01
CPTED explained
What crime prevention through environmental design means, how four public sources group its principles, what the federal lighting evidence found, and where security officers fit beside good design.
Read the guide
Resources
Security director resources for planning and pricing guard coverage
Run security for an office, campus, store or industrial site? This page gathers HALO’s explainers, rate guides, printable checklists and planners for whoever owns the guard program, whatever their title.
The security year, one task at a time
Owning security at a property is a cycle more than a project. You size up the site, decide which hours need someone there, put a number on it, write down what each officer does, and then come back to all of it when tenants, hours or problems change. The pages below follow that cycle, so jump to whichever matches the task on your desk this week.
- Reading the property. An explainer on designing out crime shows how layout, sightlines and upkeep shape risk, and a scored self-assessment shows which parts of your planning are solid and which are thin.
- Choosing the hours. A coverage chart sets the risky stretches of the day and week against a daytime post, overnight patrols and round-the-clock coverage.
- Building the budget. A cost calculator turns your own hours into a monthly range, and a rate guide explains what separates an armed post from an unarmed one.
- Writing the orders. A post orders checklist walks through what a post’s written instructions should say, from visitor rules to the shift change.
- Meeting state rules that touch security. A guide to California’s workplace violence plan comes with a fill-in template, and a retail theft guide covers what a store employee or contract officer may do at the door.
How the tools work on your screen
You don’t sign up for anything to use them. The cost calculator works in your browser: choose the kind of coverage, from an unarmed or armed post to mobile patrol visits, enter the hours or visit counts your site needs, and a monthly range appears. Nothing goes to HALO unless you choose to send that range with a quote request.
The self-assessment works the same way. You answer each question Yes, Partly, No or Not applicable, the score moves as you go, and your answers stay in the browser until you choose to send them along with a quote request. You can print the finished list or save it as a PDF, with spaces for the property name, the person completing it and the date.
The post orders checklist prints as one sheet per post to mark up on a clipboard. The workplace violence plan template downloads in three formats, PDF, Word and spreadsheet, ready to fill in once for each work site. Each tool and template covers one part of the job, so use the ones you need and skip the rest.
Where HALO’s officers fit your program
Your program decides what matters most on the property. HALO puts people on it. Our on-site security officers hold fixed posts such as a lobby, a gate or a loading dock, armed or unarmed, and our mobile patrol covers sites where a few unannounced visits after closing do more good than a full shift. Temporary, short-notice, overnight and 24-hour coverage are all on the table.
Patrol and incident reports include photos, which gives you a record to keep with your own files and to bring to the next budget meeting. If you want a second look before settling the posts, risk assessment and security planning matches officers and patrol routes to your entrances and your busiest and emptiest hours.
Get help
Bring whatever you have: a self-assessment score, a calculator range, a draft of your post orders or just a list of the doors that worry you. HALO walks the property with you, and that on-site security review is free with a guard quote. Send a quote request with the hours and entrances you want covered, and we will follow up to book the visit.
Resources
Guides and tools for security directors
02
SB 553 workplace violence plan
Most California employers have needed a written Workplace Violence Prevention Plan since July 1, 2024. Here is what the law asks the plan to cover, the nine fields of the incident log, the training cycle and the record rules, plus a fill-in template you can download.
Read the guide03
Security self-assessment
Answer 43 Yes, Partly or No questions in seven sections and see a score for each one, from knowing the site to recovering after an incident. Print it or work it on paper.
Use the tool04
Post orders checklist
Every post runs on its written orders. Check yours against this list: post hours, shift duties, rounds, visitor rules, reports, call lists and the change between shifts.
Read the guide05
Coverage hours planner
Which hours does your property actually need covered? This planning chart sets common risk windows against business-hours posts, after-hours patrols and 24-hour coverage.
Use the tool06
Cost calculator
Use this private security cost calculator to estimate a monthly price range for an on-site guard, an armed guard or nightly patrol visits, then send it with your quote request.
Use the calculator07
Armed vs unarmed hourly rates
In 2026 market pricing, an unarmed security guard in the Bay Area bills $36 to $50 an hour and an armed security guard $60 to $75 an hour. This guide shows what moves a post within each band, what the armed premium buys, and three worked monthly totals you can hold against your own schedule.
Read the guide08
California retail theft law
Prop 36 and a set of 2025 laws changed how California treats repeat and organized retail theft, but not the $950 line or what a guard may do at the door. This guide sets out each rule with its code section, in plain tables a store owner can use.
Read the guideA few useful answers
Common questions
Is anything I type into the calculator or the self-assessment sent to HALO?
Not unless you choose to send it. Both run in your browser. The calculator shows your range on screen, and the self-assessment keeps your answers on the page until you press the button that adds them to a quote request.
I just took over the security budget. Where do I start?
Work through the self-assessment to find the thin spots, then mark the risky hours on the coverage chart. With those two in hand, the cost calculator gives you a monthly range to start the budget from.
Is this page only for people with security director in their title?
No. Plenty of facility managers, office managers, store owners and property managers hire officers and keep the post instructions current on top of their other duties. These pages are meant for anyone in that position.
Will HALO look at our current post orders and hours before quoting?
Yes. Share them during the on-site security review, which is free with a guard quote. HALO uses what you bring, plus what the walk of the property shows, to propose posts, patrols and hours for the site.