Post: Definition and What It Means for Your Property

The unit everything else is built on

When a manager asks for “security”, what dispatch actually schedules is a post: a gate post from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., a patrol post covering three properties from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m., a fire watch post on floors 8 through 12 until the sprinkler riser is back. Each post has a location or a route, hours, and written orders. Each is filled by one officer at a time, so a post that runs 24 hours is three shifts and a small team, and a property with a gate post and a patrol post is two posts even if they overlap.

Fixed, mobile and temporary posts

A fixed or static post stays at one point: a gatehouse, a lobby desk, a dock, a site entrance. A mobile post moves: a foot patrol through a mall, a vehicle patrol across a large community or several small ones. A temporary post exists for an event, a project, an emergency or an impairment and ends on a date. Fire watch is a post type of its own with its own log. Most Price Protection clients have one or two posts; a large community or an industrial site may have several, and the post orders keep them from overlapping or leaving gaps.

How a post is priced and staffed

A proposal describes each post by hours per week, armed or unarmed, and any special requirement such as a vehicle or a fire watch log, and prices it by the hour. Dispatch then assigns officers to the post so that the same small group works it, because officers who know a property notice more. Performance on every post is reviewed daily against the report. The services page lists posts by schedule, place and task, and the one guard vs two article explains when a property needs a second post rather than a longer one.