A shift report for security officers: post, patrols, observations, incidents, visitors and handover.
A daily activity report is the record of what happened on a post. Clients read them, and they may be used after an incident, so entries should be factual, timed and clear.
Write what was seen and done, not opinions. Use your contract’s post orders for what must be recorded.
16 items. Complete it digitally or on paper, whichever your team prefers.
At 02:15, an officer finds a side door unlocked during a patrol, checks the area, locks the door and notes it in the report. The client facilities manager sees the entry in the morning and has the door closer repaired.
Clients and security companies rely on DARs to show posts were covered and to reconstruct events after an incident or claim. Many states license security officers and expect accurate records of activity at each post.
| Officer and license | Omar, guard card on file |
|---|---|
| Site and post | Westfield Business Park, Orlando, main gate |
| Shift | 10 pm to 6 am |
| 23:00 | Patrol north lot; all doors secured |
| 01:40 | Alarm, building C; false, motion from HVAC; logged with monitoring |
| 04:15 | Delivery truck arrived early; held at gate until 5 am window |
| Handover | Building C alarm zone to be checked by facilities |
Each entry uses 24-hour time and states the action taken, so the client can see why the delivery truck waited at the gate.
Timed entries for patrols, observations, incidents and actions.
Enough that someone reading it later knows exactly what happened.
Supervisors and often the client.
Either; apps add time stamps and photos.
No, write what you saw, heard and did, with times and locations. For example, write “two people sitting in a car near the loading dock for 20 minutes” rather than “suspicious people.” Facts are useful to the client and hold up if the report is used later in an investigation.
At least for every patrol, check, visitor and alarm, and often on a set interval such as every hour even when nothing happens. A quiet entry like “patrol of north lot, no issues” still shows the post was covered. Gaps of several hours can make a client question whether patrols took place.
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Place an EZTime NFC tag at the entrance and staff clock in by tapping it with their phone.