Guarding and patrols

Should I use a static guard or mobile patrols?

A static officer gives continuous presence and is the right answer where access control matters, a site with deliveries, contractors and inductions needs someone at the gate throughout.

Mobile patrols visit on a schedule and suit lower-risk sites, multiple properties, or cover between other measures. The trade-off is that anything happening between visits is unobserved.

Patrol timing should be varied. A fixed schedule is one that anybody watching the site can time, which converts a deterrent into a timetable.

More on this:Manned guardingManned guarding in Watford

What reporting should I get from a guarding contractor?

Patrol times and routes, anything found and the action taken, visitor and vehicle records where access is controlled, and incident reports with times, locations and names.

The test of a report is whether somebody else can rely on it later: your insurer, your client, or the police. A signature on a sheet confirming that someone attended does not meet that test.

Ask to see a sample report before engaging a contractor. It is the most honest indicator of how they operate.

More on this:Manned guarding

How long should a security shift be?

Twelve-hour shifts are standard in this industry and workable when properly managed with breaks and reasonable rota patterns. They stop being workable when they are back-to-back, or when an officer is covering a second shift because nobody else was available.

Shift design is a security control rather than an HR detail. An officer at the end of a badly planned rota is physically present and functionally absent, which is the failure mode most likely to matter and least likely to be noticed until something happens.

More on this:Manned guarding