Security Guard Daily Activity Report: Samples, Format and What Clients Read

What belongs in a daily activity report

A DAR is a chronological record of a shift, not a summary written at the end of it. The test is simple: someone who was never on the property should be able to read the log a year later and reconstruct where the officer was, what they checked, and what they found, without asking a single follow-up question.

The reason it matters commercially is that a DAR is the only evidence most clients ever see. If a property manager cannot tell from the log whether the back gate was checked at 2 a.m., the service is functionally invisible to them regardless of how well it was performed.

• HeaderDate, site name and address, post, officer name and guard card number, shift start/end.
• Equipment checkRadio, flashlight, vehicle mileage, keys and access cards received and returned.
• Every passTime, route, checkpoints scanned, doors and gates tested, condition found.
• Every contactTime, location, description, what was said, outcome, whether police were called.
• FaultsLighting out, cameras offline, broken locks, fence damage — with photos.
• Hand-offOpen items passed to the next shift, plus who received the post.

Daily activity report sample (copy this format)

Below is a real-format DAR from a warehouse post, scrubbed of identifying detail. Note that each line is a time plus a fact, and that nothing in it speculates about intent. 'Subject appeared to be casing the yard' is an opinion; 'Subject stood at the north fence for eleven minutes, photographed at 0214, left westbound on foot' is a record.

1800 — On post. Relieved Officer M. Radio #4, flashlight, keys 1–6 received. Vehicle mileage 84,221. 1815 — Exterior pass 1. All 9 roll-up doors secured. North gate padlocked. Lot lighting fixture #7 out (photo attached). 1932 — Interior pass. Office suite locked, alarm panel green. Break room lights left on, secured. 2104 — Contact. Male, approx 30s, grey hoodie, at the south fence line. Advised property posted and asked to leave. Complied, left southbound on foot at 2107. No police contact. 2340 — Exterior pass 3. Trailer 214 seal intact. Two vehicles in the east lot, both employee-permitted, plates logged. 0214 — Contact. Same subject as 2104 returned to north fence, remained 11 minutes, photographed. Sheriff non-emergency called 0219, case #REDACTED. Subject left prior to arrival. 0530 — Exterior pass 6. All doors and gates secured. Fixture #7 still out, reported to site contact by email. 0600 — Relieved by Officer R. Keys 1–6 and radio #4 returned. Off post.

DAR vs incident report — do not merge them

The DAR records the whole shift. An incident report is a separate, single-subject document opened the moment something happens that could produce a claim, an insurance question or a police case: a theft, an injury, a use of force, a vehicle collision, property damage, a detention.

The DAR should carry a one-line pointer — '0214 contact, see incident report IR-2216' — and the incident report carries the full narrative, witness details, photographs and police case number. Merging them buries the important document inside a routine one, and that is exactly what opposing counsel looks for.

• Write DAR entries liveAt the time, not from memory at 0555.
• Facts onlyObserved, heard, did. No conclusions, no adjectives about character.
• No blanks'No activity' is a valid entry; an empty hour is not.
• Never backdate or eraseCorrections are a new dated line, not an edit.
• Attach photosTimestamped, with the entry number in the filename.

How Summit Force delivers reports to clients

Our officers scan GPS checkpoints on each pass, so the pass times in the report are verified by location data rather than by an officer's signature on a clipboard. Photos attach to the entry that generated them, and anything that meets incident criteria opens a separate report the same shift.

Clients get the completed DAR by email before the start of the next business day, and incident reports go out immediately with a call to the site contact. If you are currently getting a handwritten page with three lines on it, that is the gap worth fixing — call 1-800-823-5337 and ask to see a sample from a comparable property.

See a real report from a property like yours

Ask for a sample DAR and incident report from a comparable Sacramento-area site before you sign with anyone. Call 1-800-823-5337 and we will send one over.