Hiring security in North Dakota? Here's who regulates it, what a company and its guards must be licensed to hold, how armed guards are permitted, and how to verify a license yourself in minutes.
Hiring a security company in North Dakota? Confirming its license is the single most important check you can make — it's what tells you the provider is lawful, insured, and accountable, and it shields you from the negligent-hiring liability that comes with putting an unvetted, uninsured operation on your property. This guide covers who regulates security in North Dakota, what a company and its guards must hold, how armed work is permitted, and exactly how to verify a license yourself.
In North Dakota, security is regulated by ND PISB. A company must hold a private security agency licence, required of any individual or entity hiring another person to perform private security services; the entity must designate a licensed qualifying agent, and guards hold a registration as an apprentice security officer, security officer or commissioned security officer — the agency is responsible for registering all its employees and independent contractors. Verify a license through ND PISB — Licensed Security Providers & Agencies directory (an alphabetical listing rather than a search box).
What makes North Dakota different
North Dakota is unusually clean for buyers: notwithstanding any other law or ordinance, no person may be required to obtain a licence to provide private security services in the state beyond the board's — so no city or county can layer on its own guard permit. Guards also climb a ranked ladder (apprentice, officer, commissioned), and only a security officer or above may be armed.
North Dakota is one of the few states where the legislature has affirmatively cleared the field: N.D.C.C. §43-30-05 provides that “Notwithstanding any other law or ordinance, a person may not be required to obtain a license to provide private investigative or security services in this state other than the license required by this chapter.” No city, county or campus can layer on a second guard permit, so the board's licence is the whole of the credential question. What the state builds instead is a ranked ladder — apprentice security officer, security officer, commissioned security officer — with hard hour gates between rungs, and only a security officer or above may ever be armed. The trap is financial, and it is a statute-versus-rule trap. Read N.D.C.C. ch. 43-30 alone and you will conclude North Dakota sets no insurance floor; the chapter genuinely names no figure. The floor lives one level down, in N.D. Admin. Code §93-02-02.1-12, which bars issuing any licence until the applicant files “a certificate of insurance … in the sum of three hundred thousand dollars of general liability with errors and omissions insurance.” Better still for a buyer, that same rule makes the policy directly actionable: it must provide “that any person injured by the breach of the conditions of the insurance policy may bring an action on that insurance policy in the name of the state of North Dakota for the use of the person so injured,” capped at the policy sum, and the underwriter may cancel only on thirty days' written notice to the board. So the $300,000 is not merely a licensing formality — it is a remedy you can reach. Ask for the certificate.
Who regulates security in North Dakota
Private security in North Dakota is regulated at the state level by the North Dakota Private Investigative and Security Board. A legitimate firm holds a private security agency licence, required of any individual or entity hiring another person to perform private security services; the entity must designate a licensed qualifying agent from ND PISB, meaning it has cleared the state's ownership, background-check, insurance, and record-keeping requirements. That license number is the first thing to confirm — ask for it in writing and verify it yourself on ND PISB — Licensed Security Providers & Agencies directory (an alphabetical listing rather than a search box) rather than trusting a certificate on the wall. The licensing authority can also suspend or revoke a license for misconduct, so a live status check tells you not just whether a firm is licensed, but whether it's in good standing.
What each security credential authorizes in North Dakota
"Licensed" alone doesn't tell you what an officer is actually cleared to do — North Dakota uses more than one credential, and they aren't interchangeable. Here's what each one authorizes:
| Credential | What it authorizes |
|---|---|
| Apprentice security officer | Security work only under direct onsite supervision until twelve hours of classroom or field training are completed within thirty days of registration |
| Security officer | Unsupervised security work, and the prerequisite rank for being armed; requires 1,000 apprentice hours plus thirty-two classroom hours |
| Commissioned security officer | Senior rank that may supervise field training; requires 3,000 further hours plus eighty classroom hours |
| Armed private security certificate | Carrying a firearm on duty; requires security-officer rank and peace-officer-equivalent firearms training |
Guards and training
Individual officers in North Dakota generally must hold a registration as an apprentice security officer, security officer or commissioned security officer — the agency is responsible for registering all its employees and independent contractors, and the state requires an apprentice security officer needs a minimum of twelve hours of classroom instruction or twelve hours of field training, completed within thirty days of registration, with field training supervised at no more than four trainees per officer; a security officer needs 1,000 hours of apprentice service plus a further thirty-two hours of classroom instruction; a commissioned security officer needs 3,000 further hours plus another eighty hours. A valid company license doesn't guarantee every officer on the roster is credentialed and trained, so confirm the guards actually assigned to your site hold current registrations — verifying the company and the people are two separate checks.
Armed guards and firearms in North Dakota
Arming a guard in North Dakota takes more than the base credential: an armed officer needs an annual armed private security certificate, available only to those who have reached at least the rank of security officer. Armed coverage also raises your exposure — a firearms incident can reach the client through vicarious-liability and negligent-hiring theories, and standard general-liability policies often exclude firearms — so confirm the specific armed credential (not just the base registration) and the firm's firearms coverage, and reserve armed posts for a documented threat. Our armed vs. unarmed guide covers the decision in depth, and you can compare armed security services directly.
