Staff duress alerts activated from a Kontakt.io Smart Badge, are the core capability of the Staff Safe solution. These alerts show a staff’s last received real-time location during a duress event or when assistance is needed, helping responders act quickly, intervene, and de-escalate situations.
Staff Safe offers several ways to view and respond to alerts. The Simple View is designed specifically for responders. It shows only active alerts for the selected locations, details of each alert, and enhanced visuals for fast action. Simple View is also available from the Kio Staff Safe Alerts mobile app.
Video tutorial
Things to know
Simple View only includes active alerts (those that are not in a resolved status)
The alerts shown are only those for the locations selected in the location filter—a campus, a building, a floor, or a department.
Each alert provides the staff name, last received location details, and a last location update timer.
Each alert provides a colored background of its current status—when in a "new" status (not acknowledged) the alert background is set to its severity level, and when an alert is acknowledged its background changes to white.
When an alert is set to resolved, it is removed from the Simple View. Resolved alerts are located in Alerts > List view > Alerts History.
Critical alerts play a sound and show an in-app banner notification for all Staff Safe users. A Staff Safe Administrator can turn the critical alert notifications on or off for their profile only and per browser, but when they have the Simple View open the in-app sound and banner critical notifications are always on.It
Choose the locations you want to watch
The location filter is located in the top-right corner and decides which alerts the Simple View shows you. If you don't need to watch an entire campus, you can set the location filter to a Building, a Floor, or a Department.
You can select up to 25 locations. Your filter applies to your own sign-in, so changing it does not change what other responders see.
The Department tab lists the departments defined in your Smart Location setup. If no departments are defined for the campus you selected, the list has nothing to show.
Note: The filter uses one type of location at a time. Switching to a different tab replaces the previous selection rather than adding to it—so to watch a whole building, select it on the Building tab rather than selecting each of its floors.
Select the location filter located in the top-right corner.
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Select Campus, Building, Floor, or Department.
On the Building, Floor, and Department tabs, select a campus at the top of the panel first, then select from that campus. The Campus tab lists every campus you have access to.
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Select the locations you want to watch. To narrow a long list, enter a name in the search box.
Floors are grouped by building, so a "3rd Floor" in two different buildings stays distinguishable—searching for a building name returns that building's floors. Each department lists the buildings and floors it covers underneath its name, and the search box matches on either.
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Select Apply.
Your selection also applies when you close the panel. Revert returns to the selection that is currently applied, and Clear removes the filter.
Steps to view and acknowledge an active alert
From the Simple View, you can quickly view active alerts and acknowledge an alert to indicate that you're taking action and responding to the alert. Acknowledging an alert provides responders and other staff with the visibility into the current status of the alerting incident.
From your Kontakt.io Launchpad, select Staff Safe.
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From the Alerts menu, select Simple View.
Set the location filter located in the top-right corner. Simple View shows only active alerts for the locations you select.
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From the Alert Activity locate the alert.
Staff details: Displays their name along with their last received location.
Staff last location update: Displays the elapsed time of the last location update received. A warning icon is displayed when the last location received has exceeded the lost tag threshold time period.
Alert severity visual cue: New alerts (those that have not been acknowledged) have a background color that represents the alert severity level (this level is configured within the Alert Rule that triggered the alert).
Acknowledged alert visual cue: Once an alert is acknowledged, its background changes from its severity color to white, and the alert's icon takes the severity color instead.
Alert severity levels. Each alert card shows its severity as a labelled badge beside the staff member's name — for example Critical alert. Staff Safe has five levels, and a new alert's background is the color of its level:
Severity New alert background Critical Red High Orange Medium Yellow Low Green Info Blue Severity is set in the Alert Rule that triggered the alert, so which levels you see depends on how your Alert Rules are configured. See About Alert Rules.
Real-time location updates: The staff location details and the map location indicator will update each time a location change is received.
To indicate you are taking action and responding to the alert, select Acknowledge. This option only appears if another staff member (user) has not acknowledged the alert.
Alerts from a parking lot
An alert from a parking area is shown differently, because parking areas are located to the lot, garage, or floor — never to a room.
| Where the alert came from | Location row | Floor | Room |
|---|---|---|---|
| A parking garage | Parking lot | Shown | Not shown |
| A standalone lot | Parking lot | Not shown | Not shown |
| A building floor that also covers parking | Building | Shown | Not shown |
In all three, a car icon marks the location, and the map doesn't highlight a room.
The List view shows the same alert with the standard building, floor, and room details.
Steps to resolve an active alert
Resolving an alert indicates the alerting incident has been responded to and de-escalated. To resolve an alert, it must be in the Acknowledged status. If applicable, you can acknowledge the alert and then proceed to resolve it.
From your Kontakt.io Launchpad, select Staff Safe.
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From the left menu, select Simple View.
Set the location filter located in the top-right corner. Simple View shows only active alerts for the locations you select.
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Locate the alert > from the alert, select Resolve.
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Select the applicable Resolution Code > enter Notes (optional) related to the alerting incident > select Resolve. The alert is removed from the Simple View.
- The system default Resolution Codes can be customized by your organization, so these values may be unique to your organization.
- Notes provided should follow your organization's policies and procedures.
To view the details of a resolved alert, navigate to the List view within the Alerts menu and select Alerts History. Locate the alert and select its Name.