Security Vehicle Handover Checklist: Shift Transfer Accountability for Tactical Equipment, Damage, and Mileage

When the Baton Goes Missing Between Shifts

The extension baton that was on the vehicle at 06:00 is not there at 14:00 shift changeover. Nobody signed it out. The outgoing officer says it was on the vehicle. The incoming officer says it wasn't there when they checked. The incident report requires documentation of when it went missing. The handover record from the previous three shifts has a paper form in a clipboard in the site office — assuming someone remembered to fill it out and the ink hasn't faded.

Without a timestamped, per-shift equipment checklist tied to specific officers, accountability for missing tactical equipment dissolves into mutual uncertainty. The vehicle handover record is the document that turns "the baton was there when I left" from an assertion into a fact with a date, time, and officer identifier attached.

The Equipment Register at Shift Changeover

The checklist covers every item that must physically transfer between shifts: Base Radio, Mobile Device, Device Charger, Master Key and Remote, Crowbar, Boltcutter, First Aid Kit, Fire Extinguisher, Extension Baton, Flashlight, Spotlight, Cable Tie Cuffs, Handcuff and Keys, Visit Slips, Triangle. Each is a Yes/No radio button — confirmed present or not confirmed present. The absence of a "Yes" is itself a data point, not a blank.

The Romeo Number field — the vehicle's operational designator — ties the handover record to a specific unit in the fleet. Vehicle type (RS, RL, RW) handles multi-vehicle operations where the same form covers different response platforms.

Starting Kilos and Ending Kilos capture odometer readings at the beginning and end of the shift. The difference is the shift mileage, which feeds into fleet maintenance scheduling, fuel consumption tracking, and the detection of unauthorized use — a vehicle that shows 47km of mileage on a shift with no callouts has a mileage discrepancy that the record makes visible.

Data Balance records the mobile device's remaining data allowance at handover. A pattern of depleted data balances suggests either high operational usage (expected) or non-operational use (a conversation to have with the officer).

Body Damage Before It Becomes a Disputed Claim

Body Damage (Yes/No), Body Damage Note, and Body Damage Photo form a three-part incident record. A parking scrape that appears on the vehicle at the start of the 22:00 shift — but was not recorded in the 14:00 handover — happened on the 14:00 shift. The photo, geotagged and timestamped, is not ambiguous.

The same structure covers Tyre and Rim Damage. A kerbed wheel that's caught on the handover record at the right shift is a minor incident note. A kerbed wheel that turns into a cracked rim three weeks later, with no documentation of when the damage began, is a maintenance dispute and a potential cost recovery problem.

Spare Wheel and Jack and Wheel Spanner close out the safety inventory check. A vehicle dispatched to an armed response callout at 02:00 with a missing spare and no jack is an operational risk that the handover record at the start of that shift should have caught.

Clean Outside and Clean Inside as Y/N fields create the cleanliness accountability chain. Officers who receive a dirty vehicle and don't document it inherit responsibility for its condition at the next handover.