How to Build an Incident Response Plan: Steps and Best Practices

The worst time to decide how to handle a security event is while it's happening. Yet that's how most organizations operate: every alert triggers a scramble, every incident gets handled from scratch, and outcomes depend on who's on duty.

There's a better way. Decide once, upfront, and let the system do the rest.

In this session, we'll walk through a practical framework for building a Physical Security Incident Response Plan (PSIRP): a codified playbook that matches the right protocol to every type of event across your sites. You'll learn how to:

1. Map your event landscape — identify what's actually happening across your sites, what's eating your team's time, and what poses real risk.
2. Match protocols to risk levels — a propped door and an armed intruder shouldn't trigger the same response.
3. Design escalation paths that drive outcomes — define who gets notified, when, and what happens next, before it's ever needed.
4. Automate and systematize — use 24/7 monitoring and AI so routine events resolve themselves and your team focuses only on what matters.

You'll leave with a methodology you can apply right away, and see how Verkada turns your plan into a system that responds exactly the way you designed it to.