How to Use This Playbook

This is the shift lead’s handbook — the companion to the Site Supervisor Playbook, focused on what a lead does. It exists so that every lead has the same clear standard and does not have to figure the role out alone. The front sections cover how and why we lead; the appendices in the back are the checklists and tools you use every shift.

It works alongside Sunstates company policy and the client’s Post Orders — it does not replace them. Where this playbook sets a standard, that standard reinforces company policy and the Post Orders that govern officer duties at each post. If anything here appears to conflict with official policy or the Post Orders, those control, and the question goes up the chain.

In the emergency procedures (Section 8), a few details are marked [confirm for site]. Those are finalized by site leadership — the 911 and dispatch protocol, the client’s emergency contact, evacuation assembly points, first-aid and AED availability, and whether officers are authorized to render aid.

1 · Introduction

1.1 The Lead Role

The lead is the first line of leadership on this site. A lead is responsible for the overall success of their shift — not by personally performing every task, but by maintaining awareness of what is happening and ensuring issues are addressed. Leads are not simply senior officers or helpers; they own the shift, and they are developing supervisors. Giving the role real ownership is how leads grow into the next level of leadership.

This playbook exists so that leads have a clear, consistent standard to lead by, and so the knowledge stays on the site even as people move up or move on. The lead’s mission is simple to say and harder to do well: run the shift while taking care of the people.

“A lead’s job is not to manage a post. A lead’s job is to manage a shift.”

1.2 The Lead’s Commitment

Every officer on your shift should feel like they matter. As a lead, you are committed to creating a shift where officers feel supported, respected, heard, and clear on expectations — while still being held to the standard. That means treating people fairly with no favorites, leading by example, communicating openly, following through, and holding people accountable consistently. The operation does not run without the officers, and leadership exists to support them.

2 · Culture & Leadership

2.1 Take Care of Your People

Leadership here starts with one idea: take care of your people. That care is balanced by clear boundaries — friendly, but not friends; approachable, understanding, and fair, with no favorites and no double standards. Sometimes leadership means being selfless and stepping outside personal preference to do what the shift needs. The role is not about authority for its own sake; it is about creating structure, solving problems, communicating clearly, and protecting the culture of the shift.

“Take care of your people. Be friendly, but not friends. Be approachable, understanding, and fair. There should be no favorites. Standards apply equally.”

2.2 Support and Accountability Together

The shift should feel team-oriented, structured, fair, professional, and drama-free. Support and accountability are held together, not traded off: officers should feel supported, heard, and clear on expectations, and at the same time follow instructions, follow the chain of command, meet standards, and own their mistakes. Clear expectations are not a burden — they keep the shift calm. Structure exists to create stability, not to punish.

2.3 Protect the Culture

Protecting the culture is an active duty of the lead, not just a value on a wall. Gossip, rumors, favoritism, and drama are the fastest ways to break down a shift, and a lead is expected to stop them in their tracks rather than take part. Address concerns professionally and directly through the chain of command. Culture follows leadership — whatever the lead models spreads to the shift, calm and accountability as surely as chaos and gossip.

2.4 How Officers Should Experience You

When an officer deals with you, they should come away feeling respected, heard, supported, and clear on what is expected — comfortable bringing a question, a concern, or a mistake without anxiety. People accept a decision they disagree with far more easily when they feel genuinely heard. When an officer makes a mistake, pair empathy with clear boundaries: stay professional, solve the problem, reinforce the expectation, and correct the behavior without humiliating the person. When something is being done wrong, the first move is often to retrain rather than to punish.

“Hold officers accountable while still treating them with professionalism, empathy, and respect.”

2.5 Lead by Example

The shift mirrors its lead. Calm spreads, and so do panic and drama. Officers watch attitude, effort, appearance, communication, and how you handle pressure, and they take their cue from it — so model the standard before enforcing it. Never ask an officer to maintain a standard you are unwilling to maintain yourself. A lead who stays composed and professional gives the whole shift permission to do the same.

