Checking a guard or a security company in Alaska

This page is for whoever is doing the checking — a client, a property manager, a company vetting a subcontractor. It tells you what a guard and a guard company are supposed to hold in Alaska, and walks you to Alaska Department of Public Safety’s own records to confirm it.

tessura is not a Alaska agency and issues nothing. Every link below goes to the regulator, and the regulator’s answer is the one that counts.

Getting licensed yourself instead? The Alaska requirements, training hours, and application steps →

Check the guard

Alaska issues a credential to the guard, so you can check the person in front of you.

What they should hold

Every guard working a postSecurity Guard License8 hrs of training · 40 more hrs within 6 months of being issued · renews every 2 years

If they carry a firearmArmed Security Guard License16 hrs of training · 40 more hrs within 6 months of being issued · renews every 2 years

Armed work: Armed guards complete at least 8 additional hours of firearms training delivered by a certified firearms trainer, and must certify continued firearm competency at each renewal.

How to check it

Ask the guard to show you the physical Alaska security guard license card issued by the Department of Public Safety, and write down the name and number on it.
Ask the security company for the name and number of the DPS security guard agency licence they employ the guard under — in Alaska an individual guard licence is only valid in connection with a licensed agency.
Call DPS Permits & Licensing at (907) 269-5511 and ask them to confirm that the named individual holds a current security guard licence and to give you the expiry date; there is no public online roster to check this yourself.
Do not accept a photocopy or a screenshot as proof — get the confirmation from DPS directly, and re-check before any renewal date DPS gives you.

Why there is no link to click

Alaska does license individual security guards (AS 18.65.400 et seq., 13 AAC 60), but the DPS Permits & Licensing page publishes only application forms plus a public list of licensed civilian process servers — there is no published security-guard roster or online lookup. I did not find any DPS search form for guards; verification appears to be by phone or records request only.

Alaska DPS, 5700 East Tudor Road, Anchorage AK 99507, phone (907) 269-5511. Security guard licensing page: https://dps.alaska.gov/statewide/permits-licensing/

Check the company

Alaska Department of Public Safety, Division of Statewide Services (Permits & Licensing Unit) licenses the firm itself here. This is the check most people skip, and it is usually the more important of the two.

What the firm must holdSecurity Guard Agency LicenseIssued by Alaska Department of Public Safety, Division of Statewide Services (Permits & Licensing Unit)

How to check it

Ask the company for the exact legal name on its licence. Alaska Department of Public Safety, Division of Statewide Services (Permits & Licensing Unit) does not publish licence numbers here, so the name is what you can actually match.
Alaska Department of Public Safety, Division of Statewide Services (Permits & Licensing Unit) publishes no public per-company lookup, so this cannot be done online.
Contact Alaska Department of Public Safety, Division of Statewide Services (Permits & Licensing Unit) directly and ask them to confirm the licence status for that exact legal name. Ask for the answer in writing if the contract is significant.
Meanwhile, ask the company for a copy of the licence itself and check that the name on it matches the entity that will sign your contract.

Alaska Department of Public Safety, Division of Statewide Services (Permits & Licensing Unit) names the firms it licenses but publishes no licence number, so a number a company gives you cannot be matched against the state list. Match on the legal name instead.

Ask for insurance properly

A licence says the state let them operate. Insurance is what stands between you and a claim, and it is the easier of the two to fake — a certificate is only true on the day it was printed.

Alaska requires it by law

Comprehensive liability of at least $100,000 per person and $200,000 per occurrence covering death, injury, false arrest, detention, malicious prosecution, libel, slander and invasion of privacy, plus $100,000 per occurrence property damage. A surety bond in the same amounts may be filed instead.

The certificate must itself state that the cover cannot be modified or cancelled without 30 days’ notice to the Department of Public Safety, so the notice duty travels with the document.

If it lapses: Failure to maintain the insurance or bond is express grounds for revocation of the agency licence, but revocation is discretionary rather than automatic.

13 AAC 60.120(a); AS 18.65.420 — https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/alaska/13-AAC-60.120

A certificate of insurance (COI) that names your business as an additional insured, not just the certificate holderCertificate holder means you were mailed a copy. Additional insured means their policy actually answers for you if you are pulled into a claim.

General liability, and workers’ compensation at your state’s statutory limitsIf a guard is hurt on your property and the company carries no workers’ comp, the claim tends to land on you. Ask for commercial auto too if they run patrol vehicles.

The policy number and the effective and expiry dates, on a certificate dated within the last monthAn undated or months-old certificate is the single most common tell. The dates let you ask the insurer about the right policy.

The name, agency, and direct phone number of the broker who issued it — then call themThe broker can confirm the policy is in force today. The certificate PDF cannot, and a forged or stale one looks identical to a real one.

A contract term requiring written notice to you before the policy is cancelled or non-renewedStandard certificates promise notice to the insured, not to you. Putting the duty on the company in the contract is what makes a mid-term cancellation a breach.

A fresh certificate part-way through the term, not only at signingRe-asking at 60 or 90 days costs you an email and defeats the whole get-the-COI-then-drop-it pattern.

tessura does not verify anyone’s insurance and has no access to insurers’ records. This is guidance for doing it yourself, not a statement about any company on this site. It is also not legal advice — for a contract of any size, have your own counsel or broker set the limits.

Where this comes from

Alaska requirements last reviewed August 28, 2026. Rules change — the regulator’s page is authoritative if it disagrees with ours.

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