The importance Of Incident Reports For Security Guards

Many clients hire security guards to mitigate certain risk factors inherent to their industry, site location or business. They know that an incident that might endanger their property or employees will happen at some point, therefore the hire a security guard to be well prepared. Now it becomes the security company’s responsibility to prepare the security officer well for the instance that an incident happens. The security officer must be able to make quick and good decisions and be able to properly observe and report.

In my many years as security consultants I have been called to the site of an incident to assist the security officer. Most of the time the security will have made great decisions and ensured the safety of property and people, but when I ask them for their incident report they will lack important details. Every security officer should be trained repeatedly and frequently on what to do in case of an incident. They should also be trained to read the full incident report and provide all the information required.

The incident report should be devised by an experienced security professional, who has faced all kinds of different incidents himself. He should understand the importance of the information compiled on the incident report. The police will use the incident report to find witnesses, therefore names and addresses of witnesses should be written down. Many times incident reports will be used by insurances and courts, therefore the incident should be described chronologically and with exact times and locations as much as possible. Possible perpetrators should be described with as much detail as possible. If authorities are called, the name of the leading officer and the police report number should be obtained. 

The security officer should protect himself by recording the time he called authorities and the name of the person he talked to, time and name of the person he talked to representing the client and time and name of the supervisor he talked to. All the information named above will make it easier for the client to get a clear picture of what happened and respond accordingly. It will me it easier to prosecute a perpetrator, get reimbursed for loss by the insurance and to sue a somebody in court if necessary.

The security guard employed at any location for a security company should understand his obligation and have the necessary skills to write a detailed incident report. He should also be explained why an incident report is important and what it will be used for. The incident report will absolutely make a great difference for the client and the security guard. While the security officer might respond perfectly when faced with a dangerous situation he will have failed the client when not obtaining the address of an important witness or the description of a potential perpetrator. Incident reports should be written immediately, because they will become the most important piece of evidence for the client.