Glossary
Security Glossary
Plain definitions of the terms in security proposals, post orders, fire watch logs and Texas licensing: what each means and what it means for your property.
The words that appear in a Price Protection proposal, in post orders, in a fire watch log and in Texas Department of Public Safety licensing, defined in plain language. Each term links to the pages where it matters.
- Access control
- Access control is the set of rules and the means of enforcing them that determine who may enter a property or a part of it, at what times, and on what identification or authorization, carried out by officers at gates and lobbies, by hardware such as card readers and barriers, or by both together.
- Checkpoint
- A checkpoint is a fixed point on a patrol route that the officer must reach and inspect on every round, chosen because something there needs checking, such as a gate, a door, a pool, a dock or an equipment cage, and recorded by a scan, a log entry or both.
- Class B security contractor license
- A Class B license is the Texas Department of Public Safety security services contractor license that authorizes a company to provide guard, patrol and related security services for hire under Occupations Code chapter 1702, issued to the company rather than to any individual officer.
- Commissioned security officer (Level III)
- A commissioned security officer, Level III in the Texas Department of Public Safety system, is an officer who has completed the 45-hour Level III course including firearms proficiency, passed the background check and holds a commission that allows carrying a firearm on duty for a licensed security company.
- Courtesy officer
- A courtesy officer is a security officer assigned to an apartment community, usually in the evening and overnight, who patrols the grounds, enforces community rules such as pool hours and parking, responds to resident calls and reports to the property manager each day.
- Daily activity report (DAR)
- A daily activity report, or DAR, is the chronological log an officer keeps through a shift: the time each round was walked, each gate or door checked, each visitor or contractor admitted, anything unusual observed, and the handover at the end.
- De-escalation
- De-escalation is the set of communication and positioning techniques a security officer uses to calm a confrontation and end it without force, including keeping distance, using a low steady voice, listening, offering a way out, and calling for help early.
- Dispatch
- Dispatch is a security company's round-the-clock operations desk: it schedules officers to posts, fills call-outs, answers the client and officer phone lines, takes new and emergency coverage requests, relays instructions to posts and escalates incidents to supervisors and to the client.
- Fire watch
- A fire watch is one or more trained people assigned to continuously patrol a building or work area to detect fire, raise the alarm and use extinguishing equipment, required when a fire protection system is out of service or when hot work such as welding creates a fire risk.
- Guard tour system
- A guard tour system is a method of proving patrol rounds were completed, using checkpoints such as NFC tags, QR codes or GPS points that an officer scans with a wand or phone at each stop, producing a time-stamped record of every round.
- Hot work
- Hot work is any operation that produces open flame, sparks or heat capable of igniting nearby materials, including welding, cutting, brazing, soldering, grinding and torch-applied roofing, and it is normally controlled by a permit and, where combustibles are nearby, a fire watch.
- Impairment (fire protection system)
- An impairment is any condition, planned or emergency, in which a fire protection system such as a sprinkler system, fire alarm, standpipe or fire pump is fully or partly unable to operate as designed, from a closed valve during repairs to a failed panel after a storm.
- Impairment coordinator
- The impairment coordinator is the individual designated by a building owner to manage any period when a fire protection system is out of service: notifying the fire department, tagging equipment, arranging a fire watch or evacuation, tracking the repair and confirming the system is restored.
- Incident report
- An incident report is a security officer's stand-alone written account of a single event on the property, recording the time, location, people involved, what was observed, what the officer did, who was notified and any evidence such as photos or camera references.
- Loss prevention
- Loss prevention is the set of practices a retailer uses to reduce shrink, the inventory lost to shoplifting, employee theft, fraud and error, and in security terms it is the work of officers who deter theft at entrances and on the floor, observe and report it, and support store staff within the limits of Texas law.
- Non-commissioned security officer (Level II)
- A non-commissioned security officer, Level II in the Texas Department of Public Safety system, is an unarmed officer who has completed the 30-hour Level II training course, passed the DPS background check and is registered to work for a licensed security company.
- Personal protection officer (Level IV)
- A personal protection officer, Level IV in the Texas Department of Public Safety system, is a commissioned Level III officer who has also completed the personal protection officer course and holds the endorsement that allows providing armed close protection to an individual, as distinct from guarding a property.
- Post
- A post is a single security assignment defined by its location or route, its hours and its post orders, staffed by one officer at a time and handed from officer to officer at shift change; a property may have one post or several, each with its own orders and its own line in the daily report.
- Post orders
- Post orders are the written instructions for a specific security post: the hours, the area the officer covers, the checks to make on each round, the people to call for each kind of event, and what goes in the report.
- Shift handover
- A shift handover is the controlled transfer of a security post from the outgoing officer to the incoming one, including a verbal briefing on open issues, the sign-over of the log, keys, radios and equipment, and a record of the time and both officers' names.
- Static post
- A static post is a fixed security position, such as a gatehouse, a lobby desk, a loading dock or a construction entrance, that an officer staffs for the length of a shift, controlling what passes through that point and observing the area around it.
- Texas Private Security Bureau
- The Texas Private Security Bureau is the former name of the Texas Department of Public Safety unit, now the Private Security Program within the Regulatory Services Division, that licenses security companies, commissions and registers officers, approves training and enforces Occupations Code chapter 1702.
- Trespass warning
- A trespass warning is notice given to a person, by the owner of a property or someone acting with the owner's authority such as a security officer, that they are not permitted to enter or remain, after which entering or remaining becomes criminal trespass under Texas Penal Code section 30.05.
- Use of force
- Use of force is any physical action a security officer takes to control or restrain a person, from a hand on an arm to the use of a weapon, permitted in Texas only within Penal Code chapter 9, which allows force that is immediately necessary to protect a person or property, and further limited by post orders.
- Vehicle patrol
- Vehicle patrol is a form of security coverage in which an officer drives a marked vehicle on a planned route through a property or several properties, stopping at checkpoints to inspect gates, doors, lighting, parking areas and amenities, and logging each round.
Request a proposal
Request a proposal for your property.
Two short steps. Dispatch reviews every request and calls you back about coverage. For urgent unarmed coverage we can typically staff most sites within hours.
24-hour dispatch
(281) 326-9189