The occurrence book: how to write entries and incident reports that stand up

The legal record of the post, read by the client, the insurer, the police and PSIRA. A good entry protects the officer who wrote it.

TenEight Team · 28 September 2026

The occurrence book is the most important document on any security post, and the one most officers were never properly taught to write. It is the legal record of what happened on the site, hour by hour, and it is read by the client after every complaint, by the insurer after every loss, by the police after every crime, by PSIRA after every allegation, and by your own company after every incident. A good entry protects the officer who wrote it. A bad one, or a missing one, is used against them.

Security officer with a torch examining a cut padlock on a warehouse gate before recording it in the occurrence book — 'Found north gate padlock cut, gate open approximately 50 cm', facts, not conclusions.

What the occurrence book is for

The OB, as it is known on every site, is a bound, page-numbered register kept at the post in which the officer on duty records everything of note during the shift: the start and end of duty, handovers, patrols, visitors, deliveries, alarms, faults, incidents, and instructions received. Its purpose is simple: to be an honest, contemporaneous record that anyone can pick up later and reconstruct the shift from.

Three things follow from that purpose. Entries are made at the time, not at the end of the shift. They are made in ink, in sequence, with nothing erased. And they are factual (what you saw, heard and did) rather than what you think happened or what you would like to have happened.

How to write an occurrence book entry

Every entry has the same shape:

Time (event) action, who. "02:14, Alarm activation, Zone 3 (workshop). Patrolled to workshop, found roller door secure, no sign of entry. Reset panel. Reported to control room (call sign Delta 2), ref 4471."

Rules that make an entry usable later:

Use the 24-hour clock and record the actual time, not a rounded one.
Write in the first person, in plain words. "I patrolled the perimeter" not "perimeter was patrolled".
Names, registration numbers, descriptions. A visitor is "Mr S. Dlamini, ID ending 1234, vehicle white VW Polo, reg. XX 12 XX GP", not "a man in a car".
Facts, not conclusions. "Found north gate padlock cut, gate open approximately 50 cm", not "someone broke in".
Record what you did about it, including who you reported to and any reference number they gave you.
Never leave gaps. If nothing happened for two hours, write "04:00, Patrol 3 completed, all secure". Silence in the book reads as sleep.
Corrections by a single line through the error, initialled: never scribbled out, never torn out. A ripped page is an accusation.
Sign on and sign off with the handover: what you were told, what you told the next officer, keys and equipment counted.

Security officer completing a printed incident report form at a table while a police officer takes a statement nearby — Write it as if a stranger will read it in a year, because one will.

How to write an incident report

An incident report is the OB entry's longer cousin, written on a separate form for anything serious: a break-in, an assault, an injury, a fire, a theft, a firearm discharge, a confrontation with the public. It is what the client, the police and PSIRA will read first. Write it as soon as the situation is safe, while the detail is fresh, and structure it:

Header: site, date, time of incident, time of report, your name, grade and registration number.
What happened, in the order it happened, with times. Keep to what you saw and heard. If someone told you something, say who, and that they told you.
Who was involved: names, descriptions, vehicle details, witnesses with contact details.
What you did, step by step: observed, reported, secured, called SAPS, gave first aid, whatever it was. Include every call, with the time and the reference.
What was the outcome: SAPS case number, injuries, damage, property missing, who attended.
Evidence: photographs taken, CCTV preserved, items secured, the OB entries that relate.
Sign and date it, and give it to your supervisor. Keep a copy.

Write it as if a stranger will read it in a year, because one will.

The mistakes that come back to bite

Writing the book up at the end of the shift. Entries made hours late are obvious, and once one is doubted, all are.
Copying the previous officer's entries to fill a quiet night. Two identical shifts in a row are a red flag every supervisor knows.
Recording what should have happened. A patrol logged but not done is discovered the moment the CCTV is checked, and it is a false entry, a code of conduct breach.
Opinions. "Suspicious-looking male" is worthless; "male, approx. 30, red hoodie, standing at the east fence for 15 minutes, left on foot toward Main Road" is evidence.
Not recording your own actions. If you called control and it is not in the book, you did not call control.
Loose pages. The book is bound and page-numbered for a reason.

Security officer scanning a patrol checkpoint tag with a smartphone app that timestamps the entry — The digital OB: the same rules, harder to backdate, easier to search.

The digital occurrence book

Many companies now replace or duplicate the paper OB with an app: guard-tour systems that log patrols by scanning tags, incident apps that timestamp entries and photographs, and platforms that push the shift record to the client automatically. The rules do not change. Entries are still made at the time, in plain words, factually. They are simply harder to backdate and easier to search. Officers who are comfortable with a phone app on post are increasingly what adverts ask for, and an officer whose digital record is clean has better evidence than any paper book could give them.

Why it matters for your career

Supervisors read the OB when they decide who to promote. A book that is complete, timed, legible and honest is the clearest evidence a Grade D officer can offer that they are ready for Grade C, and a Grade C officer that they are ready to run a post. Our PSIRA grades guide explains what each step opens up. The book is how you show you deserve it. When you apply for the next post (employers on TenEight advertise by grade, so you can browse security jobs that match yours) "occurrence book and incident reporting" belongs in your experience, and a supervisor who can vouch for your entries belongs in your references.

Quick answers

What is an occurrence book in security?

A bound, page-numbered register kept at the post in which the officer on duty records, at the time, everything of note during the shift: duty times, handovers, patrols, visitors, alarms, faults and incidents.

How do you write an occurrence book entry?

Time, event, action, who: the 24-hour time, what happened in factual terms, what you did, and who you reported to with any reference. In ink, in sequence, never erased.

What should an incident report include?

Site, times, your details. What happened in order. Who was involved with descriptions and contacts. What you did step by step. The outcome including case numbers. The evidence. Your signature and date.