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A guard on the property, or cameras watched remotely.
Live camera monitoring and a posted officer each guard a Palo Alto property differently. This guide sets them against each other and shows when to use one, the other or both.
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Two different kinds of attention.
An on-site guard is a person who belongs to the property for the length of a shift. The officer stands at a desk or a gate, walks a route, talks to the people who arrive and can put a hand on a door to see whether it actually latched. What the officer notices depends on where the officer is standing at that moment.
Remote video monitoring works the other way around. Your existing cameras are watched live during the hours you choose, so a dozen views of a lot, a garage and a loading area can be seen at once. When activity appears, the monitors follow the escalation plan you set with us. The cameras never leave their posts, but they also can’t speak to anyone or open a door.
Pricing follows the same split. An officer is quoted by the hour on post, while monitoring is quoted per camera each month for the hours you pick, which is why the two can be mixed so freely within one budget.
Neither one is simply the better choice. The right answer comes from how the building is used after the last person leaves, and how much of the property needs a person versus a pair of eyes.
The two side by side.
Each row below sets the two against each other on one point. The posted officer column assumes a staffed post with defined rounds; the live camera monitoring column assumes well-aimed cameras and a written escalation plan.
| Question | Posted officer | Live camera monitoring |
|---|---|---|
| Physical presence | A uniformed person on the property all shift | No one on site until the plan sends someone |
| What deters an intruder | A visible officer at the door and on rounds | Cameras in view, backed by a quick in-person follow-up |
| Field of view | Whatever the officer walks past, including doors tested by hand | Only the views chosen, as far as each lens reaches |
| When something happens | The officer steps in, then calls your contacts | Monitors follow your escalation plan: contacts, patrol, emergency services |
| Hours it suits | Business hours, evenings or around the clock | Overnight, weekends, holidays or continuously |
| Visitors and deliveries | Greets, checks and logs each arrival | Not designed for admitting people |
| Paper trail | Shift report by email, each round logged with its time | Each event written up and emailed |
Notice that the strongest rows for each option sit in different places. An officer wins wherever people have to be admitted, assisted or questioned. Monitoring wins on breadth: it can hold several distant views in sight at the same moment, through the quietest hours of the week.
When a person needs to be there.
Choose an officer when the building is still in use. A research building where teams stay into the evening, a residential lobby with residents and guests coming home, an office reception that takes couriers until close: each of these needs someone who can check a badge, answer a question and decide on the spot who goes upstairs. Our security guard services page describes how those posts are run.
A posted officer also makes sense after an incident, when people inside want to see a visible response, or where a door, a dock or an equipment room has to be physically checked rather than simply viewed.
When cameras watched live cover it.
Live monitoring is at its best on property that is empty for long stretches and spread out: garages, large surface lots, yards, campus perimeters and buildings with several exterior doors. The question there is not who gets in, it is whether anyone is where they shouldn’t be. A camera pointed at the right gate answers that all night.
Two things have to be in place. The views must show something you can act on, such as a door, a fence line or a dock, and the plan must include a way to get a person on site. Pairing remote video monitoring with mobile patrol or alarm response gives the monitors that in-person option.
Running both on the same property.
A well-built plan uses each where it is strongest. A common pattern puts an officer at reception through the working day and evening, then hands the property to monitored cameras once the lockup round is done, with patrol dispatched when monitors see activity. Another keeps the officer at the front desk while the cameras cover a back lot the officer can’t see from the post.
Say the building is a single-story office with one lobby, a parking lot behind it and staff gone by seven. An officer through the afternoon and the closing hour handles couriers, guests and lockup, and from there the lot and rear doors are watched live until morning, with patrol sent if someone tries a door.
Coverage runs month to month, so the split can move. If three months of monitoring reports show the back lot is quiet, you can trim the monitored hours; if the reports keep flagging the same corner, add an officer for those nights.
Questions to settle before choosing.
- Does anyone need to be let in, signed in or helped after hours?
- Are your current cameras aimed at gates, doors and lots, or at empty space?
- What should happen, and who should be called, when someone is spotted?
- How far apart are the areas that need watching?
- Have incidents happened recently, and where?
- Which hours of the week does the property sit empty?
Bring your answers to the free walkthrough. We look at the posts and the camera views together, and the written quote sets out the officer hours, the monitored views or both. Request a walkthrough to get started.
A few useful answers
Common questions
Which deters more, an officer or a camera?
A uniformed officer, where people are present to see one. On an empty property at night, cameras that are watched live, backed by a fast in-person check, carry most of the deterrent load.
Can an officer and monitoring cover different nights?
Yes. A posted officer can cover the busiest nights while monitoring takes the rest, and the month-to-month terms let you change the split as reports come in.
What reports come from each option?
An officer sends a shift report by email at the end of every shift, with timed round logs and photos for any incident. Monitoring documents each event it sees and emails the write-up to you.
Does live monitoring suit a construction site?
Yes. Once a project is closed in for the night, monitored cameras cover the hours between patrol visits, and access can still be controlled at the gate during the working day.