The typical security guard has many standard operating procedures to follow. These procedures allow him to properly conduct his duties in an orderly and methodical fashion. Security’s goal is to reduce the liability of loss incurred by persons or property, in order for business to continue with little or no visible impact.

Company Assets

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Protection of the company buildings and grounds are vital to the continued growth of the business. The welfare of your facility should be checked on a regular basis through security patrols. During this patrol, guards should be monitoring the overall physical state of the interior and exterior of the buildings and grounds, looking for broken or worn out items that may become a hazard if not fixed. These hazards could be unsecured or broken doors and windows; slip, trip and fall hazards, damage done to company vehicles; burned out lights; defective equipment; chemical spills and fire hazards.

The Employees

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Employee security and safety is a must in order for company profits to continue. Access control must be used in order to protect the company and its employees from unauthorized access and theft. Security can monitor the employee entrance to make sure all who enter have proper ID badges, and are carrying only appropriate personal belongings. Security should monitor the general attitude of those working in the facility, to see if there are any stressed or angered individuals who could become a threat.

Visitors and Vendors

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Visitors and vendors have access to your facility along with sensitive materials and information. An appropriate badging system should be put in place so these persons can be properly identified and what areas they have access to. This will allow security and other employees to easily question them about what they are doing and where they are going.

Emergency Procedures

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Emergency procedure training for security guards is tremendously important if you intend to reduce your company’s loss after an actual emergency. They need to be taught how to correctly respond to medical emergencies, fires, hazardous material spills, bomb threats, hostage situations, storms, gas leaks or even acts of terrorism.

If an emergency is bad enough it will require procedures for an evacuation. Evacuations may be needed in cases of toxic leaks, a smoke-filled building, flood, a threatening person with a weapon, electrical outage or a natural disaster. Security needs to know how to evacuate employees from the building and where the designated meeting area is to be.

Public Assistance

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Public assistance should be rendered by security for employees and visitors in need. This can be as simple as escorting them to a certain department or helping them with loading materials into their vehicle. They may also be used to jump start a car battery, change a flat tire or drive someone to the gas station who ran out of gas.