2.6 Core Leadership Principles

• Take care of your people — they perform best when they feel supported, respected, and valued.
• Lead by example — never ask someone to do what you won’t do yourself.
• Support with structure — people need support and clear expectations both.
• Communicate early and often — written, verbal, and followed up.
• Develop people — create future leaders, not followers.
• Make the right decision — the goal is not to be right; it’s to make the right decision.
• Be fair and consistent — trust is built through consistency.
• Protect the culture — don’t tolerate gossip, favoritism, dishonesty, or drama.
• Own the problem — take ownership; don’t blame; work toward solutions.
• Leave it better than you found it — every shift, every day, every interaction.

2.7 Site Non-Negotiables

These standards apply to everyone on your shift, and you are expected to enforce them: the chain of command; professionalism; uniform, grooming, and PPE compliance; attendance and reliability; complete and accurate reporting; minimal phone usage that never interferes with duties; post responsibility and alertness; no sleeping on post (a serious violation); honesty and integrity; and a team-first mentality. Our appearance reflects our professionalism, and if it happens, it should be documented.

3 · The Lead’s Role & the Chain of Command

3.1 Owning the Shift

Leads are responsible for managing the day-to-day operation of their shift: officer attendance, call-outs, coverage, the real-time schedule changes that keep posts covered, morale, early conflict resolution, monitoring reporting, and escalating appropriately. The lead’s job is not to manage a single post — it is to manage the whole shift, which means staying visible and aware rather than getting tied to one location or buried in the office.

When two things compete, the priority order is Safety, then People, then Operational issues, then Administrative tasks. If an officer needs help and an email can wait, the email waits.

“Take care of the people while making sure the operation keeps running.”

3.2 Chain of Command

The chain of command exists to create structure, accountability, communication, and leadership development — not to prevent communication. Every level should have the chance to solve issues within its area before escalation. Communication flows both up and down: problems escalate upward when necessary, and solutions come back down through the same chain, so each level keeps its authority.

The chain

As a lead, you handle what belongs at your level and escalate what genuinely needs support — avoiding both extremes of escalating everything and escalating nothing out of fear or pride. Exceptions: an officer may go directly to the Site Supervisor if the issue involves the lead, and emergencies escalate immediately, because safety comes before process.

When an officer skips the chain (non-emergency)

The goal is to educate, not punish. The first time, answer the question when appropriate, then explain the chain and redirect the officer to the right level for future concerns. If it keeps happening, ask whether they have spoken to their lead and direct them back there first. Support the officer while reinforcing the structure.

3.3 Communication

On a large, changing site, the biggest risk is information not reaching the people who need it, so the shift runs on three layers: a written pass-down log for the record, a verbal hand-off for the context a log can’t capture, and a site-wide phone group so every post is aware of significant events. Written matters, but verbal prevents confusion — pass critical information both ways. GroupMe is for operational information only, not chit-chat or noise; side conversations go to direct messages, and officers don’t give out another officer’s number without permission. Keep radio traffic professional and clear, with a clear lane for priority and emergency traffic.

4 · Running the Shift

4.1 Shift Start-Up (First 30 Minutes)

The first thirty minutes set up the whole shift. Receive the verbal and written pass-down and check site phone messages first — ask about incidents, officer issues, contractor issues, client concerns, unresolved problems, and any expected call-outs. Then verify staffing and coverage in eHub: confirm officers are clocking in, identify missed punches and late arrivals, verify every post is covered (including coverage for any prior call-out), and note attendance concerns. Only then make initial rounds. Doing it in this order means your rounds are purposeful — you already know what happened and who is missing — instead of a walk-around.

4.2 Mid-Shift

Stay out of the trap of getting tied to one post or buried in the office. Keep a balance across three areas: people (check on officers, maintain morale, answer questions, coach), operations (handle call-outs, monitor coverage, address contractor concerns, keep posts covered), and leadership (make rounds, stay visible, enforce standards, follow up, escalate appropriately).

