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Checking a guard or a security company in Illinois

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 Illinois, and walks you to Illinois Dept. of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR)’s own records to confirm it.

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

Check the guard

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

What they should hold

Every guard working a postPermanent Employee Registration Card (PERC)20 hrs of training · renews every 3 years
If they carry a firearmFirearm Control Card (Armed)28 hrs of training · renews every 3 years
If they work with a dogCanine Handler Authorization Card180 hrs of training · state exam

Armed work: Armed guards (21+) need a Firearm Control Card on top of the PERC: FBI fingerprints, firearms training, range qualification within a year before each renewal, and continued employment with the issuing agency.

Ask for the number

Nine digits beginning 129 for a PERC, e.g. 129432627. Enter it with no dash or period. Armed Firearm Control Cards begin 229.

Live ACTIVE and NOT RENEWED rows from an IDFPR eLicense search on the DETECTIVE BOARD, returning 129432627, 129176980 and 129127887, corroborated by IDFPR’s own bulk-lookup help page: "a valid license consists of a total of 9 numeral digits with the first 3 being the professional code".

How to check it

  1. Ask the guard for their full legal name as printed on the card and their nine-digit PERC number, which starts 129. If they carry a firearm on duty, ask for the Firearm Control Card as well.
  2. Open the IDFPR eLicense lookup at online-dfpr.micropact.com/lookup/licenselookup.aspx, or go to idfpr.illinois.gov/checklicense.html and follow the link under "Professional Regulation".
  3. In the "License Type" list click DETECTIVE BOARD — that is the board holding PERCs. Leave "License Status" blank so expired and terminated cards still appear.
  4. Type the nine digits into "License Number", or the surname and forename into the name fields, then retype the CAPTCHA exactly as shown (it is case sensitive) and click Search.
  5. Match the person on Name and City/State, then confirm "License Status" reads ACTIVE rather than NOT RENEWED or TERMINATED CARD RETURNED, the expiration date is in the future, and the "Ever Disciplined" column reads N.
  6. Click Detail on that row to confirm the credential really is a Permanent Employee Registration Card — the column headed "Credential" holds the licence number, not the credential type, and the DETECTIVE BOARD list mixes PERC holders with private detectives and agencies. For armed work, search again for a current Firearm Control Card.
Open the IDFPR License Lookup (reached from https://idfpr.illinois.gov/checklicense.html) →

Shows licence status · shows the expiry date · expects you to pass a “verify you are human” check.

If the lookup finds nothing: IDFPR licence-lookup support 1-800-560-6420 (TTY 1-866-325-4949), or the general line 1-888-473-4858. Disciplinary documents are not in the lookup — request them by FOIA through idfpr.illinois.gov.

Check the company

Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, Detective Board 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 holdPrivate Security Contractor AgencyIssued by Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, Detective Board

We hold this state’s roster, so you can search it here first: 893 companies that Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, Detective Board listed as currently licensed when we read it on September 14, 2026.

Search Illinois licensed companies →

Our copy is a snapshot. For anything you are about to sign, confirm it at the regulator using the steps below.

How to check it

  1. Ask the company for the exact legal name on its licence and its Private Security Contractor Agency number. A company that cannot produce a number for a licence it claims to hold has told you something.
  2. Open the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, Detective Board 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 Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, Detective Board before signing.
Open the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, Detective Board 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.

Illinois requires it by law

$1,000,000 commercial general liability covering bodily injury, property damage and personal injury, extending to firearms claims where the agency permits anyone to go armed.

The insurer’s certificate is filed at licensure and renewal, and the insurer signs the IDFPR form agreeing to give 30 days’ written notice before cancelling early. No statutory duty makes the carrier report to IDFPR, so detection is largely renewal- or complaint-driven.

If it lapses: Failing to maintain the insurance and give the Department written proof results in cancellation of the licence without a hearing — cancellation rather than suspension, so reinstatement is not simply a matter of refiling.

So the licence check above is worth repeating. Because a lapse here suspends the licence by operation of law rather than merely breaching a contract, a company that quietly dropped its cover after signing with you should eventually stop reading as currently licensed in the roster above. That is not instant, and a bad status has other causes, so it tells you to ask — not what happened. Re-checking costs you nothing.

225 ILCS 447/25-10(b); 68 Ill. Adm. Code 1240.200(d)(2) — https://www.ilga.gov/documents/legislation/ilcs/documents/022504470K25-10.htm

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

Illinois requirements last reviewed September 14, 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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