Sections
Glossary
Plain-English definitions of guard tour and security operations terminology. Each entry has its own page so search engines can surface specific terms — and you can link directly.
- Audit trail
- An audit trail is the chronological, tamper-evident record of events tied to a guard tour: checkpoint scans, incidents reported, photos captured, GPS readings, controller actions. The trail is the evidence that a tour happened — not the tour itself.
- Read full entry →
- Checkpoint
- A checkpoint is a verifiable physical or virtual point on a patrol route, typically marked by a QR code, NFC tag, GPS geofence, or Bluetooth beacon. Scanning a checkpoint produces a timestamped audit-trail event.
- Read full entry →
- Deadman switch
- A deadman switch (or deadman timer) is an automatic check-in mechanism: the guard must confirm safety at fixed intervals; if the confirmation does not arrive within the timeout, the system raises an alert to the supervisor or dispatch. The mechanism is the operational backbone of lone-worker protection programs.
- Read full entry →
- Geofencing
- Geofencing defines a virtual perimeter using GPS coordinates plus a radius. In guard tours, it's used to (a) create checkpoints in outdoor areas without physical tags, and (b) detect anti-fraud — flagging a scan performed outside the expected geofence for that checkpoint.
- Read full entry →
- Incident report
- An incident report is the structured record of an event a guard observes during a patrol: theft, damage, injury, suspicious activity, alarm response, environmental issue. In modern guard tour software, the report is filed from the mobile app at the point of observation, attached to the GPS location and the checkpoint context, and routed to the supervisor or client portal in real time.
- Read full entry →
- Lone-worker protection
- Lone-worker protection is the program of policies, procedures, training and technical controls that keep solo-working guards safe. The core technical components are deadman switches, panic buttons, GPS tracking with geofence alerts, automated check-ins, and escalation chains. The program is regulated in the EU and recommended by OSHA and ANSI in the US.
- Read full entry →
- Offline mode
- Offline mode is the ability of a guard tour app to capture checkpoint scans, incident reports, photos, and GPS readings without an active network connection — and sync them on reconnect with timestamp integrity preserved.
- Read full entry →
- Patrol route
- A patrol route is the planned sequence of checkpoints a guard must visit during a tour, with target intervals, expected duration, and required actions per checkpoint. Modern guard tour software stores routes as structured data — checkpoint IDs, expected arrival windows, geofences, required photos — and validates execution against the plan in real time.
- Read full entry →
- Proof of presence
- Proof of presence is the verifiable evidence that a guard physically reached a checkpoint. The strongest forms combine three independent signals: a short-range tag read (NFC or Bluetooth), GPS location verification within a tight radius, and a timestamped photo or biometric confirmation. Contracts increasingly specify proof-of-presence requirements rather than scan counts.
- Read full entry →
- Two-factor checkpoint
- A two-factor checkpoint requires two independent verifications to count as scanned — most commonly an NFC tag scan plus a GPS geofence match. The combination is significantly more fraud-resistant than either factor alone.
- Read full entry →