What is a security risk assessment?

What is looked at

The perimeter and every way through it: gates, fences, pedestrian openings, the places where a fence is cut or a gate is held. The entrances to buildings and the doors that get propped. Lighting, and where it is out. Parking, and where the cars sit unseen. Amenities and the hours they draw people. Cameras: what they cover and who watches them. Locks and access systems. The history: what has happened, where and when, from the manager’s memory and any reports. The people: residents, tenants, staff, contractors, visitors, and the hours they move. The rules already written, and the rules that exist only in someone’s head.

What comes out of it

A post plan: how many posts, where, for which hours, armed or unarmed, with or without a vehicle. Post orders: the route and the checkpoints, the access rules, the closings, the escalation contacts and the site-specific instructions. A short list for the property of things that are not security posts but matter: the light that is out, the gate that does not latch, the sign that should say the pool closes at ten. And a proposal that prices the plan.

How Price Protection does it

As the walk-through with the manager, the superintendent, the director or the board member who called, before the proposal is priced, at no charge. A supervisor walks the property, asks the questions above, listens to the history and writes the plan. For an emergency start the walk-through follows the start, and the plan is refined during the first week from what the officers find. The assessment is repeated whenever the property changes and reviewed at renewal against a season of reports.

Preparing for one

The coverage planning worksheet helps a manager think through entrances, hours, checkpoints and contacts before the walk-through, and the apartment community checklist is the version for communities.