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Checking a guard or a security company in North Dakota

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 Dakota, and walks you to North Dakota Private Investigation and Security Board (PISB)’s own records to confirm it.

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

Check the guard

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

What they should hold

Every guard working a postApprentice Security Officer Registration12 more hrs within 1 months of being issued · renews yearly
If they carry a firearmArmed Private Security Certificatestate exam · renews yearly

Armed work: Armed certification ($45) requires written and practical firearms instruction from a board-certified instructor, renewed annually by September 30.

Ask for the number

A three-digit Provider number, e.g. "Provider # 112", sometimes beside a separate Agency number

The NDPISB list itself, which carries entries such as "Anderson, Kent / Provider # 112 / Bismarck, ND" and "Boelke, David / Provider # 167 / Agency # 464 / Harvest Security Solutions, LLC".

How to check it

  1. Ask to see the guard’s NDPISB registration and note the name, the registration class (Apprentice, Security Officer or Commissioned Officer) and the employing agency.
  2. Use pisb.nd.gov/licensed-security-providers-agencies to check the COMPANY only — look for the employing agency’s Provider # and Agency #. Do not expect the individual guard to appear there; that list holds providers and agencies, never rank-and-file officers.
  3. Call the board on 701-222-3063 with the guard’s name and employing agency and ask staff to confirm the registration is current, and for armed work that the Armed Certification is current.
  4. Check the renewal year specifically. Every North Dakota licence and registration expires on 30 September, so in October a guard who has not renewed is unregistered regardless of what their card says.
  5. Treat "Apprentice" as a real distinction rather than a formality, and confirm the class matches the post you are filling.
Careful: the obvious lookup is not a guard lookup

North Dakota registers individual security officers but publishes no lookup for them. The only public roster on pisb.nd.gov is "Licensed Security Providers & Agencies", which names the provider licence holder behind each agency with a Provider # and Agency # — it never contains employed officers, so searching a properly registered guard there returns nothing. That page also carries a "Currently Under Revision" notice and the board says it is updated only periodically. Individual verification is by phone to the board.

North Dakota Private Investigation & Security Board, 513 East Bismarck Expressway, Suite 5, Bismarck ND 58504, 701-222-3063 (phone and fax).

NDPISB Licensed Security Providers & Agencies list (companies only) — searches the employer, not the guard →

If the lookup finds nothing: North Dakota Private Investigation & Security Board, 513 East Bismarck Expressway, Suite 5, Bismarck ND 58504, 701-222-3063 (phone and fax).

Check the company

North Dakota Private Investigation and Security 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 Agency LicenseIssued by North Dakota Private Investigation and Security Board

How to check it

  1. Ask the company for the exact legal name on its licence and its 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 North Dakota Private Investigation and Security 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 Dakota Private Investigation and Security Board before signing.
Open the North Dakota Private Investigation and Security 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 Dakota requires it by law

$300,000 of general liability WITH errors and omissions. The certificate must be conditioned on the faithful and honest conduct of the business and let anyone injured sue on the policy in the name of the State of North Dakota.

The certificate must be executed by the INSURANCE COMPANY as well as the applicant, so the carrier is a party to the filing rather than a bystander. The underwriter may cancel only on 30 days’ written notice to the board and remains liable until it gives that notice — the cleanest incentive alignment of any state checked.

If it lapses: No licence issues without the certificate on file, and operating without it is a licence violation. No express automatic-suspension clause.

N.D. Admin. Code 93-02-02.1-12 — https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/north-dakota/N-D-A-C-93-02-2.1-12

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 Dakota requirements last reviewed August 28, 2026. Rules change — the regulator’s page is authoritative if it disagrees with ours.

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