“We started Duress eight years ago with a simple goal, to create a fast and discreet way for people experiencing domestic and family violence to urgently request police.”
This week’s Founder Friday features Trav Heaven, who didn’t set out to revolutionise workplace safety. He wanted to save lives.
Eight years ago, he founded Duress with one mission: create a fast, discreet way for domestic violence survivors to alert police. Today, his safety wearables protect thousands of workers across Coles, Myer, David Jones, Tesco and countless government agencies. The company has expanded into the US and UK, all whilst staying true to its original purpose.
Working alongside Victoria Police for nine months, Heaven’s team created Halo, a ring with a hidden panic button connected to a 24/7 monitoring centre that could escalate directly to police.
Then the unexpected calls started coming. Real estate agencies wanted Halo for their property managers, many of them young women whose online listings included photos, addresses and inspection times. Some were being harassed and wanted a way to feel safer on the job.
Heaven expanded Duress to support organisations, building dashboards, reporting tools, single sign-on and enterprise-level security. But the team quickly realised the Halo ring wasn’t practical for teams, so they developed an app-based solution.
That app scaled fast across government departments, including Defence, Justice, Health, Services Australia and numerous councils.
Speed over everything
Then Heaven spotted the fatal flaw. During actual emergencies, pulling out a phone, unlocking it, finding the app and pressing a button simply wasn’t fast or discreet enough.
When Duress consulted customers about adding a Bluetooth button, they were blunt about three dealbreakers.
That feedback led to Phoenix, a safety device the size and weight of a credit card. Users could ping their location, alert a manager or trigger an emergency with a tap. Heaven built in a display screen, fall detection, NFC access control and ultra-efficient power management that gives it a two-year battery life. A world first.
Phoenix became a cornerstone for government and not-for-profit organisations including Salvation Army, Uniting, Mission Australia, BaptistCare and Silver Chain.
Retailers came next, wanting the same technology. Their challenge was different, staff didn’t carry work phones. That inspired Falcon, a fully self-contained 4G wearable. The smallest of its kind globally, it’s now deployed across Coles, McDonald’s, Cotton On, Hoyts and Nike.
Heaven noticed an interesting pattern. When Falcon was worn visibly on a clip instead of as a watch, incidents dropped significantly. Visibility itself became a deterrent to aggression.
Visibility as deterrent
Heaven noticed an interesting pattern. When Falcon was worn visibly on a clip instead of as a watch, incidents dropped significantly. Visibility itself became a deterrent to aggression.
That insight led to Eagle, the body-worn camera designed to protect and connect teams. It includes live streaming, two-way communication, fall detection, and internal alerting.
Now used by Myer, David Jones, and UK retailers Tesco and Morrisons, Heaven says the technology changes behaviour before incidents escalate.
“One of our clients experienced a fall of 54% in aggressive incidents after equipping their staff with our Eagle body camera technology,” Heaven says.
He explains why it works: when customers know they could be recorded at any time, with critical evidence passed to police, behaviour shifts. Staff also gain confidence, going about their work with less stress and anxiety.
Industry data from anonymised deployments across two major Australian department store networks show a 52% reduction in aggressive incidents and a 44% reduction in theft where safety wearables and body cameras have been implemented, according to analytics from the Workplace Health & Safety Show.
Technology plays a pivotal role in workforce compliance and risk management, with data and artificial intelligence frameworks helping organisations detect and mitigate potential risks before they escalate.
Listening to customers
Heaven credits the company’s success to an incredible team of innovators and a unified safety ecosystem where every device connects seamlessly out of the box.
The philosophy is simple but powerful, he says. Customers know their problems better than anyone. If you listen carefully, then surprise and delight them with the solution, growth follows naturally.
Customer support has enabled Duress to give back, providing Halo rings at no charge to those experiencing domestic violence, and offering Eagle body cameras at no cost (monitoring only) to retailers during the current rise in crime and aggression.
Aggression detection breakthrough
Duress recently solved another persistent problem. After a serious incident, staff still needed to manually complete a report.
This year they’re launching Duress Live Reporting, which automatically captures video, audio, and location, then allows staff to dictate a full incident report by voice. It integrates directly into existing systems like Auror, completing reports within minutes.
Another development is SafeSense, the company’s aggression and weapon detection system. After 18 months of research and development, SafeSense can automatically detect aggression cues, including tone, emotion, and phrasing, whilst accounting for Australia’s casual communication style. The system recognises weapons and violent stances with what the company reports as 94% accuracy.
As a small Australian company, Heaven finds it encouraging to see the technology being adopted across the United States and United Kingdom. More innovations remain in development, continuing the mission to keep people safe, connected, and protected, no matter where they are.
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