobile phones there can be other issues such as variable coverage depending on the supplying network that could cause that vehicle of communication to fail. Emails may fail in a number of areas when being depended on for lockdown situations.

Answer 5:

Our view regarding some lockdown situations (particularly with terrorist or aggressive person involvement on-site) is to keep communications SILENT and not able to be 'picked up' by the wrong people. Using an overhead (or Public Address) system could actually be counter productive in effecting a completely safe lockdown in those circumstances.

Answer 6:

In some circumstances (for example where people are not the threat) a 'word of mouth' between involved lockdown staff might be a suitable solution. But there are certain threats that could make the 'word of mouth' communications virtually useless or extremely difficult to implement - for example in a terrorist situation. Using solutions that are silent but extremely reliable are always 'better' options to ensure complete and safe lockdown.

Answer 7:

Stay Safe principles equate to 'run hide and tell' when there is any incident involving firearms and weapons as laid down in the NaCTSO and NPCC guidelines. Our solutions involve the 'tell' aspect of the 'stay safe' principles. We have solutions that can automatically call fire police or ambulance once the system is activated without further involvement by any person if necessary. Those types of solutions considerably reduce the failure to notify others if there is an incident on your site.

Answer 8:

Multi occupancy sites can pose a particular problem with lockdown procedures. Using our equipment can improve communications between multi occupancy sites where third party sites around your site are willing to participate.