4.3 Rounds & Officer Standards

During rounds, verify the standard and check on your people at the same time. Look for proper uniform and PPE, professional appearance and conduct, alertness and engagement, proper phone usage, post compliance, professional interactions, and reports completed on time — and while you’re there, ask officers if they need anything and build rapport. Address issues through coaching when appropriate.

4.4 End-of-Shift Handoff

A good handoff means the incoming lead never starts from scratch. Before leaving, confirm major issues were addressed and note what is resolved, in progress, or still needs action; make sure incidents and Vision Insights entries are complete; verify all posts are covered and next-shift staffing is set; and give the incoming lead a verbal pass-down covering incidents, contractor and client concerns, coverage, and priorities. You’ve handed off well when you can answer three questions: what happened, what still needs attention, and what the next lead needs to know to succeed.

5 · Staffing & Coverage

5.1 Coverage Philosophy

Coverage is filled intelligently, not emotionally. When you need to cover a shift, offer it to officers under forty hours first, prioritizing those with the fewest scheduled hours, and use overtime only when it is genuinely necessary — the goal is to avoid excessive overtime while keeping every post covered. Overtime that is actually worked is always recorded and paid; “control” only refers to how shifts are offered.

5.2 The Call-Out Procedure

When an officer needs to call out, the expected sequence is:

• The officer calls out at least four hours before the shift.
• The officer contacts the on-duty lead or the site lead phone directly — not a message dropped in a group chat.
• The lead takes ownership of coverage and begins working it immediately, using the coverage order above.
• The lead documents the call-out and the actions taken to cover it.
• If coverage cannot be resolved, the lead escalates to the Site Supervisor.

When you take the call, answer professionally and ask enough to understand the situation — gather facts, don’t make assumptions. If the officer called out less than four hours out, posts still must be covered, so work coverage anyway; the timing issue is documented and handled separately. The full step-by-step is in Appendix C.

5.3 Schedule Changes

Leads make accurate real-time changes in eHub — coverage updates and shift adjustments to keep posts covered — but you do not own the full schedule. Communicate any significant change to the Site Supervisor so the records stay accurate, and be careful not to create confusion in the schedule. Schedule discrepancies that aren’t communicated turn into payroll and attendance problems later.

5.4 Attendance & Accountability

A single call-out handled correctly is not a problem — a pattern is. Watch for patterns (repeated call-outs, tardiness, missed punches) and try to understand the cause rather than just reacting to the symptom; sometimes the real fix is a schedule that matches what an officer can actually commit to. Coach and document along the way.

Your role in accountability is to identify concerns, coach, document, and recommend — not to decide finals on your own. Any corrective action, reduction of hours, or schedule change in response to a pattern is decided with the Site Supervisor and the Assistant Account Manager and follows Sunstates’ attendance and corrective-action policy. Absences that may be legally protected (medical leave, FMLA, jury duty, and the like) are routed up and handled separately, not treated as ordinary attendance issues. Apply the standard the same way to everyone.

6 · Reporting

6.1 The Standard

Because the client is largely remote, reports are their eyes and ears on the site. Officers are documenting facts, not telling a story. Write every report as if it may be reviewed by the client, corporate leadership, Human Resources, law enforcement, a lawyer, or a judge — professional, factual, detailed, and objective, with no opinions or assumptions. Every report answers the Five W’s (who, what, when, where, why), uses full names and company names, includes the actions security took, and is written in real time rather than from memory at the end of the shift. A simple structure officers can use is T.I.P. — Tell me what happened, Intervention, Present status.

6.2 Monitoring Your Shift’s Reporting

Keep an eye on reporting on your shift: are officers completing hourly entries consistently, are reports detailed and professional, and is anything missing? If a twelve-hour shift shows the exact same entry every hour, check that real patrols and observation are actually happening. When a report falls short, coach the officer using the standard and the worksheet — the purpose of review is improvement, not punishment.

