A duress alarm for council counters, for the rates dispute that stops being verbal.
A silent trigger on every screen, answered by the colleagues nearby. No server hardware, it runs on a PC you already leave on. Works even when the internet is down. From A$299/year.
No credit card required for the trial. No additional hardware needed. No IT needed, as long as you have appropriate rights.
Rates disputes, permits and frustrated ratepayers arrive at the counter, and the officer can’t walk away mid-transaction. And for housing and community services teams, the higher risk is the interview room, a staff member alone with a distressed resident. Every screen in the building is backup.
What a council customer service desk deals with
People cannot take their business elsewhere
A ratepayer unhappy with a parking fine, a rates notice or a tree removal refusal has one counter to argue at. That lack of an alternative changes the tone in a way it does not in a business where the customer can simply walk out.
The decision was made somewhere else
The officer at the counter did not issue the infringement or refuse the application. They are explaining someone else’s decision, usually without the authority to change it, which is the most reliable way to make a conversation go bad.
One building, many services
Rates, planning, permits, animal management and waste all funnel through the same foyer. The person at the desk has no idea which conversation is walking toward them.
Where councils usually put it
- Every customer service position in the foyer, including the ones only opened at peak.
- Planning, compliance and interview rooms, where the difficult meetings are booked in.
- The cashier or payments window, which combines money with a decision people dislike.
- Back office desks within earshot, so there are responders who are not on the counter.
- Branch libraries, depots and community centres, which are usually the least covered sites you run.
Councils tend to start with the main foyer and then find the actual gap is the outlying sites, where a single officer works alone with no guard and no colleague within sight.
Three colours. Everyone understands them in one demo.
Green means ready
A small dot sits quietly in the corner of every screen. Staff know at a glance the system is live.
Red means help now
One click, hotkey or desk button, and a pop-up appears over whatever colleagues are working on, showing exactly where help is needed. No sound in the room. Nothing the visitor can see.
Orange means responding
The first colleague to respond is recorded, and the person who raised the alert sees their button turn orange. They know help is on the way before it arrives.
- Help is acknowledged. The moment a colleague responds, the person who raised the alert sees their button turn orange, they know help is coming before it arrives.
- No server hardware. Duress Alert runs on a Windows PC you already leave on, and alerts travel over your own network, so they keep working even when the internet is down.
- Easy to roll out. You install it yourself in about five minutes per computer, with the silent-install packages and a rollout guide included. Already a Duress Alert customer upgrading? We help you do it over a secure screen share.
Prefer something you can press without looking?
Add a physical button where it helps, from A$25 plus delivery. Unlike a hardwired button, Duress Alert warns you on screen the moment a button is unplugged, and confirms when it’s back, so you never discover a dead button during an emergency. And if a button ever fails, staff can still raise the alert from the screen, tray icon or hotkey.
A control you can evidence.
Occupational violence in public-facing roles is a named WHS priority, and councils’ procurement teams will like the rest: alerts never leave your network, and nothing about an incident goes to the cloud. Duress Alert’s dated raise, respond, reset history is evidence you can table, not a policy on a shelf.
“Our receptionist hit the fixed button under the desk during a confrontation, and found out later it was broken. With Duress Alert she knows: if it’s green, we can see her.”
Sally Anderton, Legal Practice, VIC
Simple annual pricing
Team Safe
Group Safe
Corporate Safe
Multi Site Safe
Prices exclude GST. Local taxes are added where they apply.
Install and options
- One-off install A$99, includes training and 12 months of support.
- Optional physical desk button, from A$25 plus delivery. It warns you on screen the moment it is unplugged, so you never find a dead button in an emergency.
Start your free 21-day trial, covering up to 25 computers. Configure it and roll it out across your site, at no cost. The trial itself is free. If you go ahead afterwards, we can set it up with you for a one-off A$99. When you move from the trial to a full licence there is no extra effort, everything you have set up simply keeps running. No payment details to start, and you can cancel anytime.
Prices in AUD. In the UK, USA, Canada or Europe? See local pricing: UK, USA, Canada, Europe.
For your IT provider
Your IT person (or ours) can push Duress Alert to every computer automatically, silent-install MSIs generated by the server with your configuration baked in, central management of every setting, and support for shared/remote desktops (RDS) and Mac. Client-to-server traffic stays on your local network (default TCP 8001); only the server talks to the cloud, over HTTPS, for licensing and reporting. Have an IT team, multiple sites, or shared/remote desktops? See our IT deployment page, silent installs, central configuration and rollout at any scale.
Common questions.
A guard covers the foyer. This covers the interview rooms, the back office, the depot and the branch libraries, and it gives the officer a way to call the guard without standing up or raising their voice. The two work together rather than replacing each other.
Yes, where there is a computer in the room. Planning and compliance meetings are scheduled, in a closed room, about a decision the customer disagrees with, which is precisely the meeting worth covering.
Each alert records the machine, the time, who acknowledged it and when. That gives your WHS reporting an actual timestamped record rather than a recollection written up the following week.
Each site alerts within its own network, so a branch library summons the people at that library. Where sites are cloud connected, the coordinator can see incidents across the whole council in one place.
Yes. Work health and safety law requires employers to manage the risk of occupational violence wherever staff deal with the public. A duress alarm on every screen is a practical, demonstrable control, and Duress Alert’s dated alert log is the evidence you can table.
No. Duress Alert runs on the Windows and Mac computers you already have. An optional physical desk button can be added from A$25 where a tactile trigger helps.
Annual licensing starts from A$299 for up to 10 users, with Group, Corporate and Multi Site plans above that, plus a one-off A$99 install. Every plan includes a free 21-day trial.
The trial licence expires and alerting stops until a licence is applied. Nothing is charged automatically, and we hold no payment details from the trial.
Buy the licence in the Duress Alert cloud portal. If your server is cloud connected, which is the default, the licence updates itself at the server’s next check-in, and it checks in daily. For an offline installation, our team coordinates with you to apply the licence.
Whichever you prefer. You can run the silent installer yourself in about five minutes per computer, your own IT provider can do it, or we can do it with you as a one-off install service that includes training and 12 months of support.
Tell us about your site.
Tell us your team size and setting, and we’ll show you how Duress Alert works on your own desks and what a rollout looks like. We get back to you quickly.
Pilot one service centre free for 21 days.
Questions? +61 1300 366 911 (Australia).
