Apartment Community Security Checklist

How to use this checklist

Take it on a walk after dark with a flashlight and a maintenance lead, and tick what is in place. The items left unticked are the plan, in roughly the order they appear. If the community has a courtesy patrol, compare the checklist against the post orders; if it is considering one, the checklist is what a security company will walk with you. Price Protection’s supervisors use the same items on the walk-through before the first shift.

Access

• Vehicle gates close and latch after each vehicle; arms and rollers maintained
• Gate codes changed when staff or vendors leave and on a schedule
• Pedestrian gates self-closing, never propped, checked on each round
• Visitor policy written and known to residents and staff
• Vendor and contractor hours set; after-hours entry by arrangement only
• Office, clubhouse and maintenance shop alarmed; codes held by named people

Lighting

• Parking lots and carports lit end to end, no dark rows
• Breezeways, stair landings and building entrances lit
• Mail kiosk, package room and dumpster enclosures lit
• Pool deck and amenity approaches lit after closing
• Outage reporting: officer logs, maintenance repairs, manager checks

Amenities

• Pool hours posted; gate locks at the posted time; someone closes it
• Fitness room, clubhouse and business center on key or fob with posted hours
• Grills, fire pits and pavilions with a closing time and a check
• Amenity rules on the lease addendum and in the post orders

Packages, mail and parking

• Package room or lockers secured and checked; no deliveries left outside
• Mail kiosk lit and visible from the drive
• Parking permits or decals; towing policy posted and followed
• Fire lanes marked and kept clear
• Abandoned and unregistered vehicles logged and handled

Buildings and units

• Vacant and down units locked, listed and checked on the round
• Laundry rooms and utility rooms locked or on fob after hours
• Roof hatches, mechanical rooms and electrical rooms locked
• Vegetation trimmed away from windows, fences and lights

Coverage and reporting

• Coverage decided: courtesy patrol hours, gate post, weekend or event coverage
• Post orders written from the night walk and signed by the officers
• Residents told what the patrol does and how to reach the office and police
• Daily activity report read each morning; items for the manager actioned
• Incident reports filed and kept with the property’s records
• Monthly review with the security company; post orders updated

Notes on filling it in

The walk finds things the office does not see: the pedestrian gate a resident props for a friend, the light out behind Building 9, the pool gate that latches only when pushed. Fix access and lighting before adding coverage, because a patrol on a property with open gates and dark lots spends its shift on problems the property could have removed. Once coverage starts, the daily report is the checklist repeated every night; a manager who reads it knows the property. The Houston apartment security article describes what communities here are dealing with, and the post orders template turns the walk into instructions.