How do security guards handle trespassers?

What a trespasser is

Under Texas Penal Code section 30.05, a person commits criminal trespass by entering or remaining on property without consent after notice that entry was forbidden. Notice can be a fence, a sign, purple paint on posts, or a person with the owner’s authority saying so. Someone inside a fenced construction site at night has notice from the fence; someone at a pool after hours has notice from the posted hours and the gate; someone in an open parking lot may have none until an officer gives it. The officer’s first job is to work out which case this is.

The approach

The officer keeps distance, keeps hands visible, identifies themselves and asks the person to leave, stating the reason as the property’s rule. Most people go. The officer walks them to the exit where that is safe and appropriate, and records the contact. Where the person is inside a fence, a locked building or a secured area, the officer does not enter after them alone; the post orders say when to call police first and observe from outside.

The warning and the record

Where the property has authorized it, the officer issues a trespass warning, oral or written by the property’s practice, and records it as an incident: the time, a description, a photograph where lawful, the camera reference and what was said. The person goes on the property’s trespass list and the next shift hears about it. From then on, returning is an offense police can act on.

Refusal and return

A person who refuses to leave, or who returns after a warning, is a matter for police. The officer calls, stays at a distance, keeps the person in view and gives police the description and the record. The officer does not use force to remove anyone; the law permits force only in defense, and the post orders permit less. This page is a summary, not legal advice. The trespass warnings article covers the procedure in full.