6.3 Pass-Downs

Pass-downs are how shifts stay connected. Keep them updated throughout the shift rather than waiting until the end and trying to remember everything, and back the written log with a verbal hand-off so the next shift gets both the record and the context.

“Report what happened. Do not report what you think happened.”

7 · Problems & Accountability

7.1 How to Approach a Problem

Build the judgment to handle problems yourself whenever you reasonably can, while recognizing when something needs to move up. Before escalating, ask: Can I handle this professionally? Does it truly require escalation? Is it urgent, or can it wait? Avoid both extremes — escalating everything, and escalating nothing out of fear or pride. That judgment comes with experience; trust yourself, give yourself grace while you learn, and lean on the supervisor’s coaching.

“Balance confidence and humility — trust your ability to solve problems while still recognizing when support or escalation is necessary.”

7.2 When to Escalate Immediately

Some situations always move up immediately, regardless of how capable you are. The threshold is anything affecting safety, the site’s ability to operate, liability, the welfare of personnel, or the client:

• Medical emergencies or injuries; fires; physical altercations or threats of violence.
• Police or law-enforcement involvement; security breaches or unauthorized access to restricted areas.
• Severe weather affecting the site; power outages affecting operations or servers; major gate or system failures.
• Missing personnel; suspicious packages or threats; incidents involving Sunstates personnel.
• Major client complaints, media presence, or anything likely to create significant client concern or liability.

7.3 Everyday Scenarios

For the recurring situations, you own the first response, document it, and escalate only if it cannot be resolved at your level.

No-Call / No-Show

Attempt contact, then immediately work coverage using the coverage order, document the no-show and the actions taken, and escalate if it cannot be resolved.

Officer Refuses a Post Assignment

Post flexibility is non-negotiable. Give the assignment; the officer is expected to comply professionally. Assignments are operational, not personal. If refusal continues, the officer may be sent home, and it is documented for corrective-action review.

Contractor Conflict

Stay professional, don’t match the contractor’s energy, explain requirements clearly, and maintain security standards. If it can’t be resolved, take it up the chain.

Unsecured Gate

Often a communication breakdown between contractors and security as much as an officer error. Secure it immediately, notify the relevant posts and site phones, document, and reinforce contractor communication expectations.

Officer Conflict

Attempt resolution first; if it can’t be resolved at your level, involve the supervisor. Stay professional and document throughout.

Missing or Damaged PPE / Uniforms

Balance accountability with support: legitimate wear or damage gets help; carelessness or repeated loss gets accountability. Both are documented.

7.4 De-escalation

The hardest test of professionalism is a difficult interaction, and the standard is simple: never escalate, always de-escalate. Separate the person from the problem — focus on what they’re trying to solve, not on the fact they’re being difficult — and never get on their level. When someone becomes angry or aggressive, stay calm, explain requirements clearly, attempt to de-escalate, and escalate through the chain if it doesn’t resolve. Anyone who becomes a genuine safety threat is no longer a de-escalation situation — that moves to the emergency procedures and an immediate call to 911.

7.5 Recommending Corrective Action

The purpose of coaching and corrective action is accountability, not punishment — based on facts, consistency, and fairness, never emotion or favoritism. Coach first whenever appropriate; many issues are resolved there. When you believe corrective action is warranted, never act on it from frustration or assumption. Gather the facts, consider the severity and history, and bring it to the Site Supervisor with what happened and why. The supervisor adds perspective, ensures consistency, and holds final authority at the site level; once a decision is made, support it as one team. Finals, hour reductions, and formal corrective action route through the supervisor and the Assistant Account Manager and follow Sunstates policy.

“The goal is not to be right. The goal is to make the right decision.”

8 · Emergencies

These are baseline procedures built on standard practice, and they sit under Sunstates’ emergency policy and the client’s site emergency plan, which take precedence. The items marked [confirm for site] are finalized by site leadership. In every emergency: personal safety first; for anything life-threatening, call 911 immediately; render aid only if trained and authorized; notify the supervisor as soon as it is safe; secure the scene; and document everything afterward.

