Checking a guard or a security company in Kentucky

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

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

Check the guard

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

How to check it

Establish whether the guard will be armed and whether the post is inside Louisville/Jefferson County — those two facts decide whether any credential exists.
For an armed post in Louisville, ask to see the individual Armed Security Officer's License; § 124.02(D) requires the officer to carry it on duty. Kentucky residents must also hold a current CCDW licence under KRS 237.110, so ask for that too and check both expiry dates.
Ask the employer for its Louisville ch. 124 agency licence (§ 124.03) or company registration (§ 124.04) — § 124.03(D)(2) requires the agency licence to be posted at its principal Louisville office, so a copy should be easy to produce.
For unarmed work, or anywhere outside Louisville, accept that no licence exists anywhere in Kentucky and vet on the employer's own background check, training records and insurance instead.
Confirm the individual licence and the agency licence are current with Louisville Metro before the guard starts — § 124.10(B) makes it the CLIENT's offence to employ a non-compliant armed officer or agency, not just the vendor's.

Why there is no link to click

Kentucky has no state security guard licence, armed or unarmed, and therefore no state database of guards. WRONG-DATABASE TRAP: the Kentucky Board of Licensure for Private Investigators at kpi.ky.gov is the obvious hit for 'Kentucky security licence' and issues individual photo ID cards — but only to private investigators under KRS ch. 329A. A perfectly legitimate Kentucky guard will not be there. Separately, an ARMED guard in Louisville must hold an individual licence under Metro Code ch. 124, but Louisville Metro publishes no public search for it; verification is by contacting Codes and Regulations. Other Kentucky cities may impose their own rules.

Louisville Metro Department of Codes and Regulations / Metro ABC Licensing: (502) 574-5000 or Metro 311, ABCLicensing@LouisvilleKY.gov. Kentucky Board of Licensure for Private Investigators (to rule out a mislabelled PI credential): (502) 892-4257, PI@ky.gov.

Check the company

Kentucky 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.

Kentucky licenses private investigators and investigative companies only — the board's own licence-type list contains exactly three types and none covers guards or guard agencies. Armed security firms in Louisville need a metro licence, but there is no state credential or registry.

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 Kentucky 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

Kentucky 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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