About HireSecurityNow.com and our editorial standards

Last updated: July 4, 2026

HireSecurityNow.com is a directory of licensed private security companies across the United States. We help businesses, homeowners, and institutions find and compare security providers, request free quotes, and check that a company holds a valid state license before hiring. We are part of a group that operates security marketplaces internationally. This page explains who we are, where our data comes from, and — most importantly — how we verify it.

How we verify companies

Every listing starts with official state license records. Our directory currently covers 18,429 companies across 12 states and 149 cities, built from the public registries maintained by state regulators — including the California Bureau of Security and Investigative Services (BSIS), the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS), the New York Department of State and the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR). Each profile shows the license information we found and when it was last checked. Because license status can change at any time, we always recommend confirming directly with the state regulator before signing a contract.

Separately, we maintain researched licensing requirements for 51 states — the regulator, the license a company must hold, guard and armed-officer training minimums, insurance floors and the official lookup URL. Where a state does not license security companies at all (Pennsylvania, Colorado and Missouri run on county or municipal models), we say so rather than sending you to a statewide registry that does not exist.

Who writes our guides

Our guides on hiring, pricing, and licensing are produced by the HireSecurityNow.com editorial team, drawing on state licensing rules and published market data. Our goal is not to promote any particular company, but to give buyers and providers neutral, accurate, and practical information. Among the sources we consult regularly:

• State licensing regulators — the 51 state agencies whose requirements we track, for license classes, training minimums and current license status.
• State statutes and regulations — the rules that govern private patrol operators, security guards, and armed services in each state, cited by section where we rely on them.
• Government labor data — such as U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics figures on security occupations and wages.
• FBI Crime Data Explorer — the reported-offense data behind our Crime Index. We publish the methodology and flag cities whose agency reporting is too sparse to draw conclusions from.

We publish under the HireSecurityNow.com editorial team rather than inventing individual bylines. Our guides are researched against the primary sources listed above and each one carries its own source list, so you can check our work rather than take our word for it. If you find something wrong, tell us — we correct it and update the page's last-reviewed date.

When a figure cannot be confirmed with an official source, we present it as a reference estimate and say so clearly.

Independence

HireSecurityNow.com is an independent platform. Our guides are editorial and are not sponsored by any particular security company. Our "best companies" rankings are based on merit and verification criteria; sponsored placements, where they exist, are always labeled "Sponsored" and never alter those rankings. We encourage you to compare several companies and confirm their license before hiring — you can do that with our license lookup and our directory of licensed security companies.

Important notice

Our content is informational and does not constitute legal, insurance, or personalized security advice. For decisions with legal or safety implications, consult a qualified professional. If you spot an error in any of our guides, let us know and we will fix it.