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Checking a guard or a security company in Indiana

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 Indiana, and walks you to the regulator’s own records to confirm it.

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

Check the guard

Indiana has no statewide guard licence, so what a guard needs depends on the city or county.

How to check it

  1. Do not ask the guard for a state licence number — Indiana does not issue one. Instead ask which licensed security guard agency employs them and for that agency's IPLA licence number.
  2. Verify the AGENCY on the IPLA licence search at https://mylicense.in.gov/eVerification/ using the 'Security Guard Agency' licence type and the company name, and confirm the licence is active and unexpired.
  3. Ask the agency in writing to confirm the named person is a current employee and that the agency ran the required Indiana State Police and seven-year state/county/city background checks on them.
  4. If the guard will work armed, confirm their firearms authority separately — Indiana sets no state firearms standard for guards, so the only assurance is the employer's own documented training and the guard's Indiana handgun licence.
  5. If anything about the agency's status is unclear, phone the IPLA board staff before the guard starts work.
Why there is no link to click

Indiana licenses security guard AGENCIES only. Under IC 25-30-1.3, the agency (or one qualifying officer/partner) is licensed; individual guards working for that agency hold no state licence and are not in any state database. WRONG-DATABASE TRAP: the IPLA licence search at mylicense.in.gov lists 'Security Guard Agency' and 'Private Investigator Firm' records only, so typing a guard's personal name returns nothing — which means nothing about whether that guard is legitimate. IPLA also states that guard background-check records and applications are confidential and not obtainable by public records request, so there is no records-request route to an individual's file either.

Indiana Professional Licensing Agency, Private Investigator and Security Guard Licensing Board: (317) 232-2960, pla10@pla.in.gov.

Check the company

Indiana Professional Licensing Agency, Private Investigator and Security Guard Licensing 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 holdSecurity Guard AgencyIssued by Indiana Professional Licensing Agency, Private Investigator and Security Guard Licensing Board

How to check it

  1. Ask the company for the exact legal name on its licence and its Security Guard Agency number. A company that cannot produce a number for a licence it claims to hold has told you something.
  2. Open the Indiana Professional Licensing Agency, Private Investigator and Security Guard Licensing 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 Indiana Professional Licensing Agency, Private Investigator and Security Guard Licensing Board before signing.
Open the Indiana Professional Licensing Agency, Private Investigator and Security Guard Licensing 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.

Indiana requires it by law

General liability of at least $100,000 covering false arrest, detention or imprisonment, malicious prosecution, and wrongful entry or eviction. The policy may not exclude intentional acts of the insured causing bodily injury, and the State of Indiana must be named an additional insured.

The cleverest drafting of any state checked: the certificate must state that cancellation or nonrenewal is not effective until the Board has had ten days’ written notice. Because the cancellation is legally ineffective until then, cover keeps running and the carrier cannot drop it silently.

If it lapses: The licence is suspended on non-compliance and cannot be reinstated until a formal reinstatement application is filed with proper proof of insurance.

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 at the regulator. 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.

IC 25-30-1.3-16 — https://law.justia.com/codes/indiana/title-25/article-30/chapter-1-3/section-25-30-1-3-16/

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

Indiana 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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