What is vehicle patrol security?

Coverage that moves

A fixed post protects the point the officer can see; a vehicle patrol protects the points the officer drives to. On a garden apartment community that is thirty buildings, four lots, a pool and a mail kiosk over twenty acres; on a truck yard it is a mile of fence and rows of trailers; on a route it is three vacant properties along one corridor. The vehicle carries the officer between them fast enough to make several full rounds a shift, and the marked vehicle is visible from the street, which is most of the deterrent.

How a round is planned

The route is written into the post orders from a walk-through: the checkpoints the client cares about, the interval, and an order that varies round to round so the patrol cannot be timed. At each checkpoint the officer stops and, where the check needs it, gets out: the pool gate is tested, the padlock pulled, the stair door latched, the fuel tank inspected, the dark corner walked. Rounds are logged with times and, where the client has a guard tour system, scanned.

What it is not

A drive-by that never stops, or a response service that waits somewhere else for a call. If the officer never leaves the vehicle, the checkpoints were not checked, and Price Protection’s daily reviews look for exactly that. Where a property needs one point staffed at all times, a vehicle patrol is paired with a fixed post rather than substituted for it.

Who uses it

Garden communities and HOAs, management companies with several small properties, construction sites and yards on weekends, vacant land and buildings, business parks, strip centers and truck yards. The vehicle patrol services page describes the post, and the routes article explains how checkpoints are chosen.