Help with night guard

[DanHoward]

I was wondering whether anyone who has ever worked as a security guard or custodian on night shift could help.

What were the duties you had to do each night?
Give me a list of unusual things that happened whilst on duty.

[Icelander]

I've been a hotel desk night concierge (eight pm to eight am), a night watchman on a fishing trawler while it was in port (from 6 pm to 8 am) and a security guard at the Central Bank of Iceland (my shifts were usually eight am to four pm or four pm to midnight, the midnight to eight shift I did only a couple of times).

The overwhelming impression of my duties in those jobs was... none. I needed to physically be there, that was about it.

At the hotel, I read the complete works of Lovecraft, did a lot of gaming work and surfed the Web extensively. I also glanced occasionally at security monitors and was supposed to take a walk around the hotel a couple of times over the night (but rarely did). There were occasional guests in the evening, asking about restaurants, arranging wakeup calls and pickups, etc., but all that died down after midnight.

In fact, the night desk had so little to do that a hardnosed middle-manager of the cleaning staff had successfully convinced the upper managment to make us do a couple of machines of laundry and to lay out the morning buffet before we left, just so we had to do something for our wages.

As a watchman on the trawler, I walked rounds to see if someone was trying to break in or if some equipment might be malfunctioning and I responded to alarms from the engine room. If it was something I could not deal with and which could not wait until morning, I summoned an engineer.

What I actually did was read, watch movies and, once I learned that no one really minded, invite my friends over to the rec area of the trawler for game night, movie night and once, memorably, to watch the first game of the day during a football World Cup (while it was in Asia, the first game was on very, very early in the morning here). The morning game ran into the start of the workday on the ship, so the friend in question, a young girl, had to walk out with me past a bunch of sailors, which, as you can imagine, occasioned ribald commentary.

As a security guard, I alternated between monitor duty, walking rounds and periods of... little at all, really. I also locked up for the night, checked that stuff that was supposed to be off was actually turned off and whether stuff that was meant to be on was on and suchlike, but that was only about two hours of the eight. While walking rounds, you checked in to the monitor room with your radio, occasionally, reporting where you were, and in the monitor room, you received those calls.

During the slack periods, I surfed the Net, prepared gaming sessions, wrote historical fiction designed to amuse only myself*, planned how to rob the bank**, tried to explain to middle-aged security guards what 'gaming' was and had long, pointless conversations with friends over the phone.

Any specific questions?

*A process which I call authorial masturbation and I wish that more 'artists' would have the decency to throw their creations in the wastebaskets once they've had their fun, rather than publish them.
**Eventually, I shelved the plan for coming out worse in a risk-benefit analysis than just getting a law degree and a job.

[Whitestreak]

I worked security for a resort/gated living area in the mountains north of Atlanta, GA after I was retired from the USAF.

The areas we worked were either at one of three gates or as roving security. We would work two weeks at a time at a gate - one week from 1600-2400, the enxt from 2400-0800, and then on to another spot.

Gate duty required us to check incoming vehicles for a sticker on the lower left corner on their windshield. Our sticker meant we opened the gate. No sticker meant we had to contact the potential hosts, count the passengers if a "let them in" was gotten and record that nimber and the license on a roster. We were also required to provide assistance as requested, check that any near-by trash bins had their bear-proof lids on properly stay awake. Depending on the gate and time, you could be very busy or very bored.

Roving security was just that - following a "beat", checking on homes as requested/required, helping people, keeping eyes open for roaming bears and whatever else was needed.

This was nice duty until two gates were subjected to rifle fire in one night - I was in one of them. After calling for help, I got treated for multiple glass fragments in my scalp and fired. The other guard had been transported for two bullet wounds and fired. Fun times.

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by Whitestreak

This was nice duty until two gates were subjected to rifle fire in one night - I was in one of them. After calling for help, I got treated for multiple glass fragments in my scalp and fired. The other guard had been transported for two bullet wounds and fired. Fun times.

