A bollard is a fixed or removable vertical post placed to prevent vehicles from entering a walkway, storefront, or building entrance while typically still allowing pedestrian movement around it. Bollards range from decorative posts with little structural strength to engineered, crash-rated units embedded in reinforced concrete footings.
On a real property, the distinction between a decorative bollard and a genuinely protective one is often invisible to the eye but critical in practice — many bollards installed for appearance alone would not stop a vehicle at any meaningful speed. Spacing between bollards must also be tight enough to block a vehicle while wide enough to meet accessibility requirements for pedestrians and wheelchairs.
Corrosion at the base, vehicle impacts that go unreported, and bollards knocked loose from their footing are common maintenance issues that reduce protection without any visible change to the bollard itself. Removable or foldable bollards left unlocked defeat their own purpose.
In a patrol program, officers noting a damaged, missing, or unlocked bollard during rounds should treat it as a security-relevant maintenance item, since its condition directly affects whether a documented vehicle-access risk at that location is actually mitigated.
Related entries
Official sources
- [1]CISA vehicle ramming mitigation resourcesCybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency
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General industry and regulatory usage — not legal advice, and not an endorsement by BSIS, the Department of Consumer Affairs, or any law-enforcement agency. Statutes, regulations, and local ordinances change; verify current text at the official government source or with your attorney.