The holiday season from Thanksgiving through to the end of the year is a particularly active time for most industries. Retailers are geared up for shoppers, airports have all hands on deck to handle the additional holiday traffic and hotels and restaurants are overbooked with holiday parties.

It’s also a busy time of year for security guard services as they are integral to the safety and protection of many of these facilities as well as at residential housing communities, schools, hospitals and office buildings.

During this critical time, it is more evident than ever that using a combination of personnel and technology such as automated guard tour systems can further enhance the security of the premises.

Guard tour systems are designed to automate the reporting procedure and to offer ease of use and efficiency for guards. Using handheld tools such as an interactive guard tour appliance with a display and keypad, an officer can communicate incident reports for situations that require immediate action by simply entering in an incident code on the keypad. A hand-held data recorder makes it easy for the security officer to enter the information directly to the recorder while on site rather than filling out paper work at the end of the tour.

To take full advantage of a guard tour system, data sorting software can convert the tour information, including incident codes and key station check-ins, into printable reports which can be customized by time, day, week and month for added convenience. The reports provide a more comprehensive and timely overview of the facility’s security situation and also provide important documentation to protect against liability.

By enhancing their capability to offer protection with state of the art guard tour systems, security guards are better equipped to provide an effective and useful service during the holidays or at any time of the year.