Running a PDV exercise
This guide is intended for account administrators at organisations using Cosafe who want to plan and run a PDV exercise using the Exercise PDV alarm template.
Practising PDV (Pågående Dödligt Våld — Ongoing Deadly Violence) helps staff understand how the alarm works in Cosafe — both sending and receiving — and lets everyone rehearse the Run – Hide – Tell (Swedish: Fly – Sök skydd – Larma) protective action model issued by the authorities.
This guide covers planning and running the exercise itself. If Exercise PDV has not been enabled and configured for your organisation yet, start with Setting up the Exercise PDV alarm template.
Every situation is unique, and the exercise described here may need to be adapted to your circumstances. This article is only one example of how a PDV exercise can be run in Cosafe — there are many valid approaches. The customer is responsible for independently deciding on, planning, and following up the exercise according to their own needs, internal guidelines, and applicable regulations. Cosafe disclaims responsibility for how the system is used by the customer, in both exercises and real incidents, and for any consequences of that use. This applies to all content that users write, share, or communicate via the app.
Before you start
- Have staff watch the Run – Hide – Tell (Fly – Sök skydd – Larma) training film before the exercise. The film is embedded in Setting up the Swedish PDV alarm template and explains exactly what is expected when the alarm goes off.
- Plan the exercise carefully and decide the date and time well in advance.
- Inform all affected users beforehand. Like the real PDV alarm, Exercise PDV alerts every user in the subaccount.
Testing your alarm
Before the exercise, every participant should test their alarm to confirm that alarm signals and notifications work on their device. Administrators can then follow up in the admin panel on who completed the test and whether it succeeded.
- Open the Cosafe app.
- Tap the menu (three dots) in the top right.
- Select Test your alarm.
- Read the instructions.
- Tap Test your alarm and select Test.
- Close the app without logging out.
- Wait up to 15 seconds for the alarm signal and notification.
- Reply in-app whether it worked.
See the FAQ articles on not receiving alarm signals on your phone and not receiving alarm signals on your computer. If the problem persists, the administrator can contact Cosafe Support with the affected user at support@cosafe.com or +46 8 409 400 20.
Running the exercise
Gather participants
Remind everyone of the purpose of the exercise, make sure they are all logged in to the mobile app (Android/iOS) or the Cosafe Desktop App, and organise them according to your predetermined scenario — for example, gather in a shared space and display the progress on a screen.
Send the alarm
The exercise leader sends the alarm:
- Open the Cosafe app.
- Tap Alarm.
- Tap Exercise Ongoing Deadly Violence (PDV) (shown with a green background).
- Confirm.
The flow is short and predictable, since most steps are preset — just like the real alarm.
Receiving the alarm
A loud alarm signal, together with the spoken abbreviation "PDV", sounds on recipients' devices. On mobile the signal plays 3 times and then stops automatically; on Desktop it keeps sounding until the user clicks Read message. The signal will not be heard if the Cosafe app was already open.
Exercise PDV alarm sound
The Swedish audio alert played when the exercise alarm is received — the same sound is used for the real PDV alarm.
Recipients can reach the alarm thread in any of these ways:
- Tap the notification.
- Tap the red Ongoing alarm – Go to message banner at the top of the home screen.
- Open Messages and tap the thread with a red border (the alarm name is highlighted in red if several alarms are active).
Participants then act according to your scenario — for example, Run – Hide – Tell.
What appears in the alarm thread
- Silent mode — a brown banner reading Cosafe is in silent mode appears. Tapping Read more explains that silent mode lasts until the Exercise Ongoing Deadly Violence (PDV) alarm ends, because notification sounds could reveal your location during an active alarm. Only Cosafe is muted; other apps work normally.
- From — the name of the sender.
- To — which group(s) received the alarm.
- Alarm type — EXERCISE ONGOING DEADLY VIOLENCE (PDV), shown in green text with a green border to indicate that it is an exercise (a real alarm is shown in red).
- Account/subaccount — shown under the alarm type.
- Alarm instructions — preset to Run – Hide – Tell.
Crisis communication during a PDV event
In a crisis, communication should be fast, open, honest, and fact-based. Only write what you see and hear – never instruct anyone else to do anything. This can have serious consequences, since you don't know what the situation looks like where other people are. In addition, a PDV event can change very quickly. The situation you perceived 10 seconds ago may already have changed, so the information may be outdated or put someone else in danger.
Avoid speculation and guesswork. You also don't need to use the "I'm OK" feature or otherwise tell the thread that you're okay during the acute phase, since that isn't a priority then. That happens at a later stage, once the police have arrived and started searching the premises.
Focus on creating a sense of safety, countering rumours, and giving concrete instructions on what the recipient should do. It's better to inform too often than too rarely, even if it's only to confirm that there's no new information.
To succeed with crisis communication, the following core principles should be applied:
- Be clear and consistent: keep the messages simple and uniform. Avoid speculation and guesswork: "I see a guy with a knife outside the cafeteria," "I hear shots in the corridor on floor 2."
- Prioritise the right channels: use official and reliable sources to verify information.
Below are two links to the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency, MCF, if you want a broader understanding of how to act in this kind of situation.
Marking a message as important
Any user can mark a message as important so that others can spot key information at a glance — for example "I've called 112". There is no limit on how many messages can be marked.
- To mark a message as important: open the alarm thread, tap the three dots or press and hold the message, and select Mark as important. The message gets a yellow background with a warning triangle and an "IMPORTANT" label.
- To unmark a message: use the same gesture and select Unmark as important. The message reverts to its normal appearance.
Ending the alarm
Only the sender, or users with the End alarm permission, can end the alarm. (See Managing App roles for how permissions are assigned.)
- Open the alarm thread.
- Tap the three dots in the top-right of the red bar.
- Tap End.
- Confirm.
Do not delete the alarm thread until after the evaluation, so that you can still gather feedback and review the exercise.
In a real event, the police decide when the alarm can end. In an exercise, the exercise leader decides when the scenario is complete.
Evaluation and follow-up
- Discuss how it went and gather feedback from participants in a joint debrief. A short written survey can be a helpful addition.
- Note any improvement areas.
- Identify participants who did not receive the alarm, follow up on why, and fix any technical issues.
- If needed, adjust the predefined groups or other Exercise PDV settings in the admin panel based on the lessons learned.
- Unlike a one-off temporary practice alarm, there is no need to create or delete an exercise group — Exercise PDV is a permanent, reusable template.
- Consider booking a follow-up with Cosafe for further evaluation.
If you would like one of Cosafe's PDV experts from Advisory (Cosafe's advisory division for security training and crisis planning) to run a tailored PDV course or exercise for you and your colleagues, contact Cosafe Support at support@cosafe.com or +46 8 409 400 20.