Taking Photos and Attaching Evidence to Reports
This article is for Security Guards.
A photo is often the most powerful piece of evidence you can include in a report. The Attlock guard app lets you capture images directly from your camera or attach existing photos from your gallery when filing incident reports, vehicle inspections, pass-down logs, and maintenance records. This guide explains how to do it and how to make your photo evidence as useful as possible.
Why Photo Evidence Matters
- Accuracy — photos capture details that words can miss: exact damage, precise locations, vehicle plates, and physical conditions.
- Credibility — visual evidence supports your written account and is harder to dispute.
- Legal value — in serious incidents, timestamped photos from the scene can be critical for investigations, insurance claims, or court proceedings.
- Faster reviews — supervisors and clients can assess a situation at a glance without reading through lengthy descriptions.
Where You Can Attach Photos
Photos can be attached in several places across the app:
| Feature | Where to find it | --------- | ------------------ | Incident Reports | More > Incident Reports > New Report | Vehicle Inspections | More > Vehicle > New Inspection | Pass-Down Log entries | More > Pass-down > Create | Maintenance Reports | More > Maintenance > New Report | Checkpoint scan notes | During an active patrol scan |
|---|
Attaching Photos to an Incident Report
This is the most common use case. Here's how to add photos when filing a report:
- Tap More > Incident Reports > New Report.
- Fill in the report details (type, description, location, time).
- Scroll to the Evidence or Attachments section.
- Tap Add Photo. You'll see two options:
- Take Photo — opens your camera to capture a new image on the spot.
- Choose from Gallery — lets you select an existing photo from your phone.
- Take or select your photo. It will appear as a thumbnail in the attachments section.
- Repeat to add multiple photos — most report types support up to 10 images.
- Tap any thumbnail to preview or remove it before submitting.
- Complete the rest of the report and tap Submit.
Tip: Take photos before touching or moving anything at the scene. Undisturbed evidence is more valuable.
Taking Good Evidence Photos
The quality of your photos matters as much as having them. Follow these guidelines:
Establish Context First
- Take a wide shot first to show the full scene and its location within the property.
- Then take a medium shot to show the subject in relation to nearby landmarks (a door, a sign, a vehicle).
- Finally, take a close-up to capture specific details (damage, a license plate, a broken lock).
Practical Tips
- Hold steady — tap the screen to focus before shooting. Blurry photos are often unusable.
- Use good lighting — turn on your phone's flashlight in dark areas. Avoid shooting directly into bright lights.
- Include a reference object — placing your hand, a coin, or a ruler next to damage gives reviewers a sense of scale.
- Capture license plates clearly — get close enough that the plate is readable. Take multiple shots if needed.
- Don't crop in the app — submit the full image; supervisors can zoom in on their end.
- Photograph from multiple angles — especially for vehicle damage, broken equipment, or vandalism.
Photo Timestamps and Metadata
Every photo taken through the Attlock app is automatically tagged with:
- Date and time of capture.
- GPS coordinates (if location permission is enabled).
- Report ID it's attached to.
This metadata is stored with the report and cannot be altered, which is important for maintaining the integrity of your evidence.
Important: Photos taken outside the app and uploaded from your gallery will still be attached to the report, but their metadata reflects when they were originally taken — not when they were uploaded. Always prefer taking photos directly through the app when possible.
Viewing Attached Photos
To review photos on a submitted report:
- Go to More > Incident Reports.
- Find and tap the report.
- Scroll to the Evidence section — thumbnails of all attached photos appear here.
- Tap any thumbnail to view it full-screen. Pinch to zoom.
Troubleshooting
Camera permission denied Go to your phone's Settings > Attlock > Camera and enable camera access. Without this, you cannot take photos in the app.
Photo upload fails Check your internet connection. If you're in an area with poor signal, the app will queue the upload and retry automatically when connectivity is restored. The report will still save locally.
Photo appears blurry after upload This is usually a compression artifact. Try retaking the photo in better lighting and ensure your camera lens is clean.
Related Articles
- Submitting an Incident Report
- Using Voice Notes in Reports
- Completing Vehicle Inspections
- Using the Pass-Down Log
- Using Offline Mode