What is a security guard company license number?

Where it appears

The statute requires a licensed company to display its license number on its vehicles and in its advertising, and a reputable company puts it on its website, its proposals and its contracts as well. A company that does not show a number, or hesitates when asked for it, is telling you something. Price Protection prints B09430601 on every page of this site, on its patrol vehicles and on every proposal.

What it means

The letter is the class: B is the class for security services contractors, the companies that provide guards, patrols and related services. Other classes cover alarm companies, investigators and other regulated work, and a company licensed in a different class is not licensed to provide guards. The digits identify the company in the department’s records. The record behind the number shows the legal name, the class, the status and the expiration.

How to use it

Look it up on the Department of Public Safety’s public license search for private security. Confirm the legal name on the record matches the name on your proposal and contract, that the class is B and that the status is active. Note the expiration and check again at renewal. Then ask for the registration or commission numbers of the officers who will work your property and check those; individual credentials are tied to the company license.

What the number does not tell you

Whether post orders exist, whether anyone reads the daily report, how fast dispatch answers or what the officers were trained beyond the state course. Those are questions for the walk-through and the first month. The license verification article walks through the search step by step.