That sounds like a strange thing for your employer to do. What was their ostensible reason for firing the guards who had been shot at?

[Whitestreak]

Originally Posted by Brett

That sounds like a strange thing for your employer to do. What was their ostensible reason for firing the guards who had been shot at?

Despite either locations having any problems that night - I had only four cars come in, all with stickers - the owner felt that *we* had to have been the reason for the gunfire, so we had to be let go, to prevent any other problems. It didn't help - turned out the guy doing the shooting had a beef with the owner, and since he couldn't find the owner or get onto the property, he decided he would teach us a lesson.

I learned about it years later, when I bumped into the guard who had been wounded.

[Dalillama]

Originally Posted by Whitestreak

t didn't help - turned out the guy doing the shooting had a beef with the owner, and since he couldn't find the owner or get onto the property, he decided he would teach us a lesson.

Yeah, the owner sounds like a real sweet guy. I wonder how anyone could have beef with him...

[Ed the Coastie]

I've done my share of night-owl work.

Security was the easiest...I made the internal rounds once an hour or so, at random intervals, checking to make sure that both the exterior doors and the interior doors to critical areas were still locked. Then I spent the rest of my time at the security desk working on my gaming stuff (which, to an outside viewer, made it look like I was busy with paperwork) and occasionally glancing at the monitor.

School custodian was more involved...it would take me anywhere from 4-6 hours to do the job, but the rest of night was pretty laid back. I would frequently do my laundry while I was working, and either read or work of gaming stuff when my work was done.

Night houseman at a resort hotel was similar...4-6 hours of work (most of it cleaning the dining room of the attached restaurant) and then the rest of the time sitting in the office reading and waiting in case I needed to respond to a guest request.

[Johan Larson]

Originally Posted by Icelander

In fact, the night desk had so little to do that a hardnosed middle-manager of the cleaning staff had successfully convinced the upper managment to make us do a couple of machines of laundry and to lay out the morning buffet before we left, just so we had to do something for our wages.

I have heard of various devices, rather like time-card punches, for verifying that nightwatchmen actually patrol rather than just sitting around. These devices would be located along the patrol route, and the records they kept would be verified by the supervisor.

Today, I expect anyone setting up something similar would use key-cards of some sort.

Of course, I suspect a modern security system would make heavy use of video rather than physical patrol, raising the question of how to ensure that the watchman is actually paying attention to the monitors.

[rust]

Originally Posted by Johan Larson

I have heard of various devices, rather like time-card punches, for verifying that nightwatchmen actually patrol rather than just sitting around. These devices would be located along the patrol route, and the records they kept would be verified by the supervisor.

Yep, in our case they looked somewhat like clocks, and we had keys we had
to enter and turn during each visit to the business in question. However, we
did not have to keep any kind of record, only to write a report in the case of
an "event".

Originally Posted by Johan Larson

Of course, I suspect a modern security system would make heavy use of video rather than physical patrol, raising the question of how to ensure that the watchman is actually paying attention to the monitors.

Every now and then a small and easily overlooked symbol appears somewhere
on the monitor, and the guard has to type in his code when he spots it. The
bigger the delay between the moment the symbol appeared and the moment
the guard entered his code, the greater the likelihood that he will be fired ...

[Peter Knutsen]

Originally Posted by Johan Larson

I have heard of various devices, rather like time-card punches, for verifying that nightwatchmen actually patrol rather than just sitting around. These devices would be located along the patrol route, and the records they kept would be verified by the supervisor.

Today, I expect anyone setting up something similar would use key-cards of some sort.

I have heard of suck systems too, perhaps in the past involving physical keys and locks with clock-timers on them.

Nowadays, I think maybe RFID or some sort of short-range wi-fi check may be more likely. Or even just GPS if the "circuit" the security guard has to walk is long enough to be visible on a GPS map.