Duress Alarms and Panic Buttons: Where They Actually Belong in a Building

A panic button hard-mounted under a reception desk is the most common implementation, but it only covers the person physically at that desk — it does nothing for staff working alone in a back office, a cashier at a different till, or someone in a stockroom, all of whom face their own distinct duress scenarios.

Any location where staff regularly work alone or handle cash — a reception desk, a night-shift security post, a cashier station, a pharmacy counter — is a candidate for its own duress alarm, whether fixed or wearable, rather than relying on one central button to cover an entire building's risk.

A duress alarm is only as good as its response — it should trigger a silent, immediate alert to security or monitoring staff (never an audible siren, which can escalate a threatening situation) and ideally pull up relevant camera footage automatically. This is exactly the kind of cross-system integration — alarm, camera and notification working together — that makes a duress system actually effective in the moment it matters.