Patrolling, Surveillance and Incident Reporting
This domain tests observation discipline: what a patrol is for and how to turn it into a report that survives scrutiny by a supervisor, an insurer or a court.
Core rules
- Patrol purpose: deterrence, detection and early response. Vary routes and timing; clocking points prove presence but do not replace observation.
- Observe in a fixed sequence: baseline (what normal looks like), anomaly, verification, action, record.
- Report anatomy: who, what, when, where, how, and what you did. Chronological, first person, plain past tense, no conclusions or character judgments.
- Contemporaneous notes: notebook entries at the time; logbook entries never backdated; corrections struck through and initialled.
- Evidence: preserve the scene, restrict access, record who handled what, and secure CCTV by exporting with a time check and a log entry.
Worked example
At 02:14 you smell burning plastic near the canteen and find a scorched convenience outlet with a smoking plug. Poor entry: 'Canteen almost caught fire, probably faulty wiring.' Better: '02:14 – detected burning odour at canteen north wall. Observed blackened outlet and scorched plug, no flame. Isolated breaker, placed warning signage, informed duty supervisor 02:17, electrician requested.' The second version gives a supervisor or insurer observations, times and actions they can act on.
Traps
Writing opinions as facts; signing a clocking point you never visited; editing or deleting CCTV; reporting hours later without noting the delay.