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Checking a guard or a security company in North Carolina

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 North Carolina, and walks you to North Carolina Private Protective Services Board (PPSB)’s own records to confirm it.

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

Check the guard

North Carolina issues a credential to the guard, so you can check the person in front of you.

What they should hold

Every guard working a postUnarmed Security Guard Registration16 hrs of training · renews yearly
If they carry a firearmArmed Security Guard Registration36 hrs of training · renews yearly
If they do close or executive protectionClose Personal Protection License40 hrs of training · renews every 2 years
If they move cash or valuablesUnarmed Armored Car Service Guard Registration16 hrs of training · renews yearly

Armed work: Armed guards (21+) complete both the 16-hour unarmed and 20-hour armed courses, and take a 4-hour armed renewal course within 180 days of each annual renewal.

How to check it

  1. Ask to see the guard’s PPSB registration card and note the Registrant ID and the BPN, which is the employing company’s number. You need both to get an answer from the board.
  2. Do not judge the guard by the public "Active Licensees Search" at ppsapplication.permitium.com. Its "Security Guard And Patrol" filter returns only licence holders, so a correctly registered guard produces zero results there — that silence is not evidence of anything.
  3. Use that search for the COMPANY instead: enter the firm under Company Name, tick "Security Guard And Patrol", and confirm a licence holder appears with a number in the form 288014-GP.
  4. Email ppsasl@ncdps.gov or call (919) 710-8885 with the guard’s name, Registrant ID and BPN and ask staff to confirm the registration is active, and for armed work that the NCGS 74C-13 armed registration is current.
  5. Check the date carefully for armed guards: armed registrations run only one year and must be renewed annually, so they lapse twice as fast as most credentials you will encounter.
Careful: the obvious lookup is not a guard lookup

North Carolina registers individual guards under NCGS 74C-11, but registrant data is not public. The PPSB portal offers only "Active Licensees Search" and "Active Certified Trainer Search"; the licensee search returns licence holders — company qualifying agents and sole proprietors — with numbers such as 288014-GP. Its "Security Guard And Patrol" filter looks like a guard search but is not one, and a properly registered guard returns nothing with no explanation. The "Registrant Lookup" that does query individuals was added inside the Permitium dashboard in late 2024 and is restricted to qualifying agents and their designees.

NC PPSB: submit a public records request through https://www.ncdps.gov/about-dps/boards-and-commissions/private-protective-services-board, or contact the Board office directly to confirm an individual registration.

NC PPSB Active Licensees Search — searches the employer, not the guard →

If the lookup finds nothing: NC PPSB: submit a public records request through https://www.ncdps.gov/about-dps/boards-and-commissions/private-protective-services-board, or contact the Board office directly to confirm an individual registration.

Check the company

North Carolina Private Protective Services 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 and Patrol LicenseIssued by North Carolina Private Protective Services Board

We hold this state’s roster, so you can search it here first: 461 companies that North Carolina Private Protective Services Board listed as currently licensed when we read it on September 14, 2026.

Search North Carolina licensed companies →

Our copy is a snapshot. For anything you are about to sign, confirm it at the regulator using the steps below.

How to check it

  1. Ask the company for the exact legal name on its licence and its Security Guard and Patrol License number. A company that cannot produce a number for a licence it claims to hold has told you something.
  2. Open the North Carolina Private Protective Services 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 North Carolina Private Protective Services Board before signing.
Open the North Carolina Private Protective Services 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.

North Carolina requires it by law

Liability cover of at least $50,000 for bodily injury or death of one person, $100,000 for two or more, and $20,000 property damage — among the lowest mandated limits in the country.

The certificate must stay on file with the Private Protective Services Board at all times. An insurer may cancel only on 30 days’ notice to the Board, and on termination of cover the insurer must notify the Board’s Director directly.

If it lapses: The licence is automatically suspended and is not reinstated until the licensee reapplies on the Board’s form with a proper certificate.

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 in the roster above. 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.

N.C.G.S. §74C-10 — https://www.ncleg.gov/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/BySection/Chapter_74C/GS_74C-10.html

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

North Carolina 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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