The questions people actually ask before hiring a security company, answered without the sales language. If yours is not here, call the 24-hour line at 651-340-0420 and ask.
It depends on the site, and we do not publish a rate card because a number given over the phone before anyone has seen the property is a guess. What actually drives the price is the number of officers, how many hours a week you need, what time of day those hours fall, whether the post is a standing position or a mobile patrol covering several properties, how complex the site is to cover, and how much notice we have to staff it.
Overnight and weekend coverage generally costs more than daytime. A single patrol pass covering four buildings costs far less than a full-time post at one of them. This is exactly why we start with a free walkthrough: after 30 minutes on your property we can give you a written plan and a real price rather than a range.
For the full breakdown of what is inside an hourly rate and the eleven questions to ask so you can compare bids fairly, see our guide to what security guard service costs in Minnesota.
No. We offer flexible terms, including short-term and month to month arrangements. You are not locked into a year to find out whether we are any good.
This is one of the clearer differences between a local company and a national one. If the coverage is not working, we would rather adjust it or lose the contract than hold you to a term you regret.
For planned coverage, we can often have officers on site within days of you approving the plan. The limiting factor is usually scheduling and site-specific preparation, not paperwork.
For genuinely urgent situations, a fire watch, a system outage or an emergency post, call the 24-hour line at 651-340-0420 rather than filling out a form. Those we handle by phone and move on immediately.
We come to the property and walk it with you. It takes about 30 minutes. We look at entry points and how access is controlled today, lighting and blind spots after dark, the camera and alarm coverage you already have and where it stops, your incident history and the hours problems actually happen, traffic patterns around the property, and any insurance, lease or code requirements you have to satisfy.
You get written findings plus a recommended coverage plan and a price. It is free, there is no obligation, and the findings are yours to keep whether or not you hire us. Several of the things we typically flag, a gate that does not latch or a dead light over a parking area, cost nothing to fix and are worth more than the guard hours.
The Twin Cities metro, from our office in St Paul. That includes Minneapolis, St Paul, Roseville, Maplewood, Bloomington, Eagan, Woodbury, Brooklyn Park, Plymouth, Maple Grove, Eden Prairie and Burnsville, among others. You can see the full list on our service areas page.
That limit is deliberate. We staff the area we can actually reach, so a supervisor can get to a post and a shift can be filled on short notice. If your property is in the metro and your city is not listed, call and ask. If we cannot cover it properly we will tell you rather than take the job and hope.
Yes. Priomh Security, Inc. is a licensed, insured and bonded security guard and protection services company operating under the Minnesota Board of Private Detective and Protective Agent Services.
We will provide our license number and a certificate of insurance on request. You should ask any security company for both before signing anything.
Ask the company directly for its license number. Any legitimate agency will give it to you without hesitation, and one that will not is telling you something important. You can then confirm that license with the Minnesota Board of Private Detective and Protective Agent Services, which is a division of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety.
Two other things worth asking for at the same time: a certificate of insurance, ideally naming you as a certificate holder, and confirmation that the individual officers assigned to your property are licensed. In Minnesota, unarmed security officers are formally called protective agents, and they are licensed individually, not just covered by the company's license.
They are three separate things and companies sometimes blur them together.
Licensed means the state has authorized the company to provide protective agent services, and that its officers hold the individual licensing the state requires. Insured means the company carries liability coverage, so that if an officer causes damage or injury while working on your property, there is a policy behind it rather than a small company hoping for the best. Bonded means a surety bond is in place, which provides a further layer of financial protection to the client.
The practical version: ask for the license number and the certificate of insurance in writing. A company that has all three will send them the same day.
Minnesota sets a real floor, which not every state does. Under Minnesota Statute 326.3361 and the related administrative rules, a protective agent must complete 12 hours of preassignment training within the first 21 days of employment, delivered through a board-certified training program, or document equivalent certified training completed before starting.
That training has to cover six subject areas set out in rule: security overview, legal authority and liability issues, communications, ethics, incident and situation assessment and emergency response, and Minnesota's private detective and protective agent statutes and rules.
On top of that, every protective agent must complete six hours a year of certified continuing training. Officers who are armed must complete an additional six hours annually, including annual certification. These requirements apply to licensed agencies across the state, ours included.
Priomh provides unarmed, uniformed security officers. The large majority of commercial, residential, construction and event work does not call for an armed officer, and an unarmed professional who documents well and de-escalates well is the right answer for most properties.
If you believe your situation genuinely requires an armed presence, say so when you call and we will give you a straight answer about whether we are the right company for that job.
Under the Minnesota State Fire Code, when a required fire protection system such as a sprinkler system or fire alarm is out of service, the fire code official has to be notified. Where that official requires it, the building must either be evacuated or an approved fire watch must be provided until the system is back in service.
The important practical point is that the decision belongs to your local fire code official, usually the fire marshal or fire chief for your jurisdiction, and the specifics vary by occupancy type and by city. If your system is down, call your fire marshal first. They will tell you what they require.
Once you know, call us at 651-340-0420. Fire watch is time-sensitive work and we treat it that way. See our fire watch patrol page for how the coverage works, and our full guide to fire watch requirements in Minnesota for the thresholds, the hot work rules and what the log has to show.
Often, yes. Call the 24-hour line at 651-340-0420 rather than using the assessment form. The form is built for planned coverage and routes into a walkthrough, which is the wrong path when a system is down or a post has to be filled in a hurry.
When you call, tell us the address, the hours you need covered, and what the situation is. We will tell you honestly whether we can staff it, and if we cannot we will say so rather than leaving you waiting.
You receive a written activity report for the coverage we provide, on a delivery schedule agreed with you up front. A report covers the officer and the site, time on and off post, the checkpoints that were checked and when, what the officer observed including the things that were normal, any incident along with what was done about it and who was notified, and photos where they are relevant.
Incidents are reported separately and promptly rather than held for a routine summary. The point of all this is simple: you should know what happened on your property without having to ask.
Our officers are unarmed, and their role is to deter, observe, document and bring in law enforcement when a situation calls for it. They are not police and we do not present them as police.
In practice that means an officer can identify a problem early, ask someone to leave on the property owner's behalf, document what happened in writing, and call 911 when a situation crosses the line. A great deal of security work is resolved by a uniformed professional showing up and being visible before anything escalates, which is the outcome everyone wants.
If you have a specific situation involving a repeat trespasser or an ongoing dispute, raise it during the walkthrough. That changes how we write the post orders for your site.
Yes. One-night events, multi-day events, private functions and public gatherings. Event work covers crowd management, access and entry control, and guest safety, and it is staffed differently from a standing post because the skills are different.
Give us the date, the venue, the expected guest count and the hours, and we will propose a staffing plan. See our event security page for detail, and get in touch early for larger events since good event officers get booked.
The walkthrough is free and there is no obligation. Worst case, you get a written list of what to fix.