Guard Patrol plays a significant role in safeguarding personal and business possessions. Having a functional guard patrol system has become a necessity in South Africa to ensure that there is accountability should anything go wrong. 

As technological advancements are taking place, having a guard patrol that works like a well-oiled machine is a necessity. Digital guard patrol systems are now the main security and monitoring features that almost every company needs. 

With a digital guard patrol system, the highest level of efficiency and accountability can be achieved. The system can help with managing staff and track activity in real-time, which is what companies have been looking to achieve. 

What is guard patrol? 

Guard Patrol is the action of monitoring and reporting the rounds that are assigned to a patroller by a superior party. A person that is doing the rounds is a patrol guard who is responsible for monitoring and reporting on his or her findings performing assigned rounds. 

What is a guard patrol system? 

Guard Patrol System is a manual or computerized system that is put in place to monitor a patrolling guard’s activities when engaged in patrolling activities. A guard patrol system is needed to ensure that rounds performed are performed properly and to a certain degree with care. 

What is the difference between a manual and a computerised guard patrol system? 

A manual guard patrol system is a guard patrol system that uses a manual recording of data for activities or duties performed. The recording of data normally requires employees to write the time the duty was performed and the findings to be recorded and further checks are required. 

On the other hand, a computerised guard patrol system is a digital guard patrol system that monitors the activities of a guard patroller and mostly in real-time. The process may require a guard to use a tag or scanner to scan a label where they need to report and the guard will be further answering questions on a device that is being used. 

Today computerised guard patrol systems are the most preferred since they offer real-time data that can be turned into information using different software and decisions can be made in time. 

What is a Guard Patrol Software? 

A guard patrol software is a collection of guard patrol instructions and data set to instruct a computer device on how to work. A guard patrol software comes in three types. The three types of guard patrol software are:

- The desktop version,
- Local network client-server version, and 
- Web-based versions. 

Choosing a guard patrol software will depend on the use of the software and the type of device that is going to be used. 

The guard patrol software comes with a number of settings and the most common settings include the following setups;

- The Patrol department, 
- Patrol router, 
- Guard, 
- Event, and
- Patrol plan. 

The listed setup generally helps with the monitoring of guards and their activities. The software will then also allow the administrator to set specific tours for officers to complete. This then enables the administrators to get an indication of whether or not the inspection was completed. 

What is the usage of guard patrol? 

Guard Patrol has a variety of uses, however, the first guard patrol was developed for the security market. Guard patrols were used far back but the first recorded usage of computerized systems was in the early 1980s. 

Some of the uses of the guard patrol include:

- Monitoring of apartment buildings, office buildings, and homes by security guards,
- Monitoring staff working outside of normal business hours,
- Hotel and hospital housekeeping logging,
- Verification of patients being attended in hospitals by nursing staff, 
- Public transportation time table verification, and more
- Guard Patrol systems can be used in many areas as indicated above. 

Guard Patrol Pros

- Can track employees in real-time when using current technology. 
- Emergencies can be responded to immediately. 
- There is surveillance in multiple locations so many areas can be checked and monitored to ensure that everything operates as should be. 
- Can mitigate future threats with the data that is collected. 
- Employees become more organized and know what to do and when to do what they should do. 

Guard Patrol Cons

- The system can be too complicated for users. 
- Network problems can cause the system to be dysfunctional when using a digital system. 
- Can in some instances result in diseconomies of scale. 

Wrap up

Guard Patrol provides better security and with the use of current technology better management of staff and their activities can take place.