There can be some confusion about the difference between a Security Guard service, and a Security Patrol service. Which type of service suits your needs?

Definitions:

Guard Service

A Security Officer will arrive at a site and stay there for a set number of hours. Also called Standing Guards, or Stationary Guards, yet they may still have some form of transport to navigate large sites. But the focus is on staying at ONE site, for a number of hours.

Patrol Service

A Security Officer will drive from one account to another checking each in turn and moving on, perhaps returning multiple times to the same site. But the emphasis is on one officer covering multiple properties for multiple clients, sharing the cost.

Pros:

Guard Service

Constant Coverage
Time for more detailed tasks

Patrol Service

Significantly Less Expensive
More Experienced Individual
Less complacency or boredom

Cons:

Guard Service

Very Expensive
Lower Level Employee
Prone to sleeping or inattention

Patrol Service

Gaps in Presence
Insufficient time for detailed tasks

It’s often said that a Patrol service gives 80% of the benefit of a Guard Service, but at only 10% of the cost.

The reason for the sentiment is that many of the benefits of a guard placed at a location all the time are weakened by their inattention and proclivity to fall asleep or get complacent or bored. Patrol officers can’t do that. They’re driving all the time, and falling asleep at the wheel is dangerous. Additionally, most of the goals can be accomplished with consistent attention and nightly visits, you don’t always need someone sitting there all night.

The cost benefits of Patrol are significant though. A single night shift guard costs many thousands of dollars a month, while a patrol is a few hundred. And the disadvantages of not having someone there all the time is somewhat offset by having a more experienced and attentive individual attending to the property when there.

If there are employees on site who need protection, or the property is so highly likely to be stolen or attacked, then having an on site guard is a must, even with the pitfalls. But if the purpose of the service is to establish or maintain a level of general safety and cleanliness or to get rid of persistent nuisances those things can almost always be accomplished by someone visiting the site nightly and constantly attending to those ends. And the fact that the occassional individual may slip through and sleep there, or every once in a great while an issue takes place are acceptable trade offs for having such a high percentage of the goals achieved, and at significantly less cost.

Example Use Cases for Guards:

Our facility will be unsecured for three weeks while construction will be happening.
We have a lot of expensive equipment being delivered that will sit in the parking lot for a few weeks.
I have staff working at night and have had threats.
We need a log of every truck that arrives and at what time.
They’re having a special event and need security.

Example Use Cases for Patrol:

We’ve noticed more homeless in the area or sleeping here.
Every so often we get false alarm calls and I would like someone to just go by and make sure it’s ok.
We need someone to keep an eye on the building during the nights, to know that things are ok, and to let us know if anything’s going on.
There are people leaving cars on our property overnight or for long periods.
Occasionally we come in in the mornings and see strange debris or things and don’t know where it’s coming from.
This area has been having more burglaries or vandalism lately.
Every once in a while I need someone to check on something specific at the building at night.

You can often accomplish all or most of what you need at significantly less cost by using a Patrol Service instead of a Guard Service. Additionally, it’s much more difficult to suffer paying $5/10/20,000 a month for guards only to get reports of them sleeping, not staying on site, doing ridiculous things and still missing about the same number of incidents as someone who’s not always there.

Occasionally our scope of service is in close proximity to a guard service. We spend most of our time around them just waking them up.

Here are a few pics from our collection: