What is the Texas Private Security Bureau?

One regulator for the whole industry

Every private security company operating in Texas, every officer working for one and every school that trains them answers to the same regulator. Under its current name, the Private Security Program, it licenses companies by class, registers non-commissioned officers, commissions armed officers, endorses personal protection officers, approves training providers and courses, maintains the public license search, investigates complaints and disciplines license holders. The law it enforces is Occupations Code chapter 1702.

What it does for a client

The public license search is the regulator’s most useful product for a property manager or a contractor. A company license number, such as Price Protection’s B09430601, can be checked in a minute to confirm the licence is current, the legal name matches and the class covers guard services. An officer’s registration or commission can be checked the same way. The program also takes complaints about licensed companies and officers, which is a remedy a client of an unlicensed guard does not have.

Why the old name persists

The bureau’s name was on badges, certificates, contracts and websites for decades, and the industry still says PSB. Documents that use the old name are not out of date on that account; the credential they refer to is the same one the program issues today. A badge stamped PSB and a registration card from the current program carry the same authority, and both are looked up in the same database. What changes is only the name at the top of the letterhead.

Using it

Ask for the license number, look it up, check the officers, repeat at renewal. The verification article walks through the search, and the chapter 1702 article explains the statute the program enforces.