Security Procedures and Documentation
Post orders and SOPs
The post order is the guard's local rulebook: shift timings, posts, patrol routes, keys held, escalation names and phone numbers, and what to do in each emergency. The SOP covers the process; the post order covers this site. Read both at handover and sign that you have.
Registers and passes
Keep a visitor register (name, ID number, phone, host, purpose, in/out time), a key register, a material gate pass for goods in and out, and a vehicle log. A gate pass should carry a serial number, description, quantity, authorised signature and time. Never sign for another guard or back-date an entry.
Reports and handover
An incident report answers who, what, when, where, why and how, in factual language, with times, names, and actions taken. Record observations, not opinions. The daily occurrence book (DOB) is a chronological log. At shift handover, walk the post, check equipment, read the DOB, and record anything pending.
Worked example. A contractor leaves with a tool bag. The guard asks for the material gate pass, compares description and quantity, finds a drill listed but not the grinder. He does not open the bag by force; he politely asks the contractor to wait, calls the supervisor, and records the time and names in the DOB. Reasoning: the pass is the authority; a mismatch is a query, not a confrontation, and the record protects everyone.
Traps that cost marks
Altering a register instead of striking through with initials and time, signing a pass without checking the goods, writing opinions in the incident report, and leaving the post before the relief has signed in.