Becoming Licensed as a Security Guard in California

The most recent statistics undoubtedly demonstrate that private security guards are highly needed right now in the state of California. Then again, before one can be employed in this industry, the person needs to be both educated and in ownership of a state-certified license, commonly referred to as guard card in The state of California. The guard card provides proof for the employers that their security guards are capable to do the job. Working without a legitimate security officer license is actually discouraged, as it will result in quite heavy penalties for both the firm as well as the employee. When applying for a security license in the state of California, candidates ought to meet the California guard card requirements that are applied by BSIS, the Californian licensing bureau. The primary demand is that all candidates are at least 18 years of age. No exclusions are made on this rule, so emancipated minors need to wait until the day that they're 18 years of age before they can sign up for their guard card. If you have no trouble with fulfilling the age qualification, you are allowed to start working on phase 2 in the guard card application process. This involves completing an 8-hour Power to Arrest teaching course at a California state-approved training institution. During this classroom training course, the future security officers will be learning some of the skills that are required for their occupation in the security field. The BSIS also requires guard card candidates to be free from any criminal convictions, therefore the next phase in the application procedure involves proving to the BSIS that we possess a clean criminal background. This can be achieved by having our fingerprints documented electronically and sending them to the Federal Bureau of Investigation to enable a criminal history investigation. You should be aware that a non-refundable service charge will have to be paid for the background verification and fingerprint processing. Seeing that we've completed the essential security guard training and transmitted our fingerprints, we want to request our personal security license. This should be achieved by filling in a security license request form and mailing it to the licensing commissioner either over the internet or by traditional mail. The official security guard license will arrive in the mail within 3 to 4 weeks. Despite the fact that you're only allowed to begin working as soon as your guard card arrives, we would suggest you to start job seeking at the time you submitted the application form so that you can maximize your possibilities. Please note of the fact that in an effort to keep your license, the BSIS requires you to complete yet another 2 practical training modules once you are occupied.