Checking a guard or a security company in Kansas

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

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

Check the guard

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

How to check it

Establish which city the guard will actually work in — in Kansas that, not the state, decides whether a permit exists at all.
If the post is in Wichita, ask to see the Private Security Permit issued by the Wichita Police Department and check the expiry date; Wichita permits renew every year, and a 90-day Temporary Permit means the guard has not finished the required training yet.
If the post is in Kansas City, Kansas, ask for the individual permit issued by the KCKPD; if it is anywhere else in Kansas, accept that no licence exists and vet the guard on the employer's own background check and training records instead.
Never accept a Kansas private detective licence as proof a person may work as a guard — Wichita's ordinance says in terms that a state detective licence does not authorise private security work.
Phone the issuing city unit to confirm the permit is current, and confirm the employing company holds whatever city agency licence the same ordinance requires.

Why there is no link to click

Kansas has never licensed security guards at state level. The Attorney General licenses private detectives and detective agencies, and K.S.A. 75-7b03(l) expressly exempts 'a private patrol operator while actually engaged in providing private patrol services' from the detective act. WRONG-DATABASE TRAP: the AG publishes a 'Directory of Licensed Detectives' and a 'Directory of Agencies' that rank well and look statewide, but a legitimate Kansas guard will never appear in either. Permitting is municipal: Wichita City Code ch. 3.72 requires both an agency licence and an individual Private Security Officer permit, and Kansas City, Kansas requires an individual permit through its police department. Neither city publishes an online permit search.

Wichita-Sedgwick County Law Enforcement Training Center (Private Security permits): 316-660-3810. Kansas Attorney General Private Detective Licensing Unit (detectives only, to rule out a mislabelled credential): (785) 296-4240, ksagpi@ag.ks.gov.

Check the company

Kansas does not license security companies at the state level, so there is no company licence to check. That is a fact about the state, not a mark against any firm.

Kansas expressly exempts private patrol operators from its licensing act (K.S.A. 75-7b03), so guard companies hold no state licence. Wichita, Topeka and Kansas City/Wyandotte County license them municipally, and there is no statewide list of which cities do.

With no licence to check, lean harder on the things that do exist: the guard credentials above, insurance, workers’ compensation, and a business registration in good standing with the Kansas Secretary of State.

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.

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

Kansas 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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