A panic button is a device that can be fitted in your home or business in a hidden location that can be pressed in case of an emergency triggering a silent alarm that will notify the emergency services that there is an issue at your address. On most systems if a panic button is hit the system sends an instant alert to a monitoring centre where an operator will view your CCTV and listen in at the property to see what the emergency is an which emergency service to request. Once an alert has gone through the police are usually at the address very quickly and are already aware what the situation is.
They are a great option if you live alone or if you have a business that handles a fair amount of high value goods that could easily be targeted by criminals.
Some burglar alarm systems are fitted with a ‘duress code’ and this is in case you are in a situation where you are being forced to disable your alarm, instead of your usual code you type in the pre-set ‘duress code’ and it will shut off the alarm but send an urgent alert to the monitoring company to contact the police to attend the address.