What is a Level III security officer in Texas?

The credential

Level III builds on Level II. The officer completes the 45-hour commissioned officer course, which covers the legal framework for private security in Texas, the law of use of force and deadly force, handcuffing and defensive tactics, and a firearms component that ends in a proficiency test with the type of weapon the officer will carry. The department runs the background check and issues a commission tied to the employing company, renewed with continuing education and repeated firearms proficiency.

What the commission allows and does not

Carrying a firearm on duty for the licensed company, as the company’s post orders describe. The officer’s authority is otherwise that of any private person: force only as Penal Code chapter 9 justifies it, deadly force only in defense of life within the statute, no arrest powers beyond the narrow citizen’s arrest, no right to search. On Price Protection’s armed posts the post orders say where the officer is positioned, how the officer responds to a threat and when police are called.

Where Level III officers work

Emergency departments and behavioral health facilities with a history of violence, pharmacies, lenders and check-cashing offices, jewelers and pawn shops, cash-handling posts, facilities with a specific threat, executive protection with a Level IV endorsement, and clients whose insurers or policies require armed presence. Most posts remain unarmed.

Price Protection’s Level III officers

All armed officers are Level III commissioned, receive the same company training as unarmed officers in customer service, de-escalation, first aid, fire safety and incident reporting, and are reviewed daily against the report. Their commissions can be checked on the department’s public license search. The Level III course article describes the training in detail, and the armed security guard page describes the post.