Requirements to Work at Price Protection

The list

Every licensed officer who works for Price Protection must be able to, or have, the following:

• Pass a background check.
• Pass a drug test.
• Have your own duty belt.
• Have your own reliable weapon if commissioned. Hi-Point firearms are not accepted.
• Reliable transportation, which in practice means a car.
• A working smartphone that supports the company’s reporting system.
• Good work ethic.
• A valid Texas driver’s license or occupational license.

And, because the work is licensed, a current Texas DPS registration or commission at the level the post requires: Level II non-commissioned for unarmed posts, Level III commissioned for armed posts.

Why each one is there

The background check and drug test. Texas DPS runs a fingerprint criminal history check before registering any officer, and the company runs its own check and a drug test on top of it. Clients trust the company with their residents, their tenants and their buildings at night; the check is what makes that trust reasonable.

The duty belt and, for commissioned officers, the weapon. Officers carry their own belt with the radio, flashlight, keys, gloves and first-aid pouch the post needs, and commissioned officers carry their own reliable weapon of the type they qualified with, in a retention holster. Bringing your own means it fits, you know it and you maintain it. The equipment article walks through the belt.

Transportation and a driver’s license. Posts are spread across a region that takes more than an hour to cross, at hours when there is no bus. An officer who cannot reliably reach a post at ten at night cannot hold the post.

The smartphone. Reporting is how the company works. Shift check-in, checkpoint scans, incident reports with photographs and the daily activity report all run on the phone, and the daily review the next morning depends on what was entered.

Work ethic. It is the only item on the list that cannot be verified with a document, and it is the one supervisors watch for hardest. Arriving on time, walking the whole route every round, writing complete entries and treating every resident, visitor and contractor with courtesy is the job.

What happens after you apply

Applications go through the application page with a resume and your license details. Applicants who meet the requirements are invited to interview; the interview article explains what the company asks about. New officers are trained in the company’s protocols and read and sign the post orders for their first property before the first shift. Applicants who do not yet hold a Texas registration should read the training and licensing page.