What is keyholding?
Keyholding is the service of holding keys to a client's premises and attending in response to an alarm or a request, so that the client's own staff do not have to respond in person.
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<a href="https://secureoptix.co.uk/glossary/keyholding">What is keyholding?</a> — diagram by
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</figure>It carries obvious custody obligations. Keys have to be stored securely, issued traceably and returned, and a firm that cannot say which officer holds which keys right now has a problem it will discover at the worst moment.
Alarm response is the activity attached to it, and response times are typically contracted. The commercial exposure is in what happens when the response is late and something has occurred in between.
There is a British Standard covering keyholding and response services which sets expectations for how the service should be organised, and client contracts frequently reference it.
In practice
An alarm activation at a small industrial unit at four in the morning.
The keyholding contract says the officer attends, checks the perimeter and resets if the building is secure. He arrives, finds a forced shutter and goes in to look.
The instruction said check the perimeter. Entering a building where there is evidence of forced entry, alone, in the dark, is a decision he has made on his own at four in the morning, and the assignment instructions should have made it for him in daylight weeks earlier.
The useful instruction is the one that says what not to do, and names the point at which the answer is to stand off and call the police.
What goes wrong in practice
- Key custody recorded on paper, so the current holder of a set cannot be established quickly.
- Response attendances not logged with arrival times, leaving contracted response times unevidenced.
- Keys not recovered when an officer leaves, which is a live security exposure for the client.