Resources
A checklist for writing post orders.
What a Redwood City officer’s written instructions should cover, from the post and its hours to rounds, visitors, reports, emergencies and the shift change.
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Printable checklist
What post orders are for.
Think of post orders as the officer’s playbook for your property, written down. They answer the questions a new officer would otherwise have to guess at: where to stand, what to check, who gets in and who to call. Good ones belong to one property only, and they’re brief enough that an officer actually reads them before taking over the post.
We put post orders together with you before the first shift, built from what we learn on the free walkthrough. The list below is what we make sure they cover. It works just as well as a review sheet if you already have post orders from an earlier provider and want to see what’s missing.
The post itself: place and hours.
Begin with the basics. An officer who knows exactly where to be and when can spend the shift paying attention instead of asking around.
- The exact post location, such as the lobby desk, the main gate or the loading dock
- Shift times on weekdays, weekends and holidays
- A parking spot, a break area and somewhere to keep personal belongings
- Which keys, fobs, radios or phones belong to the post, and where they live
- Areas that are off limits, such as tenant suites or equipment rooms
- The building contact on site during each shift, by name and number
Duties for each shift.
The same post can be two different jobs depending on the hour. During the day an office lobby is mostly about people; overnight it’s mostly about doors, alarms and rounds. Write the duties for each shift separately so nobody has to work out which tasks still apply after the tenants leave.
- Opening: unlocking, disarming the alarm, lights on, a first walk of the floors
- Daytime: greeting people, signing in visitors, keeping an eye on the loading area
- Evening: tenant departures, late deliveries and the order doors get locked
- Overnight: perimeter checks, door checks and sweeps of the parking areas
- End of shift: what gets locked, what gets switched off and what gets logged
Rounds and the patrol route.
A round with no set route tends to drift toward the comfortable parts of the property. Spell out where the officer walks and how often, and leave the exact timing loose so nobody watching can set a clock by it.
- The route, stop by stop or marked on a site map
- How many rounds each shift, and the rough windows they fall in
- What to look at on each stop: doors, gates, lights, fences, equipment
- Spots that deserve a slower look, like a back fence or a dock door with past trouble
- How each round is logged with the time
If patrol visits take over once the officer’s shift ends, note where the last round finishes and give the patrol the same list of doors and gates, so the night picks up where the evening left off.
Access, visitors and deliveries.
Most of an officer’s daytime decisions happen at the door. Clear rules here keep the officer polite and consistent, and they spare your staff from being called down to the lobby for every arrival.
- Who may come in without signing in, and how the officer knows them
- How visitors sign in, and who is called to come and meet them
- Delivery hours, where drivers should go and who receives goods
- What to do with a vendor or a delivery nobody mentioned in advance
- Rules for tenants or staff coming back after hours
- Steps for someone who has lost a badge or left a fob at home
Reports, emergencies and escalation.
This is the section where vague wording causes the most trouble. “Call the manager” falls apart the first time the manager’s phone is off at two in the morning, so give the officer an order to work down.
- The shift report’s contents, and the email addresses it goes to
- What counts as an incident, and how it’s written up with photos
- Police, fire and medical numbers, plus the exact address to give a dispatcher
- An after-hours call list in order, with a backup beside each name
- Events that warrant an immediate call, versus ones the morning report can carry
- Where the alarm panel, fire panel and water shutoff are
- What the officer does during an alarm, an evacuation or a power cut
Handing off between shifts.
- A short handoff, spoken or written, at every shift change
- Open items passed along: a door that won’t latch, an expected visitor, an alarm that sounded
- Keys, radios and phones counted and handed over
- The round log and shift report finished before the outgoing officer leaves
Keep the orders current. When a tenant moves in, a gate code changes or the loading schedule shifts, update the page that same week. On our posts, supervisor quality inspections include a look at the round log against what the orders ask for, so small drifts get caught early.
If you’d like help drafting post orders, or an unarmed officer or an armed officer who works from them, ask us for a quote. Coverage runs month to month.
A few useful answers
Common questions
Do we have to write the post orders ourselves?
No. We prepare a draft together with you ahead of the first shift, drawing on the walkthrough and what you tell us about the property. You read the draft, mark any changes, and the final version is what the officer works from.
What length works best for post orders?
Aim for something an officer can read through in the first few minutes of a shift and still find answers in at three in the morning. A few pages under clear headings beats a thick binder.
When do post orders need a refresh?
Whenever something on the property changes, such as a new tenant, new hours, a different gate code or a new delivery schedule. A quick read-through every few months also catches the small changes nobody thought to mention.
Can each of our properties have different post orders?
Yes. Every property works from its own set, because entrances, hours and call lists are rarely the same at two buildings.
Where are the post orders kept during a shift?
A copy stays at the post so the officer can check it at any point, and you keep one as well, so both sides are reading from the same page.