An alarm activation of this type normally indicates an employee or fellow officer is in trouble?

The correct answer is duress. This type of alarm is specifically designed to alert others that an individual, such as an employee or officer, is in immediate danger or is being coerced against their will. Duress alarms are often discreetly integrated into personal safety equipment or workspaces to ensure that a person in a threatening situation can signal for help without alerting the perpetrator.

The nature of a duress alarm is to provide a silent or unnoticed means of communication, which is critical in scenarios where overt actions might escalate the danger for the individual in trouble. This is why it is primarily associated with the safety and welfare of the personnel, distinguishing it from other types of alarms.

In contrast, fire alarms indicate a fire hazard, code alarms may refer to specific emergency situations or protocols requiring a certain response (but not necessarily indicating distress), and tamper alarms usually denote unauthorized access or attempts to disable security systems. None of these directly relate to signaling an individual in peril.