Can security guards issue trespass warnings?

Where the authority comes from

The power to exclude someone from private property belongs to the owner. Section 30.05 of the Penal Code makes it an offense to enter or remain on property without consent after notice that entry was forbidden, and it allows that notice to be given orally or in writing, by fencing, by signs or, for land, by purple paint marks. A security officer gives notice on the owner’s behalf only when the owner has said so, which is why Price Protection writes the authorization into the post orders: for what conduct, in what form, and who at the property is told.

How an officer issues one

The officer identifies the person as far as possible, tells them clearly that they are not permitted on the property and must leave, hands them the written notice where the property uses one, and records the event as an incident report with the time, a description, a photograph where lawful and practical, and the camera reference. If the property keeps a trespass list, the person goes on it and the next shift hears about it at handover. The officer does not lay hands on anyone to make them leave; a person who refuses is a matter for police.

Why the record is the point

A warning that exists only in an officer’s memory is worth little. Police can act on a return only if the warning can be shown, and the property can defend a complaint only if the warning was documented. The incident report and the trespass list are that documentation, and they are why a warning issued by a licensed officer on a written post is more useful than one shouted by a maintenance worker.

Loitering is different

Someone standing in a lot is not trespassing until they have been told to leave and have not. The loitering answer covers the conversation that comes before a warning. This page is a summary, not legal advice; the trespass warnings article goes through the procedure step by step.

What the property should decide in advance

Who may authorize a warning, whether it is oral or written, how long it lasts, where the list is kept and who at the property is told. Those decisions belong in the post orders before the first shift, so an officer at midnight is applying a policy rather than inventing one.