tessura

← Every state

GA

Checking a guard or a security company in Georgia

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 Georgia, and walks you to Georgia Board of Private Detective and Security Agencies’s own records to confirm it.

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

Check the guard

Georgia 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 Registration24 hrs of training · state exam · renews every 2 years
If they carry a firearmArmed Security Officer (Firearm Endorsement)39 hrs of training · state exam · renews every 2 years

Armed work: Armed officers (21+) add at least 15 hours of board-approved handgun training with both a written exam and a live-fire qualification at 80% or better, matched to the weapon type carried.

Ask for the number

SGE followed by six digits, e.g. SGE047587

Live result rows from the GOALS Professional Licensee Search, profession type "Private Detective & Security Agencies", licence type "Employee - Security Guard", returning SGE047587 and SGE030114. An earlier attempt was blocked by Cloudflare and wrongly concluded no individual record existed.

How to check it

  1. Ask the guard for their first and last name as registered and the SGE number on their board identification card.
  2. Open goals.sos.ga.gov/GASOSOneStop/s/licensee-search. Do NOT use verify.sos.ga.gov — its profession list is only Cemeteries, Charities and Securities ("Securities" meaning investments, not security guards), so a guard search there silently returns nothing and reads as "not licensed".
  3. Leave the radio button on "Individual", set "Profession Type" to "Private Detective & Security Agencies", then set "License Type" to "Employee - Security Guard", or "Employee - In-House Security" for a guard employed directly by the site.
  4. Enter the surname and first name, or paste the SGE number into "License Number", and click Search. Let the Cloudflare check clear first if one appears.
  5. In the results grid confirm the STATUS column shows an active status rather than "Lapsed", and check the LICENSE SUB TYPE column for an armed endorsement such as "Exposed Handgun" if the post is armed.
  6. Open the record from the ACTION column to confirm the expiry date is in the future.
Open the GOALS Licensee Search (Georgia One Stop) →

Shows licence status · does not show an expiry date · expects you to pass a “verify you are human” check.

If the lookup finds nothing: Georgia Professional Licensing Boards Division, 404-424-9966, 3920 Arkwright Rd, Suite 195, Macon GA 31210. The Board of Private Detective and Security Agencies can be reached on (478) 207-2440.

Check the company

Georgia Secretary of State, Board of Private Detective and Security Agencies 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 holdCompany - SecurityIssued by Georgia Secretary of State, Board of Private Detective and Security Agencies

How to check it

  1. Ask the company for the exact legal name on its licence and its Company - Security number. A company that cannot produce a number for a licence it claims to hold has told you something.
  2. Open the Georgia Secretary of State, Board of Private Detective and Security Agencies lookup and search for that name.
  3. Search the legal name, not the name on the uniform or the invoice. Brand names, DBAs, and the name on the truck are often not the licensed entity.
  4. Read the status and the expiry date, not just the presence of a record. An expired or suspended licence still returns a result.
  5. If nothing comes up, ask which entity holds the licence and in which state, then check that name. If the answer does not resolve, treat the licence as unconfirmed and call Georgia Secretary of State, Board of Private Detective and Security Agencies before signing.
Open the Georgia Secretary of State, Board of Private Detective and Security Agencies lookup →

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.

Georgia does not require it

Insurance is only one of three alternatives. A company may instead post a $25,000 surety bond, or file a certified audited statement showing net worth above $50,000 — so a licensed Georgia security company may lawfully carry no liability insurance at all. Where insurance is chosen it must be at least $1,000,000.

What that means for you: the licence tells you nothing about whether this company is insured, so the certificate is a purely commercial document with no regulator standing behind it. Everything below matters more here than almost anywhere else.

Whichever instrument is chosen is filed with and approved by the division director. The 30-day cancellation-notice duty runs to the licensee, not the insurer or surety.

If it lapses: Cancelling without giving the Board 30 days’ certified-mail notice is a violation, and the bond is conditioned on acts that would be grounds for discipline. No automatic suspension.

O.C.G.A. §43-38-6(d)(1) — https://law.justia.com/codes/georgia/title-43/chapter-38/section-43-38-6/

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

Georgia 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.

Hiring guards in Georgia?

Send one staffing request and it reaches licensed companies covering your state. No account needed.

Request security staffing