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Checking a guard or a security company in Iowa

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 Iowa, and walks you to Iowa Department of Public Safety’s own records to confirm it.

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

Check the guard

Iowa registers guards through their employer rather than issuing a card to the guard, which changes what you can check.

What they should hold

Every guard working a postPrivate Security / Private Investigation Employee Identification Card
If they carry a firearmProfessional Permit to Carry Weapons (Private Security / Investigation Employment)renews yearly

Armed work: Armed guards need a professional weapons permit issued through the county sheriff after a criminal history review, at least 4 hours of instruction with a written curriculum, an exam, and a live-fire qualification.

How to check it

  1. Ask the guard to show the state-issued employee identification card that Iowa DPS issued through their agency, and note the agency name printed on it. Iowa Code ch. 80A requires every contracted security employee to hold one, and a guard who works for two agencies must hold a card from each.
  2. Verify the EMPLOYER at https://iowadps.imagetrendlicense.com/lms/public/portal#/lookup — the public search there covers agencies, and lets you search by Agency Name, Agency Number or Agency City.
  3. Confirm the agency record's licence status is active before you rely on it, and check the address and phone shown match the company that is actually staffing your site.
  4. Because the individual card is not in the public search, email or phone the Program Services Bureau with the guard's full name, date of birth and employing agency and ask them to confirm a current employee ID card is on file.
  5. Do not accept a card that names an agency other than the one that invoiced you, and check the card's own expiry date against today.
Why there is no link to click

Iowa DOES require the individual credential — but you cannot look it up. WRONG-DATABASE TRAP: the well-indexed Iowa DPS portal at iowadps.imagetrendlicense.com is an agency-only search. Iowa DPS's own FAQ frames it as the answer to 'how do I find out if someone is licensed as a private investigative, private security or bail enforcement AGENCY'. I confirmed this against the portal's own configuration: the individual ('user') public-lookup filter set is empty, while the agency ('service') filter set is configured with Agency Name, Agency Number and Agency City. Searching a guard's personal name there will always return nothing, no matter how valid their card is.

Iowa DPS Program Services Bureau, 215 E. 7th Street, Des Moines IA 50319: 515-725-6230, piinfo@dps.state.ia.us.

Check the company

Iowa Department of Public Safety, Program Services Bureau 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 Agency LicenseIssued by Iowa Department of Public Safety, Program Services Bureau

How to check it

  1. Ask the company for the exact legal name on its licence and its Private Security Agency License number. A company that cannot produce a number for a licence it claims to hold has told you something.
  2. Open the Iowa Department of Public Safety, Program Services Bureau 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 Iowa Department of Public Safety, Program Services Bureau before signing.
Open the Iowa Department of Public Safety, Program Services Bureau 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.

Iowa requires it by law

No dollar figure is set, but the scope is prescribed: general liability, completed operations and personal injury, where personal injury must cover false arrest, detention or imprisonment and malicious prosecution; libel, slander, defamation and invasion of privacy; and wrongful entry or eviction.

Bond: $5,000 surety bond for a single licence type, $10,000 if licensed for more than one of bail enforcement, private security or private investigation.

Both instruments carry notice duties: the certificate must state that cover cannot be modified or cancelled without 30 days’ notice to the department, and the surety must give the department 30 days’ written notice before terminating bond liability.

If it lapses: The licence is automatically revoked — not suspended — if the licensee has not complied with the certificate requirement within 30 days of any expiry.

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.

Iowa Admin. Code 661—121.4(6) — https://www.legis.iowa.gov/docs/iac/rule/661.121.4.pdf

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

Iowa 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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