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Checking a guard or a security company in Delaware

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 Delaware, and walks you to Delaware State Police, Professional Licensing Section’s own records to confirm it.

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

Check the guard

Delaware 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 License16 hrs of training · state exam · renews every 5 years
If they carry a firearmArmed Security Guard (Red Card)40 hrs of training · state exam · renews yearly
If they carry a baton, OC spray, or a taserBaton / Chemical Spray / Handcuff Training Certification
If they move cash or valuablesArmored Car Guard License – Unarmed (Yellow Card)renews every 2 years

Armed work: Armed guards (21+) complete a 40-hour firearms course with daylight and low-light certification; the firearms Red Card must be requalified each calendar year.

How to check it

  1. Ask the guard to show the identification card issued by the Delaware State Police Professional Licensing Section. Under 24 Del. C. § 1316 every security guard must carry it and show it when asked, so there is no legitimate reason to refuse.
  2. Note the name and number on the card and ask whether the person is registered as a noncommissioned (unarmed) or commissioned (armed) security guard — these are separate registrations and an unarmed card never authorises a firearm.
  3. Ask the security company for its Delaware private security agency licence number; individual guard registrations exist only in connection with a licensed agency.
  4. Email dsp-prolicense@delaware.gov or call (302) 739-5991 with the guard's name and card number and ask Professional Licensing to confirm the registration is current and give you the expiry date. Do not use DELPROS — it does not hold these records.
  5. Only accept the guard on site once Professional Licensing has confirmed the registration is active and the expiry date they give you is in the future.
Why there is no link to click

Delaware licenses individual security guards — 24 Del. C. § 1313(a) bars anyone from acting as a private security guard without a licence or identification card from the Professional Licensing Section, and § 1314/§ 1315 set separate noncommissioned and commissioned (armed) requirements — but there is no public online lookup. Delaware's public license lookup, DELPROS (delpros.delaware.gov/oh_verifylicense), belongs to the Division of Professional Regulation, and I searched its full profession list: it contains no entry for security guard, security or private investigator. Verification is by phone or email to Delaware State Police Professional Licensing.

Delaware State Police Professional Licensing Section: (302) 739-5991 or dsp-prolicense@delaware.gov, 600 South Bay Road, Suite 1, Dover DE 19903. Reference: https://dsp.delaware.gov/professional-licensing/

Check the company

Delaware State Police, Professional Licensing Section 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 Private Security Agency LicenseIssued by Delaware State Police, Professional Licensing Section

How to check it

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

Delaware State Police, Professional Licensing Section 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.

Delaware requires it by law

$1,000,000 commercial general liability per occurrence for a Class B private security agency.

Bond: $10,000 surety bond, minimum one-year term, in the agency’s name on the state’s Agency Bond Form. Class C agencies post $15,000.

Delaware State Police Professional Licensing is named certificate holder by instruction, which in normal carrier practice produces a cancellation notice — but no statute or regulation imposes that duty, so it rests on convention. The bond is filed with the state and renewed annually.

If it lapses: Both the policy and the bond are conditions of issuance and renewal, reviewed by the quarterly Board of Examiners. No automatic suspension is stated.

24 Del. Admin. Code §1300-13.2.4 — https://regulations.delaware.gov/AdminCode/title24/1300.shtml

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

Delaware 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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