8.1 Emergency Response

Medical emergency or serious injury

• Make sure the area is safe to approach.
• Call 911 for anything life-threatening or beyond basic first aid. [confirm for site]
• Render aid only if trained and authorized; otherwise stay with the person, keep them calm, and wait for EMS.
• Notify the supervisor; leadership notifies the Assistant Account Manager and the client per protocol. [confirm for site]
• Direct EMS to the exact location and clear their access. Document fully afterward.

Fire or evacuation

• If anyone is in danger, get them to safety first, then call 911. [confirm for site]
• Activate the alarm and notify per the site plan; evacuate to the designated assembly point. [confirm for site]
• Account for personnel as able; do not re-enter. Notify up the chain, then document.

Security threat, violent person, or trespasser

• Prioritize personal safety and the safety of others. Keep distance; do not physically engage.
• For any weapon, threat of violence, or person who won’t leave and poses a risk, call 911. [confirm for site]
• Notify the supervisor; observe and note a description from a safe distance; do not pursue. Document once resolved.

8.2 When in Doubt, Call

In an emergency the priority order is life safety, site safety, property protection, communication, and documentation — in that order. The chain of command still matters, but never delay an emergency notification while waiting for the normal process. Fire, medical, law enforcement, workplace violence, critical power or system failure, severe weather, and major safety hazards all warrant immediate notification up the chain, alongside the 911 call where life safety is involved.

“When in doubt, call. It is always easier to explain why leadership was notified too early than why it was notified too late.”

9 · Appendices: Lead Tools

These are the print-and-use tools for the lead. Each puts a standard from the sections above into practice; where a tool touches attendance or corrective action, Sections 5 and 7 and Sunstates policy govern the details.

Appendix A — Daily Lead Checklist

Shift start-up — Step 1: receive the shift (5–10 min)

Step 2: verify staffing & coverage (5–10 min)

Step 3: initial rounds (10–15 min)

Mid-shift — keep the balance

Priority order when things compete: Safety, then People, then Operations, then Administrative tasks.

End of shift — handoff

A handoff is successful when you can answer: What happened today? What still needs attention? What does the next lead need to know to succeed?

Appendix B — Officer Standards Walk-Through

Use during rounds. Verify the standard and check on your people at the same time.

Appendix C — Call-Out & Coverage Decision Tree

Step 1 — receive the call

Step 2 — verify timing

Step 3 — advise & document

Step 4 — coverage (in order)

Step 5 — if coverage is found

Step 6 — if coverage is not found

Step 7 — on return

Evaluation: (1) Was procedure followed? (2) What was the reason? (3) One-time or pattern? Balance empathy, consistency, accountability, and operational needs. Finals and hour reductions route through the supervisor and AAM.

Appendix D — Universal Report Worksheet

Officers don’t write a report — they answer these questions, and the report writes itself. Structure: T.I.P. — Tell me what happened, Intervention, Present status.

Before submitting, check

Appendix E — Chain of Command (Quick Reference)

Handle at your level / to you first

Schedule and coverage questions, call-outs, post concerns, officer conflicts, uniform/PPE concerns, routine operational questions.

To the Site Supervisor

Issues you can’t resolve, repeated officer concerns, corrective-action recommendations, training issues, escalated or site-wide operational issues.

Always

Up and back down: solutions return through the same chain. Emergencies escalate immediately — safety over process.

Appendix F — Emergency Escalation Quick Guide

Priority order: life safety, site safety, property protection, communication, documentation. When in doubt, call.

Call 911 immediately, then notify up the chain

Notify up the chain immediately

Every emergency is documented afterward in an incident report. Site-specific 911/dispatch protocol, client contact, assembly points, and aid authorization are confirmed by site leadership (see Section 8).

The Lead’s Promise

Take care of your people.

Run the shift. Support the team. Solve problems.

Protect the culture. Leave the shift better than you found it.

Every officer on your shift should know that they matter.