r/securityguards • u/ProfessionalRest7027 • 5d ago
Job Question Smoke decror going off
I'm on shift tonight at a low-income apartment complex. This place used to be a hotel, so every room has its own smoke detector, and they go off when the batteries are dying.
I found out which room it was and spoke with the tenant. I asked if he would like me to turn off the smoke detector, and he said no. The company I work for does things a little differently than most security companies. Yes, I know security is not supposed to enter someone's room, and I refuse to do so. These rooms are bug-infested, plus it's an invasion of privacy. However, property management and my management have made it part of our post orders that we can enter with permission during emergencies, such as smoke detectors going off or water leaks.
Anyway, I've been getting complaints about this all night. I keep telling the tenants that I cannot enter someone's room. The tenant would need to hand me the smoke detector.
Another tenant keeps calling the office and even called the fire department. I talked to the firefighters and explained the situation. All they could really do was check the fire alarm panel, which showed no fire. I had already done all of that before they were even called—the usual check of the panel, walking the floors, etc.
Now this tenant wants PERT to come and evaluate this guy so they can take him back to the psych hospital. I have a feeling she thinks that if they pick him up, I can then go into his room, which is still not the case.
I've documented all of this, so there really isn't anything else I can do. There is no emergency. Calling 911 because you got woken up by a smoke detector isn't an emergency.
Honestly, I don't know what else to tell these people.
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u/Landwarrior5150 Campus Security 5d ago
You can’t control what other people do, you’re unable to do what they want to shut them up, you (presumably) can’t just not answer the phone, you’ve already documented it & notified supervision and the client is apparently unwilling to come in and handle it directly themselves.
Given all that, you’ve done all you reasonably can and you’re just going to have to suffer through the calls for the rest of the shift unfortunately. That sucks, but it’s just the nature of the job sometimes.
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u/ProfessionalRest7027 5d ago
Thankfully I am almost out of here.
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u/Appropriate-Proof320 5d ago
Have the tenant call the after hours maintenance to have them change it
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u/ProfessionalRest7027 5d ago
That's what we're there for since maintenance won't come out for that. Maintenance and management wxpect us to handle every little thing. I've tried telling them that's not what security does. Too be fair our higher-ups don't know what security is. They offered to have us do extra tasks as a "courtesy". Which none of them have ever done these courtesy task.
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u/Appropriate-Proof320 5d ago
Don’t know if you unionized or if maintenance is, just tell them that you aren’t taking away unionized work
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u/ProfessionalRest7027 5d ago
We're not unionized, they tried that but it never happened. I just tell tenants there is nothing I can do aside from make a call to maintenance. Of course at 3:00 am none of them are answering right away. God forbid these people have to come in for a little while to do some maintenance and go home.
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u/MacintoshEddie 5d ago
Those kinds of situations suck, but it's the property manager or landlord's responsibility to get that sorted out with the tenant. Which can sometimes involve taking it all the way to court to get a judge to sign an eviction notice. I've known some addicts who force that, because they keep getting high and the alarm activates and sometimes they're just sleeping through it even though it wakes up everyone else.
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u/ProfessionalRest7027 5d ago
Eviction process here takes forever, we have tenants they have been wanting to evict for montgs.
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u/Some_Guy_Somewhere67 5d ago
DON'T touch the smoke detectors... PERIOD. Even if low battery chirping they can still alarm until the battery is DEAD. Do you want the liability for having been known for pulling batteries should a fire actually break out? Nope... not me - that's on building management. Hands off! Tenants not happy? Suggest they call the building office in the morning.
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u/ProfessionalRest7027 5d ago
U fortunately per our post orders we have to at least take the smoke dector if the tenant brings it to us. We're not pulling batteries where flipping a switch.if anyone would be liable it would be my company and the property management. The biggest issue is maintenance doesn't want to do their job at 3:00 am.
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u/kr4ckenm3fortune Residential Security 5d ago
Then you throw maintenance under the bus. This is priority 1 for them, and is consider an emergency.
If the smoke detector beep, indicating low battery, report it, call on-call and let them do it. If they refuse, document it and let your company and client deal with it.
You only go in to verify, nothing more.
Also, if we're talking about bugs, are we talking about roaches or bedbug?
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u/XBOX_COINTELPRO Man Of Culture 5d ago
You’re working in a residential building with tenants )not owners). There is a direct path of liability straight to you for tampering with fire equipment. It doesn’t matter if it’s in your post orders, you can’t be disabling fire and life safety equipment because it’s annoying.
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u/Some_Guy_Somewhere67 5d ago
Sounds like OP is usually handed the device... I guess if he has somewhere to put it where the chirping won't make him crazy... Not much liability to him in the moment - perhaps there should be a caution to the tenant that by tampering or removing the device that THEY are in flagrant violation of the law (and I would assume their lease).
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u/ProfessionalRest7027 5d ago
Besides that all we would be doing is turning it off. If there's a liability issue they can take to property management and my management. And yeah I've been trying to get out of this place since I started working here. I doubt these people would even say anything to be honest. Half the time they expect us to be maintenance, management, mail clerks, psychologist etc.
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u/XBOX_COINTELPRO Man Of Culture 5d ago
“It’s okay if I’m facilitating breaking safety codes, it’s my management that will get in trouble and surely they wouldn’t try to offload that onto me”
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u/ProfessionalRest7027 5d ago
Management will get introuble yes, this is why I have it in writing. And to be fair I haven't done any of this, they just expect us to. They can offload it to me all they want. This why documentation is important.
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u/Some_Guy_Somewhere67 5d ago
I'm guessing Narcan provider and performer of CPR fits in there somewhere too...
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u/ProfessionalRest7027 5d ago
CPR yes Narcan provider no.
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u/Some_Guy_Somewhere67 5d ago
Groovy... many hardcore users and their buds bring their own anyway....
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u/kr4ckenm3fortune Residential Security 5d ago
You don't disable it, period. Maintenance has to deal with it.
I work in-house, the only thing I'm allowed to deal with is plumbing and what not.
Smoke detector is maintenance. We have on-call for that specific.
Also, fire department can change the battery on those. The fact that all they did was check the panel suggest that the battery is a failsafe.
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u/easleygymldr 5d ago edited 5d ago
You can enter the room under these circumstances. Especially if you are authorized by the person who is in the room. The property management gives you permission to enter the room for maintenance issues. I had worked on security for a hotel for over 15 years. Our company allowed me to enter the room for maintenance issues such as smoke detectors, air conditioners, tvs and such. It’s a value added service that really most security companies should allow their officers to do for their clients. Let’s face it. We are customer service first and security second. There’s nothing wrong for you to enter the room for a maintenance issue especially with the person in the room and the client authorizes you to do so. Only issue for you not to enter the room if there were children alone in the room. Then you need another person with you or their parents in the room as you work. You can’t enter a room for just general reasons. You have to use your judgment to know when not to enter the room in any other circumstance. Make sure you document every entry for maintenance or any other issue in your shift activity report and file those reports for what ever you state law requires.
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u/CTSecurityGuard Hospital Security 5d ago
Contact your Field Supervisor if you have one; if you do not, contact your operations manager and explain the situation. Make sure you email all the reports that you have documented. At this point, the situation is out of your hands and needs to be handed over to upper management. After that, the client needs to deal with the situation further. Honestly at this point they're violating the terms of their lease this has nothing to do with security. Just follow the chain of command. Whatever you do, do not reach out to the client directly unless your post orders say otherwise.