Parking Garage Security for Apartment Communities

Why a garage needs its own round

A parking garage on an apartment community is a building inside the building. It has its own entrances, its own stairwells and its own lighting, and it is the only part of the property where a resident walks alone in the dark every night. Most of what goes wrong on a mid-rise or a wrap community goes wrong in the garage, and most of it is over in a few minutes. A camera records it. An officer on the level interrupts it, and the possibility that an officer is on the level is what stops the next one.

Price Protection sets up garage coverage as a foot post with a written round. The round is drawn on the garage plan with the manager: which ramp goes up, which stairwell comes down, where the officer stands during the evening arrival rush, and which corners have had losses. The order changes every round so that nobody watching from a parked car can time the gaps.

Post orders written for the structure

Before the first shift the post orders record what the garage actually has: the gate arm and how it fails, which levels are reserved and which are visitor, whether the pedestrian doors are fobbed on every level or only at the lobby, where the cameras look and where they do not, and the community’s rules on tandem spaces, motorcycles and vehicles left for weeks. They also record what the officer is authorized to do: whether to note plates of unregistered vehicles, when a tow can be called and by whom, and which after-hours number to use when a car is found damaged. The orders are updated when the garage changes, for example when a new access system goes in and the old fobs stop working, which is a week when tailgating rises because residents hold the door for each other.

The hours that matter in a garage

The evening arrival window and the small hours are different problems. From five to eight the garage is full of movement and the risk is who comes in behind a resident. From midnight to five it is empty and the risk is whoever is already inside. The post is usually staffed to cover both, starting before the evening rush and ending after the morning departures. Communities that have had a run of break-ins on the top level sometimes add a second officer for a few weeks, one on the gate and one on the levels, and then drop back to one once the pattern stops.

Working with the office, maintenance and police

The morning report is the manager’s first look at the garage. Lights out on a level, a gate arm that stayed up, a fob reader that let everyone in, a stairwell door that will not latch: each goes to maintenance with the level and the location. Vehicles found damaged go to the office with a time window, which is what an owner needs for an insurance claim and what police need to pull the right clip. Officers hand off to police for enforcement and do not detain or pursue. Our note on lighting, locks and perimeter checks on a patrol round describes what the officer is looking at on each level.

Starting garage coverage

To set up a garage post, dispatch needs the address, the number of levels and spaces, the gate and door hardware, whether there is a camera view the officer can use, the hours wanted, and the manager’s after-hours contact. When a community needs an officer quickly after a run of incidents, an unarmed post can usually be on the levels within hours, and the round is refined on the garage plan over the first week.