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MI

Checking a guard or a security company in Michigan

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 Michigan, and walks you to Michigan Dept. of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA), Security Guard Agencies’s own records to confirm it.

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

Check the guard

Michigan licenses security companies but not individual guards, so there is no officer record to check.

Ask for the number

Security guard AGENCY licences are 10 digits beginning 3801, e.g. 3801xxxxxx. This is the employer's number, never an individual guard's.

LARA's own Private Security Guard Agency Employee Roster instructions tell agencies to 'find your 10-digit license number that begins with "3801" under the “Licenses” tab' in MiCLEAR (michigan.gov/lara/bureau-list/cscl/licensing/prof/guards/security-guard-agency-license/employee-roster). I saw no real digits after the prefix, so I state only the prefix and length that LARA itself states.

How to check it

  1. Do not ask the guard for a Michigan guard card — LARA does not issue individual guard licences. Ask which licensed security guard agency employs them and for the agency's 10-digit licence number beginning 3801.
  2. Open the MiCLEAR Licensee Search, pick 'Security Guard Agency' (or 'Security Guard Agency Branch' for a local office) from the licence type list, and search by Business Name or License Number.
  3. Confirm the agency record comes back as licensed and in good standing, and that the business name matches the company that invoiced you. If MiCLEAR shows no expiry, click into the record and check the status wording before relying on it.
  4. Ask the guard for the agency-issued photo ID card and ask the agency to confirm the person appears on the quarterly Employee Roster it files with LARA, and that they meet the MCL 338.1067(2) employee requirements (18 or over, high school diploma or GED, no disqualifying convictions).
  5. If the agency will not confirm, phone LARA's Licensing Division — the rosters are filed with the state even though they are not published, so LARA is the only route to an independent answer.
Careful: the obvious lookup is not a guard lookup

WRONG-DATABASE TRAP, and a nasty one. MiCLEAR's licence type dropdown contains an entry literally called 'Security Guard', and the same form takes First Name and Last Name — so it looks exactly like a guard card search. It is not. LARA states plainly that 'the Department issues either a Security Guard Agency license or a Security Alarm Contractor Agency license and does not issue an individual Security Guard or Security Alarm System Contractor license', and that the 'Security Guard' type exists only for a person licensing themselves as a sole proprietorship or DBA business. An employer who searches a guard's name there and finds nothing has learned nothing. Individual guards are registered with the state only by appearing on their agency's quarterly Employee Roster (MCL 338.1067(3)), which is filed with LARA but not published. Note also that Michigan State Police, not LARA, administers the Act for private security police and private college security forces.

LARA Corporations, Securities & Commercial Licensing Bureau, Licensing Division: (517) 241-9221, csclonline@michigan.gov.

MiCLEAR Licensee Search — searches the employer, not the guard →

If the lookup finds nothing: LARA Corporations, Securities & Commercial Licensing Bureau, Licensing Division: (517) 241-9221, csclonline@michigan.gov.

Check the company

Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, Corporations, Securities & Commercial Licensing 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 holdSecurity Guard Agency LicenseIssued by Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, Corporations, Securities & Commercial Licensing Bureau

How to check it

  1. Ask the company for the exact legal name on its licence and its Security Guard Agency License number. A company that cannot produce a number for a licence it claims to hold has told you something.
  2. Open the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, Corporations, Securities & Commercial Licensing 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 Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, Corporations, Securities & Commercial Licensing Bureau before signing.
Open the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, Corporations, Securities & Commercial Licensing 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.

Michigan does not require it

Insurance is an alternative to the bond, not a mandate. In place of a $25,000 bond a company may file a policy naming itself and the State of Michigan as coinsureds at $25,000 property damage, $100,000 one person and $200,000 more than one person.

What that means for you: the licence tells you nothing about whether this company is insured, so the certificate is a purely commercial document with no regulator standing behind it. Everything below matters more here than almost anywhere else.

Bond: $25,000 surety bond conditioned on faithful and honest conduct, payable for the benefit of the people of the state. Either the bond or the qualifying policy must be on file — LARA "shall not issue a license" without one.

The instrument is uploaded into MiCLEAR at licensure and at every renewal, and LARA requires the State of Michigan to be both certificate holder and additional insured, which in ordinary carrier practice routes cancellation notices to the state. But the statute itself creates no insurer duty — the hook is administrative, not legal.

If it lapses: Discretionary: LARA may suspend for non-compliance and must reinstate once the company complies. There is also a 30-day renewal grace window.

MCL 338.1059(4) — https://www.michigan.gov/lara/bureau-list/cscl/licensing/prof/guards

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

Michigan 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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