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Security post orders checklist: what a post’s written instructions should cover
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.
Printable checklist
What post orders are for
Post orders are the pages that sit at a security post and tell the officer how that post runs: where to stand, which doors matter, who may come in, what gets written down and whom to call when something goes wrong. A property can staff a capable officer and still get uneven coverage when those instructions live only in a manager’s head.
Clear orders read the same at six in the morning as they do at two at night, so a relief officer or a weekend fill-in works the post the way the property expects. They also give the property manager something to measure coverage against. When a task gets missed, the orders show whether that task was ever written in.
Walk through the lists below when you open a new post, take over a building, or look again at instructions nobody has touched in a year. Each list covers one part of the orders, and every blank you find is a question the officer would otherwise answer alone. The printable version gives you one sheet per post to mark up as you go.
The post itself: location, hours and equipment
Start with what an officer needs before the first round. A post described only as “front desk” invites guesswork when the building has two lobbies or a side entrance that opens at noon.
- The exact spot of the post, with a floor plan or site map attached
- Start and end times for each shift, weekends and holidays included
- The entrances and areas the post is responsible for
- Whether the post is armed or unarmed
- Keys, access cards, radios and other items issued to the post, and where they are kept
- Where the officer parks, takes breaks and stores personal items
- Uniform expectations for the post
Duties for each shift and the patrol rounds
Most posts change character across a day. The morning shift may spend its hours on arrivals and deliveries, while the overnight shift is mostly rounds and lock checks. Writing duties shift by shift lets each officer see the work that belongs to their hours instead of reading one long list.
- A task list for opening, daytime, evening and overnight shifts
- Patrol checkpoints in the order they are walked, and how many rounds per shift
- Doors, gates and roll-up doors to lock or unlock, with a time for each
- Lighting, alarm panels and fence lines to look over on every round
- Camera views the post keeps an eye on, where they are part of the assignment
- Closing steps when tenants or staff are still inside
When rounds take up much of the shift, our guide to choosing a dedicated post or a patrol route helps settle how the officer’s time should split between the two.
Access, visitors and deliveries
The entrance is where most judgment calls happen, so this part of the orders deserves the most detail. Spell out who walks straight in, who signs in, and who waits at the desk until someone comes down to meet them.
- People who enter without signing in, such as employees, tenants or residents with credentials
- Visitor sign-in, ID checks and badges or passes
- Vendors and service crews: allowed hours, check-in and escort rules
- Delivery hours, receiving doors and where packages are left
- Parking rules, and the steps for a car left in a fire lane or a reserved space
- Steps for someone who will not leave or tries to reach a closed area
Logs, reports and the escalation ladder
Officers record what they see, and the orders say where that record goes. HALO patrol and incident reports include photos, so set out which events earn an incident report and which belong in the daily log.
- What goes in the daily log, and how often entries are made
- Events that call for a separate incident report with photos
- Who receives reports, and the property contact for daytime questions
- An after-hours call list in calling order, with a second and third name
- Police, fire and medical numbers, plus the street address to give dispatch
- The alarm company’s number and the steps when an alarm sounds
- Situations where the officer calls the property contact before acting
An escalation ladder needs more than one rung. A single after-hours number fails the first night that person is asleep, on a flight or out of signal.
Handing the post from one shift to the next
Gaps in coverage tend to open at shift change. A short handoff routine keeps information from leaving with the outgoing officer.
- When the relief officer arrives and where the handoff takes place
- Open items passed on: doors that would not latch, expected visitors, late deliveries
- Keys, radios and access cards counted and signed over
- Log entries read and initialed by both officers
- What the outgoing officer does if relief is late
Keeping post orders current
Post orders go stale quickly. A new tenant, a moved delivery window or a door that now stays locked can make a page wrong overnight. Look them over whenever the property changes how it runs, and at a set point each quarter even when nothing seems different.
HALO supervisors carry out quality inspections at posts, and an inspection is a natural moment to hold what the officer does up against what the page says. Where the two have drifted apart, update the written orders rather than relying on a word at the desk.
Starting from nothing? A security risk assessment looks at the property’s entrances, hours and concerns first, and the orders grow out of what it finds. When the post is ready to staff, send the entrances, hours and main concern through the quote form, and HALO follows up on the details. More on how posts run day to day is on the on-site security personnel page.
A few useful answers
Common questions
What are security post orders?
They are the written instructions for one post: its location and hours, the duties for each shift, visitor rules, reporting steps and the people to call. Every officer assigned to that post works from the same pages.
Who supplies the information in post orders?
The property does. You know which doors matter, who may enter and whom to call, and those answers become the pages the officer reads at the start of each shift.
When should post orders be revised?
Revise them whenever the property changes how it runs, such as a new tenant, a moved delivery door or new hours, and review them each quarter. A supervisor’s quality inspection is a good time to check the orders against the post.
Does a patrol route need post orders too?
Yes. A patrol plan needs the same kind of page: checkpoints in order, the tasks at each stop, lock-up times and who receives the photo reports. Patrol orders tend to be shorter because there is no visitor desk to run.
How do I use the printable version?
Print one sheet for each post and tick every line your current orders already answer. The unticked lines are the questions to settle before the next shift change.