What belongs in a real set of post orders
- Site map with every checkpoint named — gates, pool, mail kiosk, dock doors, riser room, stairwells
- Shift schedule, round frequency, and whether rounds are randomized
- Access rules: who is allowed in, how identity is verified, what happens when someone is refused
- Escalation tree with names and numbers in order — property manager, after-hours contact, 911 thresholds
- Documentation standards: what gets photographed, what gets written, when the report is delivered
- Prohibited actions: no towing without authorization, no physical intervention outside defined limits, no leaving the post uncovered
- Emergency procedures: fire, medical, active threat, power loss, water intrusion
- Client-specific sensitivities — a tenant with a restraining order, a known individual, a fragile neighbor relationship
Why missing post orders become a liability problem
When an incident goes badly and there are no written post orders, the argument becomes what the officer should have done. Nobody wins that argument. Written post orders convert a judgment call into a documented standard: the officer either followed the instruction or did not, and the instruction was agreed to by the client in advance.
The same document protects you from the opposite failure — an officer doing something you never wanted, like intervening physically or towing a resident's car. If it is not authorized in writing, it does not happen.
How we handle it
We write post orders from a site walk before shift one and send them to you for approval. They are revised when conditions change — a new gate, a new problem area, a new escalation contact — and every officer assigned to your post reads and acknowledges the current version. You get a copy; it is your document, not ours.