Building search plan and communication

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The security staff may need to conduct the building search in the response of the information or the routine task.

What is the requirement of building a search?

Establishing the building search procedure in an organization helps the security staff to decide on personal safety and contributes an effective building search.

Planing to search a building;

When planning for building search following things should be considered;

  1. Entry and exit locations
      • Enabling the escape of suspects
      • Calling in further support
      • Enabling the retreat of security staff
  2. Stairwell locations
      • Enabling transit within a multi-floor building
      • Provide escape routes for suspects
      • Provide choke points for inner cordon during the search
  3. Number of floors
      • May dictate the size of the search team
      • Enabling 100% search coverage of the building
  4. Building purpose
      • Office space
      • Storage
      • Plant and Machinery housing
      • Warehousing

Building search safety considerations

Safety of the team must be given priority when entering a building for a security search and quick risk assessment should be performed;

Security circumstance of search
      • Suspicious person inside
      • Suspicious item inside
      • Aggressive person inside
      • Suspicious activity near the building

Health and safety

      • Lighting conditions inside
      • Low doorways, piping or conduits
      • Trip hazards
      • Hazardous substances
      • Presence of fire or gas
      • Available exits in case of emergency abandonment of the search

Communications plan

      • Radio coverage inside the building
      • Use of runners to relay search progress
      • Alternate communications in case of failure

Building Search in a team

The building search may require a large scale of the search depending on the threat level and availability of the security staff. when the search is performing in a team the following things should consider;

  1. Communication
      • Radio, visual, or verbal
      • Brief and relevant to the search task
  2. Coordinated movements
      • 1 person in charge
      • Methodical progress through building
      • Clear by sections before moving on
      • The single floor at a time if the multi-floor building
  3. Maintenance of a cordon
      • Use of Security staff to cordon access to the building
      • Prevent others from entering
      • Prevent suspects from escaping

Use of canines for building searches

A trained Canines can use to search a building depending on the scenarios to achieve excellent results. If the following things are confirmed canines search could be the best.

  • Confirming the presence of explosives
  • Confirming the presence of narcotics
  • Personnel tracking / missing person trace
  • Cadaver detection (Deceased persons)

Note: It is necessary to minimize contamination of the area with additional human scent for the successful use of canines in search. Some of the basic rules need to consider while operating.

  • Do not approach the dog for petting
  • The dog can only work for short intervals effectively
  • Do not feed the dog
  • Do not distract the dog handler
  • Environmental conditions will impact the duration and effectiveness of canine search

Report requirements;

The site policy may outline the types of incidents that need to report, security staff should record in the notebook even minor incident if they believe could impact of the site security.

Categories of the incidents; 

  • Urgent incident
      • Report in real-time over the radio to control room
      • Take mental notes while dealing with the incident
      • Write incident details in a notebook immediately after the incident is resolved
      • Prepare a formal incident report
      • Submit to control room
  • Non-urgent incident
      • Report to control room
      • Write notes in the notebook
      • Include details in the patrol report
  • Other observations 
      • Write notes in a notebook
      • Include observation details in the patrol report

Advance Security Course

Basic security course

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