Vehicle patrol: Definition and What It Means for Your Property

Coverage that moves

A fixed post protects the place the officer can see. A vehicle patrol protects the places the officer drives to, which on a garden-style apartment community can be thirty buildings, four parking areas, a pool, a dog park and a mail kiosk spread over twenty acres. The vehicle carries the officer between them fast enough to make a full round several times a shift, and the marked vehicle itself is visible from a long way off, which is most of the deterrent. Price Protection provides vehicle patrol where the site calls for it, as a post on its own or combined with a fixed post at the gate or lobby.

How a round is planned

The route is written into the post orders. It visits every checkpoint the client cares about in an order that is varied from round to round so it cannot be timed by someone watching. At each checkpoint the officer stops, gets out where the check requires it, tests the door or gate, notes lighting that is out, vehicles that do not belong, propped doors and open garages, and moves on. Rounds are logged with times, and a guard tour system records the checkpoint scan where the client uses one.

What it is not

Vehicle patrol is not a response service that waits at a distance for a call, and it is not a drive-by that never leaves the car. If the officer never gets out at the pool gate, the pool gate was not checked. Our daily performance reviews look for exactly that, and the vehicle patrol services page explains how a patrol post is priced and staffed by hours and checkpoints rather than by miles.