Security has been fairly busy this offseason.  We have maintained our usual patrol of the park during this offseason, ensuring the security of our member's personal property.  While doing our patrols we have noticed some violations and have addressed them as such.  Most of the issues this year do not pertain to any criminal activities but more administrative and policy infractions.  Examples of this are members knowingly (and unknowingly) performing altercations to their property without proper A&E approval.  In most cases, this is addressed long before any real work takes place.  The guards have been very quick and accurate confirming if a member has proper permits to begin any work.  Other issues that security has noticed are basic off-season issues such as fallen trees on the property, damage from snow and ice, and high winds.  When security notices this or is informed of this we have been very quick to notify the affected members.

    Security has had a record number of property check requests this year.  I feel that the decision to start implementing this and allowing members to sign up before the park closes allows us to confidently walk on to a member’s property and give an in-depth evaluation of any damages, vandalism, wild animal presence, and unsecured doors and windows.  This is far superior then simply driving by as you can only see the front view of the property.  When officers have completed a check, they leave a small note verifying the time and date, and name of the officer performing the check.  This has worked fine, however, one issue with this is that sometimes notes that are left can get blown away or wet and unreadable.  This in turn makes the member think that their property was not checked.  To alleviate this issue, I have printed out a huge copy of the park's map.  I then Highlighted the properties that needed to be checked.  Then when an officer completes the check, he will initial over the lot he checked.  This plus the fact that I've uploaded all property checks into the cloud so they can be searched and always available has allowed us to cross-reference the requested checks with the completed checks, painting a picture of the percentage of property checks that are completed.

    Staffing has been minimal, as is typical during the off-season.  We did have a senior officer fall ill and admitted to the hospital for a few months now.  He is slowly making a recovery and we hope to have him back by opening day.  Due to his absence, we have been short-staffed on the first shift, making the property checks take longer on top of already having such a high number of requests.  Also, on staffing, we have acquired officers that we had once lost but now have back, solidifying our team

    Overall Security has been doing just fine.  Working with Barbie Brand as the board supervisor of security has been a pleasure as she addresses any issues we may have and allows me to do my job as needed.  The park has been quiet this year with very few reports of any issues.  We have a new G.M. and she has acclimated well to Security.  Also, during these slower months, I have met with Traffic and Safety to discuss policy issues that security does run into, and together we may have come up with some solutions to better enforce those policies.  It is good to work together with all of the committees to ensure we are all on the same page and that we all work for the same goal.

 

Thanks, 
Thomas Zimmerman

River Bend Security Supervisor

Work-(304)-274-0052