Hundreds of thousands of licensed security officers form the largest visible line of defence for the UK’s people and places — part of the country’s national security infrastructure — yet they routinely work in isolation, with no shared picture of the area around them and no fast way to coordinate with one another or with the police. As threats grow more complex and more connected, a disconnected frontline becomes the weak point. Without platforms that join up the systems and the people who use them, the authorities and the emergency services are left a step behind.
The people building OnSiren know the sector from the inside
This is a problem you only solve if you understand it from the inside, which is why the team matters.
OnSiren was founded by Shahzad Ali, who built Get Licensed, the UK's leading platform for security officer training and licensing, through which hundreds of thousands of officers have trained over more than two decades in the sector — so the platform is built by someone who knows the needs of frontline security guards first-hand.
Stephen McCormick, former Executive Director of Licensing and Standards at the Security Industry Authority, brings deep knowledge of how the workforce is regulated and licensed. Mike Nithavrianakis, a career British diplomat, brings experience of working with government and the emergency services.
The board includes Lord Parker of Minsmere, former Director General of MI5, and Lord Sarfraz of Kensington, a former member of Parliament's National Security and Science and Technology committees — both advising with a national-security view of how threats and information actually move. The advisory team includes Peter Harrison, founder of FGH Security; Michael Kill, CEO of the Night Time Industries Association; and Satia Rai, CEO of the International Professional Security Association (IPSA).
The team has expertise in regulation, the policing and emergency-services coordination, and the frontline experience that keeping people safe actually depends on.
Proving it with evidence
With public safety, evidence matters. So OnSiren is starting with a pilot programme, where outcomes can be measured. A pilot is currently underway with security officers and the police, designed to build a clear evidence base from the platform in real use — the first of several planned pilots.
OnSiren has been carefully built to work alongside the systems the emergency services already use, joining up officers, businesses and the police so the whole frontline shares the same picture.
Public safety needs a frontline that can finally work as one — officers, businesses and the emergency services sharing the same picture when something goes wrong. Connect the security officers in an area, and the area becomes safer. Frontline. Connected.
