ACPO Policy on lone worker published

As previously suggested, the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) have finally published their requirements for lone worker solutions, specifically detailing what is needed in order to guarentee a police response. As I had hoped, ACPO call for any Alarm Receiving Centre (ARC) to meet BS5979 Cat II and the Lone Worker Device (LWD) to meet the demands of BS8484.

The new policy also confirms that in order to get a Police response, the ARC in question must hold Unique Reference Numbers (URNs) for the appropriate Police force(s) needed to respond. The modest cost structure for the URNs have been detailed and will be available for ARCs to request from February 2010.

The next important development from a policy perspective is to see how the auditing bodies (such as NSI and SSAIB) audit a supplier of lone worker solutions against BS8484 which they are now starting to do. The expectation is that finally, it will be recognised that mobile phones do not make great LWDs and fail to meet a number of aspects of BS8484. If you currently use mobile phones then you may want to start planning to upgrade to credible LWDs (and a credible ARC perhaps). Without this, you aren't likely to get a Police response when you most need it.