Knowledge center
Everything you should know before hiring security
PPO #122730Real numbers from our own quoting and patrol logs — not a brochure. Each page answers one question a property manager, HOA board, or construction superintendent actually asks, with the price, the frequency, or the rule stated plainly.
Pricing & budgeting
What security actually costs in the Sacramento market, and what drives the number up or down.
- 6 min readHow much does apartment security cost?Apartment security in the Sacramento area costs $28–$45 per officer hour for a standing or foot-patrol post, which works out to roughly $5,000–$9,500 a month for a nightly 8-hour shift. Nightly mobile patrol with 2–3 randomized passes runs about $250–$900 per month depending on pass count and property size.Read the answer
- 6 min readHow much does construction site security cost?Overnight construction site security in the Sacramento region costs $28–$45 per officer hour, which is roughly $3,900–$6,300 a month for a 12-hour nightly post. Mobile patrol with randomized nightly passes runs $300–$1,200 a month. The right choice depends on build phase: patrol during site prep, standing posts once materials and equipment are staged.Read the answer
Coverage planning
How much coverage a property type actually needs — passes, hours, and post placement.
- 7 min readHow many patrols does an HOA need?Most homeowner associations need 2–4 randomized patrol passes per night. Smaller gated communities under 150 homes are usually well served by 2 passes; open-access communities, communities with pools or greenbelts, and any HOA with a documented parking or vandalism problem generally need 4–6 passes with checkpoint verification on each one.Read the answer
- 5 min readShould I hire armed or unarmed security guards?The large majority of HOA, apartment, retail, construction, and commercial properties are correctly served by unarmed uniformed officers. Armed posts make sense where there is a credible, documented threat of violence or high-value cash and product handling. Arming a post that does not need it raises your liability exposure and your hourly rate without reducing your actual risk.Read the answer
- 5 min readSecurity guard or mobile patrol — which do I need?Choose a standing guard when something must be continuously controlled — a gate, a lobby, a retail floor, or an active people problem. Choose mobile patrol when the risk is property crime during unattended hours and you need documented deterrence rather than constant presence. Patrol costs a few hundred dollars a month; a standing post costs thousands.Read the answer
- 6 min readWhat should warehouse and industrial security cover?Warehouse and industrial security should cover four zones: the yard and trailer pool, the dock face, the building perimeter including roof access, and the interior high-value staging areas. Coverage should include gate or driver check-in during operating hours and randomized overnight passes with trailer seal verification and dock-door checks documented by photo.Read the answer
- 5 min readHow many security guards do I need for an event?A common planning baseline is one security officer per 75–100 attendees for a low-risk daytime event, tightening to one per 50 attendees when alcohol is served, and one per 25–40 for high-energy events like concerts or nightlife. Entry points, cash handling, and alcohol service each add dedicated posts on top of the crowd ratio.Read the answer
Licensing & liability
California BSIS rules, insurance, and what exposure you carry as the property owner.
- 6 min readWhat is fire watch?Fire watch is dedicated, continuous patrol of a building whose fire protection system is impaired — a sprinkler shutdown, a fire alarm outage, hot work, or a post-incident period. A trained person walks defined routes on a fixed interval, logs every round in writing, and can immediately notify occupants and 911. It is typically required by the fire code and the local authority having jurisdiction.Read the answer
- 6 min readWhat should I ask before hiring a security company?Ask for the PPO license number, a certificate of insurance naming your property as additional insured, the guard-card status of the officers who will actually be posted, the supervision structure, the reporting format and delivery time, and the officer turnover rate on comparable posts. Any provider that hesitates on the first three should be eliminated.Read the answer
How it works day to day
Post orders, reporting, dispatch, and what an officer is actually doing on your site.
- 6 min readHow do mobile patrols reduce crime?Mobile patrol reduces crime by attacking the offender's decision, not the crime itself. Randomized marked passes remove any predictable unwatched window, visible units raise perceived risk of being seen, and timestamped photo logs turn incidents into evidence. The effect is strongest against opportunistic property crime — catalytic converters, copper, tools, dumping, and vandalism.Read the answer
- 5 min readWhat are post orders, and why do they matter?Post orders are the written, site-specific instructions that define what a security officer does on your property: the patrol route, the checkpoints, who to call and in what order, what to document, and what not to do. They should exist in writing before the first shift. Without them, every officer improvises, and every incident becomes a dispute about expectations.Read the answer
- 5 min readDo security guards actually reduce retail theft?Yes for opportunistic theft and staff-safety incidents, when the officer is placed at the decision point — the entrance and the high-shrink aisles — rather than parked at a back office. Uniformed presence changes the shopper's calculation before the item leaves the shelf. It does not stop organized retail crime, which requires coordination with law enforcement and corporate loss prevention.Read the answer
Ready to price your own site?
Every service below is quoted flat, in writing, from our Sacramento dispatch.
Still deciding what coverage you need?
Tell dispatch what you're protecting and we'll tell you honestly what it takes — and what it costs.
Free site assessment
Tell us about your property
Send a few details and a supervisor will walk your site, identify the vulnerable hours, and return a written coverage plan with flat hourly pricing — no obligation.
- Same-day response on urgent coverage requests
- Licensed, guard-card verified, uniformed officers
- GPS-tracked patrol reports delivered every morning
- Short-term, event, and long-term contracts available