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Checking a guard or a security company in Arkansas

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 Arkansas, and walks you to Arkansas State Police, Regulatory Services Division’s own records to confirm it.

tessura is not a Arkansas 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 Arkansas requirements, training hours, and application steps →

Check the guard

Arkansas 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 Officer Credential8 hrs of training · renews every 2 years
If they carry a firearmArmed Security Officer Credential24 hrs of training · renews every 2 years

Armed work: Armed officers must be 21+, complete 16 additional training hours, and take annual refresher training.

How to check it

  1. Ask to see the guard's credential photo identification card. Arkansas rule 17 CAR § 350-506 requires every credentialed or commissioned security officer to wear it in plain sight while working and to hand it over for inspection on request, so refusing is itself a red flag.
  2. Read four things off the card: the holder's name, the credential number, the expiration date, and the name of the employing company — Arkansas Code § 17-40-329 requires all four to be printed on it.
  3. Confirm the expiration date is in the future. Arkansas credentials run two years from issue and stay valid if the person changes employer, so an out-of-date employer name on the card is worth a question but is not itself disqualifying.
  4. Email asp.pisecurityquestions@arkansas.gov or call (501) 534-3399 with the name and credential number and ask State Police to confirm the credential is current — there is no public online lookup for Arkansas security officers.
Why there is no link to click

Arkansas does credential individual security officers (PSO) and commission armed ones (CSO), but I found no public individual lookup. The State Police's own Private Investigators / Security Companies page directs anyone with 'inquiries regarding individuals or companies regulated by the Arkansas State Police' to phone or email the Regulatory Services Division, which is consistent with there being no online search. I could not prove a negative exhaustively, hence needs_review.

Arkansas State Police Regulatory Services Division: (501) 534-3399 or asp.pisecurityquestions@arkansas.gov (contact details published at https://dps.arkansas.gov/law-enforcement/arkansas-state-police/services-programs/private-investigators-security-companies-alarm-installation-monitoring/)

Check the company

Arkansas State Police, Regulatory Services Division 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 holdClass B Security Services ContractorIssued by Arkansas State Police, Regulatory Services Division

How to check it

  1. Ask the company for the exact legal name on its licence. Arkansas State Police, Regulatory Services Division does not publish licence numbers here, so the name is what you can actually match.
  2. Arkansas State Police, Regulatory Services Division publishes no public per-company lookup, so this cannot be done online.
  3. Contact Arkansas State Police, Regulatory Services Division 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.
  4. 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.

Arkansas State Police, Regulatory Services Division 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.

Arkansas requires it by law

Continuing public liability insurance of at least $500,000 covering damages caused by wrongful acts of the company, its officers, agents and employees.

Proof is filed once as a precondition to licensure, and thereafter need only be produced "upon request". No party owes the State Police notice of cancellation.

If it lapses: The policy must be "continuing", so a lapse is a violation — but nothing triggers discovery of it. The weakest regime checked so far.

A.C.A. §17-40-308(a) — https://law.justia.com/codes/arkansas/2010/title-17/subtitle-2/chapter-40/subchapter-3/17-40-308

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

Arkansas requirements last reviewed August 28, 2026. Some details on this state are still pending a second check against the primary source. Rules change — the regulator’s page is authoritative if it disagrees with ours.

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