About Us

Protecting lives and reputations.

Guard1 is the platform that brings together software and hardware to make facilities safer.  From departments of correction to the Department of State, over 101,000 facilities rely on Guard1 to empower their staff to do more, protect from liability, and keep their facility secure.

26

Departments of Correction systems

 

3.6b+

Checks recorded annually

 

110k+

Customers

 

82+

Countries Served

 

The Guard1 team.

The Guard1 Team

We are a technology company dedicated to providing software and hardware solutions that protect lives and reputations.

As we enter our fourth decade, we haven’t forgotten the values that brought us to where we are – doing what's right, taking care of customers and others honorably and honestly, and listening to our customers.

The key to our success has always been that our talented team focuses on taking the best possible care of our customers.

Guard1 History

The early days of our technology company.

In the 1980s, we started as the offshoot of an advertising agency, where we used technology to automate the business. Those were the early days of word processing, electronic typesetting, and bar code.

We started TimeKeeping Systems in 1986 to help companies and organizations do what we had done for our own business – to automate data collection for keeping track of time spent on jobs or tasks. Our first customer was the cartography department of the World Bank.

For many years our products included bar code readers and bar code printing software. We still manufacture bar code readers for access control, under our EZBarcode trade name.

Throughout the 1990s we were one of the leading manufacturers of bar code reading equipment. As a wave of low-end, off-shore bar code readers came to replace our products, our product line then migrated to security applications.

Guard1 has been doing data collection for over 30 years.

We have specialized in data collection technology since the 1980s

Flash Talk Manufacturing

We do advanced electronic manufacturing, with a focus on small form-factor and high precision assembly.  Pictured:  Our surface mount (SMT) line.

The evolution of our company.

We've been involved with the security industry for most of our history. We introduced our first guard tour system in 1987. The PIPE was developed as a response to customer requests for an abuse-proof guard tour system.

We started an assembly operation in 1992, and as our products became more sophisticated, so did our manufacturing. In 2000 we added advanced electronic manufacturing capabilities and in 2001, our manufacturing company, FlashTalk Technology was born.  Doing our manufacturing at FlashTalk Technology gives us control over product design, flexibility in scheduling, faster prototyping of new designs, and most importantly, control over quality. Our goal has always been to make products that are the best-in-class, so we continuously invest in state-of-the-art equipment that allows us to produce the quality products our customers depend on.

Throughout the 2000s, we focused on technologies that expanded our guard touring product line, introducing The Stubby PIPE for security companies, Guard1 Plus software, Rounds Tracker, and mobile/USB/IP downloaders.

In the 2010s we shifted our focus to real-time RFID and NFC tracking, advanced paperless logging and reporting, and personal protection devices (PPD). New products were introduced including Guard1 Real Time software, Mobile RFID Tracking, Duress Device, Receivers, Beacon Tracking wristbands and ID cards, and LaserPrint Wristbands. The ruggedness of our products makes them particularly suitable for use in corrections, and we are proud to be the solution provider to over a thousand correctional facilities.

Today, TimeKeeping Systems mainly does business under the Guard1 brand, the name trusted by more than 110,000 customers in a wide array of industries including corrections, security, and behavioral health care.