"SECURE" Part 4 - Residents

Gatehouse duty was pretty much the reason things were tough for me at that place. Residents needed an access card to get through the gate, and there was another one that visitors drove through. Without that card, we'd have to look them up in this "Resident Information" folder on one of our monitors, then a folder with their pictures and names. Using a driver's license to look someone up also came in handy. Most of them had that pass so it was less complicated, like the people visiting someone in Rehab too.

With agencies or services (like Uber drivers), we had to know exactly where they came from and were going. Same with emergency vehicles when we got a P2. A P2 is what we called a medical emergency, whereas a P1 was for fire.

Still, gate duty from 4pm to 8pm was NOT for slackers. I still have no idea how any officer can handle that particular spot by themselves during such busy hours. You'd have people coming in with or without a pass, have to look up visitors on a monitor or paper, answer two different landlines, pay attention to the radio in case you need to add to action report, etc. The first time I did that alone, two different times I had a long line of cars and horns honking. Eventually, though, another couple officers came in for assistance which I was (and still am) grateful for.

I remember one time at night when it wasn't so hectic, I got a call on the main landline from this girl who was coming for work at the nursing station. After establishing I was with security she told me there was some man giving her road rage; following her down the road, hoking, and I think he blocked her too; wouldn't let her pass or something. Even though she didn't say so, I could tell she was nervous tone that she wanted to know if I saw anything weird.
"When was this?"
"Around 10:50."
"Now do you know for sure if it was a man...?"
"It was a man."
Now as I was asking her that, I saw on the Visitor's grid some dude I'd checked in at 10:51. "Did you get a look at him? Any idea what he looked like?" Nope. She didn't have any other details since it was pitch dark. I told her the info on the guy I'd checked in, but since she didn't have anything else to go on with what she saw, I didn't bother worrying the other officers.

Oh. Here's where things got REAL fun.
 >:(
This lady pulled up to visit her mother who was a resident instead of a rehab patient (like she'd given me the impression of). So I asked for a name put it on the visitor's grid on the monitor, and when I said it wasn't there she shouted "that's her name!" So I asked for this lady's name, and I tried to check her in. NOT VALID, it said. Past due date or something. While this went on the radio went off a few times and I had to write something into the Action/Incident Report. I also radioed one of the officers saying what was going on.
The last thing I tried was asking which apartment so I could find it in this other packet. The lady very begrudgingly answered and so I dialed her mother's extension. "your daughter's here to see you..." "just calling to verify that you're here..."
Literally just before I could open the gate to let this lady in, the other officer came to try and sort things out. But she got even madder. According to her it took me twelve minutes to find her mother, and she pointed me out as a moron very colorfully... 'Hey, watch your mouth, lady' I thought angrily.
"He's fairly new."
Yeah I know he stood up for me for that moment but still I wished he hadn't; I already had it under control when he showed up, and I felt about three feet smaller by the fact that he even felt the need to point that out. 'Aw great,' I thought. 'I'm still the new guy.'
Thankfully when he let her in and she was gone he agreed with me completely; "She can go kick rocks." he said.

When working jobs like this, whether it's security or legit policework, you gotta put up with people who'll give you all kinds of crap however well you [try to] do your job. I did everything I'd been taught to, but a ton of people just didn't care. They just wanted to get right in. At least most of the people I signed in were nice and patient.

After that chaos I got a call from the nurse station about the employee who'd been followed around. I figured it was the same guy but no one could be sure. Anyway they couldn't find anyone with those details so this lady must've been suspicious as I was.
'If this isn't someone who lives or works here,' I thought. 'then what's her name doing on the visitor grid...?'