The Power Failure and the Broken Gate
At 03:10 a power failure knocks out the lights and the electronic vehicle gate at your site. The gate has failed in the open position. The backup battery for the gate motor is dead. It is raining heavily and visibility is poor. Your torch works. The site has a single entrance and a perimeter fence with one other pedestrian gate that is locked. There are two officers on duty: you and a colleague who is on the far side of the site doing rounds and is out of radio range for the next 20 minutes. The site holds high-value copper cable in an open yard. Your written procedure says that in a power failure the gate must be physically secured and the yard patrolled at increased frequency until power is restored.
1. What do you do in the first ten minutes, and in what order?
Read the worked answer
The exposure is an open gate onto high-value material in the dark and rain - the priority is to close the exposure before anything else.
- Secure the open gate physically as far as possible: close the gate leaves manually and secure them with the manual lock/chain provided for this purpose. If it cannot be fully closed, position yourself so the opening is observed and controlled.
- Account for the colleague and get help moving. The other officer is out of radio range for ~20 minutes; try radio, then phone, and leave a clear message. Do not abandon the gate to go and find them.
- Notify control/supervisor of the power failure, the open gate, and the dead backup battery, and request assistance.
- Begin the increased patrol of the yard as the procedure requires, but only in a way that keeps the entrance controlled - e.g., short, frequent checks rather than a long absence from the gate.
- Record the time of the failure, the gate status, and every action.
The ordering principle: close the physical exposure first, then summon help, then patrol within the constraint of not leaving the opening unguarded.
2. The colleague returns and suggests you both patrol the yard together for safety, leaving the gate unwatched. Is that acceptable?
Read the worked answer
Not as stated. Patrolling together may improve officer safety, but leaving the open gate unwatched defeats the very risk you are managing. The two goals must be reconciled, not traded off blindly.
A sound answer:
- Keep the entrance covered by one officer while the other patrols, or
- Secure the gate fully first (if it can be locked closed), and only then patrol together, or
- Request additional cover from control/supervisor so both can patrol safely without the gate being left open.
The reasoning to show: the increased-patrol instruction exists to compensate for the open gate, so abandoning the gate to patrol is self-defeating. The candidate should identify the conflict and resolve it explicitly rather than simply agreeing or refusing.
3. When power is restored at 05:20, what must be checked and recorded before you hand over?
Read the worked answer
Restoration is not the end of the incident - it is the point at which you verify nothing was lost and the systems are genuinely working.
Check and record:
- Gate function: does the motor operate and does the gate close and latch under power? Test it.
- Backup battery: note that it failed and flag it for replacement - a dead backup is a repeat-failure risk.
- Yard integrity: walk the copper yard and perimeter and check for signs of intrusion or loss during the outage; note any damage.
- The pedestrian gate and fence line, given the poor visibility during the outage.
- A full timeline in the occurrence book: failure time, gate status, actions, patrols made, restoration time, and defects found.
- A written handover to the day shift and supervisor, including the battery failure and the open-gate period.
The test is whether the candidate treats restoration as requiring verification and documentation, not just a return to normal.