What is a security post?

The unit of everything

When a client asks for security, what dispatch schedules is a post. It has a place or a route, hours and written orders, and it is filled by one officer at a time, which means a 24-hour post is three shifts and a small team rather than one person. A property with a gate post and a patrol post has two posts even if they overlap in time, and each has its own orders and its own line in the daily report. Counting posts, rather than guards, is how a property’s coverage is planned and how a proposal is priced.

Kinds of post

Fixed, or static: a gatehouse, a lobby desk, a dock, a site entrance, where the officer stays. Mobile: a foot patrol through a mall, a vehicle patrol across a community or several small properties. Temporary: an event, a project, a termination, a storm. Fire watch: a post with its own log, defined by the areas affected and the interval. Most clients have one or two; a large community or an industrial site may have several.

How a post is defined

On the walk-through. A supervisor sees the property with the client, and the post orders that follow record where the officer stands or patrols, the hours, the checkpoints, the access rules, the closings, the escalation contacts and the site-specific instructions. Every officer who works the post reads and signs them.

Handover, the weak minute

A post that runs across shifts is only as good as its handovers. The incoming officer is on post before the outgoing officer leaves, the briefing covers open items and the log is signed by both with the time. The shift handover article explains the routine, and the one guard vs two article explains when a property needs a second post rather than a longer one.