Resources
Site security assessment checklist.
Walk your San Francisco property the way a would-be intruder sizes it up: fence lines, lighting, doors, cameras, the garage and the quiet hours, all on one printable sheet.
Printable checklist
Walk it before anyone else does
Most city buildings give away their weak spots to anyone who strolls past twice: a garage gate that hangs open after a car leaves, an alley door with a rock in the jamb, a side yard the streetlight never reaches. This checklist puts those spots on paper so you can see the whole property at once.
Take it on two walks, one in daylight and one after dark. The daytime pass shows how the building is meant to work. The night pass shows how it holds up once the tenants go home. Print a fresh sheet for each address and hang on to the marked-up copies, because they turn into the most useful notes you can bring to a quote.
Think of it as a manager’s walk rather than a formal audit. The point is to decide where security time and money should go, and to spot the cheap fixes along the way.
The perimeter and the lighting
Start at the property line and follow it all the way around. In San Francisco that might be a fenced yard and lot in Dogpatch or the Bayview, or just a building face, a side gate and a shared alley in SoMa. Either way, look at it from the sidewalk first, the way a stranger would.
- Fences and gates: gaps, bent panels, cut wire, gates that fail to swing shut on their own
- Climb points: dumpsters, pallets, ladders or stacked bins against walls and low roofs
- Shrubs and planters: tall enough to hide someone crouching
- Exterior lights: burned-out fixtures, timers set wrong, dark stretches between poles
- Alleys and light wells: who can reach them, and whether anyone would see it happen
Lighting is the line people underrate most. On the night pass, sketch the building and shade every dark patch. A well-lit door makes someone think twice; a black corner by the trash enclosure invites them in.
Entrances, doors and access control
The lobby is only one way in. Garage ramps, loading doors, roof hatches, fire exits and the back door to the trash room each get a line of their own.
- Front entry: who controls the door, and how easily a stranger can follow a resident in
- Fob and key card readers: working, and switched off for people who have moved out
- Fire exits: shut and latched, with no wedges or props
- Loading and service doors: who opens them, and how soon they get locked again
- Package and mail rooms: locked, and visible from somewhere with staff nearby
- Keys: who holds masters, and when anyone last checked that list
Tailgating deserves its own note. Stand near the main entry during a busy hour and count how often someone walks in on another person’s fob. If that count is high, the lobby probably needs an officer at the desk who knows the regulars.
Cameras and parking
Pull up each camera on the recorder and compare the picture with the spot it is supposed to cover. Then walk the garage and any surface lot with the same critical eye.
- Each camera: aimed where it should be, clear after dark, actually recording
- Blind spots: garage corners, stairwell doors, the far end of the lot
- Remote access: whether the system can be viewed from offsite
- Garage gate: how long it stays open after a car rolls through
- Parked cars: broken glass on the ground, signs of prowling, vehicles that never move
- Bike rooms and storage cages: locked, and in view of a camera
If the cameras work well but nobody looks at them until the morning after, write that down too. Remote video monitoring puts real people on the views that matter overnight, using the system you already own.
After hours and past incidents
A building’s quiet hours reveal more than its busy ones. Note when the last tenant usually leaves, when cleaners or contractors come and go, and when the first delivery arrives. Then list what has gone wrong over the past year, the small things included.
- Who is inside overnight: residents, staff, cleaners or nobody
- After-hours contractors, and how they get through the door
- People sheltering in doorways, stairwells or the garage
- Break-ins, car prowls, package theft and vandalism, with dates and times
- Graffiti, broken glass or damage discovered in the morning
- Tenant complaints that keep coming back
Look for patterns rather than single events. Three car break-ins on Tuesday nights call for a different answer than one rough weekend, and the dates on your list are what show the difference.
Reaching police and fire
When something does happen, time slips away on small confusions: a responding unit that can’t find the entrance, a gate code nobody on site knows, a fire panel behind a locked door. Check each of these while you walk.
- Street number readable from the curb, day and night
- Emergency contact list current, with an after-hours number for the owner or manager
- Gate codes, lockbox and key access arranged for the fire department
- Fire panel location known to everyone who works on site
- Alarm company details and the call order when it trips
Someone also has to go look when the alarm sounds in the middle of the night. With alarm response, an officer heads over so nobody on your team has to walk in alone.
Turning your notes into a plan
Once both walks are done, circle the three items that worry you most. They usually point to a clear fit: an officer where people need to be greeted or turned away, mobile patrol for buildings that sit empty at night, live camera watching for garages and alleys, or some mix of the three.
Have your marked-up sheet in hand when we tour the building with you at no charge. We’ll talk through the circled items on the spot, and the written quote that comes after answers each one. Our guide to getting ready for a security walkthrough covers what else is worth having on hand. Contracts run month to month, so the plan can shift as the first logs come in.
A few useful answers
Common questions
How long does the walk take?
For one building, about as long as a slow lap of every floor, garage level and outside wall. Large lots or several addresses take longer, so split them across separate days.
Is a night walk really necessary?
Yes. Lighting gaps, propped doors and people settling into doorways mostly show up after dark, and a daytime pass misses them.
Who on our side should walk the property?
Whoever knows the building day to day, such as the property manager or building engineer. Bring a second person who rarely visits, because fresh eyes catch what regulars stop noticing.
Can we print the checklist and hand it out?
Yes. It opens as a ready-to-print sheet from the download on this page. Run off a copy per property and per walk.
What should we do with the finished sheet?
Bring it to the free walkthrough. We use your notes to recommend officers, patrol, live monitoring or a mix, and set it all out in a written quote.