What Should You Ask Before Hiring Licensed Security Guards?

The right licensed security guards are not defined by headcount alone. Before hiring, verify individual licensing and agency requirements, ask how the provider will assess your site, define each guard’s duties, and confirm how supervision, escalation, and reporting will work. Your provider should explain how coverage fits your property, event, or facility rather than offering a generic staffing arrangement.

1. Can you verify the guards’ licences and the agency’s requirements?

Licensing should be an early screening question, not an assumption made after a contract is signed. Ask how the provider verifies the credentials of individuals assigned to your site and maintains the relevant records. You should also ask which agency requirements apply and who is responsible for keeping the engagement compliant.

Ontario’s official resources provide information about individual security guard licences, private security services, and agency requirements. Review the Ontario information about individual security guard licences and the requirements for security guard and private investigator agencies when evaluating a provider.

• How will you confirm each assigned guard holds the required licence?
• How are credentials checked when personnel change?
• What confirmation can you provide before coverage begins?
• Who is accountable for agency-level requirements?

2. Does the provider understand your property or event type?

A guard post at a construction site has different operating needs from a concierge position in a residential building. Events, healthcare facilities, municipal sites, and commercial or industrial properties may each involve different access, visitor, patrol, or escalation considerations.

Ask how the provider would adapt the service to your setting. Explain the activities taking place on the property, the people who will interact with guards, the operating hours, and where a visible presence is most important. Relevant categories may include commercial and residential security, event security, construction site security, healthcare security, fire watch, mobile patrol, and parking enforcement.

3. Will coverage be designed after a risk walk-through?

A generic proposal may list guard hours without explaining why coverage is needed in particular locations or at particular times. Ask whether the provider will complete a risk walk-through before finalizing coverage. The discussion should consider access points, entrances and exits, sensitive or isolated areas, operating hours, patrol routes, visibility constraints, and known site conditions.

The purpose is to establish where guards should be, what they should observe, which areas require patrol attention, and how coverage changes during opening, closing, deliveries, events, or overnight periods. Accure Security describes its approach as using risk walk-throughs and coverage design to align protection with where risk exists on the property.

4. What exactly will the guards do during each shift?

“Provide security” is too broad to guide a shift. Ask for clear post orders or an equivalent description of duties. Depending on the setting, responsibilities may include maintaining a visible presence, observing access points, supporting visitor or concierge functions, conducting patrols, monitoring specified areas, recording activity, or escalating incidents through an agreed process.

Also clarify what is outside the guard’s role. A written division of responsibility can prevent confusion between guards, property staff, facility management, event personnel, emergency services, and technology providers.

• Where will the guard be stationed, and when will patrols occur?
• Which entrances, restricted areas, equipment, or activities require attention?
• What checks are expected at opening, closing, handover, or after an alarm?
• What should the guard do when an unusual condition is observed?
• How will duties change for weekends, events, deliveries, or overnight coverage?

5. How are supervision, patrol, and escalation handled?

Ask who supervises the assignment, how guards request support, and how changes in site conditions are communicated. If mobile patrol or guard dispatch is included, clarify when it is used and how it connects with the on-site team.

Discuss who receives reports, who can authorize coverage changes, how management is notified, and what information is passed during handover. Avoid accepting an undefined promise of “24/7 support.” Ask what the operational process looks like for your location and schedule. Accure Security offers mobile patrol and alarm response services; whether they belong in your plan depends on the site, hours, duties, and assessed risks.

6. What will be documented and reported?

Visible presence is only one part of accountable coverage. Ask what the field documentation process includes and how information will be shared with the person managing the property or event. Depending on your requirements, records may cover patrol activity, observations, incidents, access concerns, handovers, unusual conditions, and follow-up responsibilities.

• What activity is recorded during each shift?
• How are incidents and unresolved issues escalated?
• Who receives reports, and when?
• How are handovers documented?
• How can reporting change if site priorities change?

7. Should guards work alongside monitoring, cameras, or access control?

Some sites need an on-site guard. Others may benefit from combining a visible presence with mobile patrol, remote monitoring, CCTV installation, or access control. These tools serve different purposes, so the key question is whether they work together under one clear plan.

Access control may support decisions about who can enter specified areas. CCTV may provide visual information for defined locations. Remote monitoring may add oversight when a site is not continuously staffed. Guards may provide on-site observation, interaction, patrol, and response within agreed duties. Ask how alerts, camera information, access events, and guard activity will be connected.

Accure Security provides security systems planning and integrated security technology, including remote monitoring, CCTV installation, and access control.

Which type of coverage fits the situation?

Prepare these details before requesting a quote

Accure Security describes its pricing as quote-based and tailored to property type, address, hours, required duties, and site risk. Prepare:

• Property or event type: commercial, industrial, residential, construction, healthcare, municipal, or venue.
• Address and schedule: municipality, coverage days, hours, overnight periods, and event dates.
• Required duties: access observation, concierge responsibilities, patrols, visitor support, parking enforcement, fire watch, and reporting.
• Risk areas and access points: entrances, restricted areas, loading areas, equipment, and locations requiring attention.
• Site conditions: construction phases, public access, tenants, deliveries, and shift changes.
• Existing systems: cameras, alarms, access control, or remote monitoring.
• Reporting needs: recipients, required records, and incident follow-up.

These details let you compare proposals on more than hourly coverage. You can assess whether each provider understands the site, defines the work, and explains how the service will be managed.

Choose coverage that can be explained and documented

Before hiring licensed security guards, choose a provider that can verify licensing, understand your property type, complete a risk walk-through, define duties, explain supervision and escalation, and document activity. Then decide whether guards are sufficient or whether mobile patrol, remote monitoring, CCTV installation, access control, or a combined plan belongs in the design.

For an Ontario quote tailored to your property type, address, coverage hours, required duties, and site-risk information, contact Accure Security.