How the system actually works
In Minnesota, unarmed security officers are legally called protective agents. The Minnesota Board of Private Detective and Protective Agent Services, part of the Department of Public Safety, issues licenses to businesses that provide protective agent services. A licence can be held by a sole proprietor, a partnership or a corporation, and where it is not a sole proprietor there has to be a qualified representative acting as manager.
That license is what authorises the work. Officers do the work as employees of a licensed agency. Which means the useful question is not how do I get licensed, it is which licensed companies are hiring and what will they require of me.
This is genuinely different from states like California, where an individual guard card exists and you apply for it yourself. A lot of the security career content online is written for those states and quietly assumes the same system here. It does not apply.
What an employer has to do before you start
Two obligations sit on the company for every officer it hires, and both are on the company's dime, not yours.
A criminal background check. Minnesota requires businesses that hire private security officers to run background checks on them, including a fingerprint submission. If a company is not doing this, that tells you something about the company.
Training. Under Minnesota Statute 326.3361 and the related rules, anyone employed as a protective agent has to complete a minimum of 12 hours of preassignment training within their first 21 days of employment, delivered through a board-certified training program. Someone who already completed equivalent certified training can document that instead of repeating it.
The rule also sets out what those 12 hours have to cover:
- Security overview
- Legal authority and liability issues
- Communications
- Ethics
- Incident and situation assessment and emergency response
- Minnesota private detective and protective agent statutes and administrative rules
After that first year begins, every protective agent has to complete 6 hours a year of certified continuing training. Officers who work armed have to complete an additional 6 hours annually, including annual certification, and may not carry a weapon while still in on-the-job training.
| Requirement | What it is | Who arranges it |
|---|---|---|
| Individual guard licence | Does not exist in Minnesota | Nobody. There is no card |
| Company licence | Held by the agency you work for | The employer |
| Background check | Criminal history check with fingerprints | The employer, before you start |
| Preassignment training | 12 hours, board-certified, within your first 21 days | The employer |
| Continuing training | 6 hours every year | The employer |
| Armed officers | A further 6 hours a year plus annual certification | The employer |
What employers will actually ask of you
Since the state does not gatekeep the individual, employers do. Requirements vary between companies, and these are the ones you should expect to be asked about.
- Being 18 or older
- A background clean enough to pass a criminal history check, which is the single most common reason an application does not proceed
- Being able to read, write and speak English well enough to write a clear report and use a radio
- Documentation of your right to work in the United States
- Reliable transportation, which matters more than people expect for overnight shifts when transit is thin
- A valid driver's licence and an acceptable driving record if the role involves a marked patrol vehicle
- Availability for the shifts that actually need filling, which are evenings, overnights and weekends
Notice what is not on that list. No prior security experience, no certificate you have to buy first, no card. Plenty of good officers come from retail, hospitality, healthcare support, warehouse work or the military, and the qualities that matter most are the ones nobody can certify: showing up on time, staying alert at 3 a.m., writing down what you saw, and defusing a situation instead of escalating it.
Should you pay for a course before applying?
Usually not. The 12 hours are a legal obligation your employer carries once they hire you, and a reputable company will arrange and pay for it. If you buy a course first, you may still have to document that it was board-certified and equivalent, and you will have spent your own money on something that was going to be provided.
There is a narrow exception. If you have genuinely completed certified training before, keep the certificate, because documenting it can save your new employer from putting you through the same 12 hours again. That is worth holding on to.
But the general rule stands: in Minnesota you do not buy your way in. You get hired, and the training follows.
What the work is actually like
Worth being honest about, because the job is often described as either dramatic or as sitting in a chair, and it is neither.
Most shifts are quiet. The value you provide is being visibly present so that the thing does not happen, and documenting the shift so the client knows what did. A lot of the work is walking a property in the cold, checking that doors that should be locked are locked, and writing it down accurately. The parts that are not quiet are usually about talking to somebody who is upset, and the skill there is de-escalation, not confrontation. Unarmed officers observe, document and call police when a situation crosses the line.
The shifts that exist are the ones nobody else wants, which is why flexible availability is worth more to an employer than a resume. If you can reliably work overnights and weekends, you are more employable in this field than someone with more experience and less availability.
Questions worth asking any security company before you take the job
Before you accept a security officer job
- Are you licensed with the Minnesota Board of Private Detective and Protective Agent Services, and what is your licence number?
- Who pays for the 12 hours of preassignment training, and when will I complete it?
- How do you handle the annual 6 hours of continuing training?
- What is the actual pay rate, and does it change for overnights, weekends or holidays?
- Are hours guaranteed, or is this call-when-we-need-you?
- Who supervises me, and who do I reach at 2 a.m. if something happens?
- Will I have written post orders for each site, or am I working it out on arrival?
- Are uniforms provided, and am I paying for any of my own equipment?
- Am I unarmed, and what exactly is the policy on intervening?
- Will I work the same sites consistently, or a different property every week?
A company that answers all ten of those clearly is a company that has its operation in order. Vagueness on training, supervision or the intervention policy is worth taking seriously as a warning.
Working with us
Priomh Security is a licensed, insured and bonded protective agent company based in Eden Prairie, covering the Twin Cities metro. We handle the background check and the state-required training. We provide uniforms. Every site has written post orders so you are not guessing on your first shift, and no officer works a site solo until they have completed a supervised shift there.
We are a small, growing, locally owned company, which means the person who hires you is the person who answers the phone at 2 a.m. If that sounds like the kind of place you want to work, the application is short.
This page explains Minnesota's licensing and training framework for private security as we understand it, and is general information rather than legal advice. Requirements are set by statute and administrative rule and can change. Confirm current requirements with the Minnesota Board of Private Detective and Protective Agent Services. Individual employer requirements vary and are set by each company, not by the state.