North Dakota sets the armed guard standard by reference rather than by hour count. N.D. Admin. Code §93-02-02.1-08 makes it “unlawful for any individual, including agency personnel, to carry a firearm while providing private security services” unless that individual (1) “is in compliance with all existing state and federal laws governing weapons or firearms, including certification and licensing when necessary”; (2) “has completed the same requirements for firearms training as is required for North Dakota peace officers”; and (3) “achieved at least the rank of security officer as defined in section 93-02-02.1-06 and been issued an armed private security certificate.” The rule adds a failure ladder rather than an hour figure: fail the written examination or shooting course twice and you wait thirty days to retake, fail a third time and you wait a full year. Because the standard is borrowed from POST, it moves when peace-officer training moves — a buyer cannot pin it to a number from the rule text, and this record does not assert one. The civilian layer underneath is separate and much softer. 62.1-04-02(1) still bars carrying a firearm or dangerous weapon concealed without a licence or exemption, but 62.1-04-02(2) supplies the permitless route: an individual “who is not otherwise precluded from possessing a class 2 firearm and dangerous weapon license under this chapter and who possesses a valid driver's license or nondriver identification card issued by the department of transportation or by the individual's state or territory of residence may carry a firearm concealed.” Note what that condition actually is — a qualifying ID and eligibility, not North Dakota residency, and it is often misdescribed. The optional licences remain for reciprocity: per 62.1-04-02(4) the difference between class 1 and class 2 “is only the extent to which a holder of either license may be eligible to receive reciprocal rights in other jurisdictions,” and “the rights and privileges conveyed by a class 1 or class 2 … within the state are identical.” None of that substitutes for the armed private security certificate, which is the credential that actually authorises on-duty carry.
| On-duty carry | On-duty carry requires the board's annual armed private security certificate — N.D. Admin. Code §93-02-02.1-08 makes carrying a firearm while providing private security services unlawful without it, and it is available only to those who have reached at least the rank of security officer. The certificate is the security credential; a civilian licence or the permitless-carry route does not replace it |
| Armed permit | Training is set by reference: “the same requirements for firearms training as is required for North Dakota peace officers” (93-02-02.1-08(2)) — the rule states no hour count, so none is asserted here. Separately, civilian concealed carry is available without a licence under 62.1-04-02(2) to anyone not precluded from a class 2 licence who holds a valid driver's licence or nondriver ID. Optional class 1 (age 21; classroom instruction, open-book test, familiarity, actual shooting or certified proficiency exercise) and class 2 (age 18; open-book test only) licences exist chiefly for out-of-state reciprocity — 62.1-04-02(4) states their in-state rights are identical |
| Requalification | The armed private security certificate is ANNUAL — it expires with the board's licence year, so requalification is effectively yearly. The rule sets no separate requalification interval of its own beyond the peace-officer standard it incorporates; it does set retake waiting periods (30 days after a second failure of the written examination or shooting course, a full year after a third) |
| Other weapons | Governed by the “dangerous weapon” definition at N.D.C.C. §62.1-01-01(1), and the results differ sharply by weapon. BATONS are inside it — the definition expressly lists “any billy, blackjack, sap, bludgeon, cudgel, metal knuckles, or sand club” — so carrying a baton CONCEALED needs a licence or the 62.1-04-02(2) exemption, exactly as a handgun would. OC/CHEMICAL SPRAY is expressly outside it: the term “does not include a spray or aerosol containing CS … CN … or other irritating agent intended for use in the defense of an individual.” ELECTRONIC CONTROL DEVICES are outside it too — “nor does the term include a device that uses voltage for the defense of an individual” — with a narrow re-inclusion for a device that “uses a projectile and voltage”, but only “for an individual who is prohibited from possessing a firearm under this title” |
What security guards can and can't do in North Dakota
N.D.C.C. §29-06-20 is unusually generous by national standards: “A private person may arrest another: 1. For a public offense committed or attempted in the arresting person's presence; 2. When the person arrested has committed a felony, although not in the arresting person's presence; 3. When a felony has been in fact committed, and the arresting person has reasonable grounds to believe the person arrested to have committed it.” Note subsection 1 reaches any public offense in the officer's presence — North Dakota does not carve petty offences out the way South Dakota does. The catch sits in the force chapter, not the arrest chapter: 12.1-05-02(3) justifies force to effect an arrest only “when a public servant authorized to make the arrest or prevent the escape is not available” — so if police are reachable, a guard who goes hands-on to arrest is outside the justification. 29-06-21 requires the private arrester to state the intention and cause of arrest, and 29-06-23 requires them “without unnecessary delay” to take the person before a magistrate or deliver them to a peace officer. Retail detention is far friendlier, and for a contracted firm it is the key provision: N.D.C.C. §51-21-01(4) defines “merchant” to include not just the owner or operator but “any agent, employee, lessee, consignee, officer, franchisee, or independent contractor” of one — the words independent contractor pull a contract guard company squarely inside the privilege, which is exactly what most states' shopkeeper statutes fail to do. 51-21-03 then allows detention “on or off the premises … in a reasonable manner and for a reasonable length of time”, and 51-21-04 grants both civil and criminal immunity: a merchant who detains as permitted “may not be held civilly or criminally liable for any claim for relief allegedly arising from such detention.” (The older immunity section, 29-06-27, was repealed by S.L. 1975, ch. 454, §6 — so a citation to 29-06-27 is a tell that a source is decades stale.) On force, 12.1-05-06 is drafted impersonally and therefore reaches a guard directly: “Force is justified if it is used to prevent or terminate an unlawful entry or other trespass in or upon premises, or to prevent an unlawful carrying away or damaging of property.” 12.1-05-07(2)(c) extends deadly force to an individual in possession or control of a “place of work … or by an individual who is licensed or privileged to be there,” which is the clause covering a guard posted at a client site, though only against arson, burglary, robbery or a violent felony. Civil exposure is the subtle part. The chapter's default, 12.1-05-01(3), is that justification “does not abolish or impair any remedy for such conduct which is available in any civil action” — criminal justification alone buys you nothing in tort. 12.1-05-07.2 is the later carve-out that does: an individual who uses force as permitted under the chapter “is immune from civil liability for the use of the force,” and a court finding immunity “shall award loss of income, reasonable attorney's fees, court costs, and disbursements.”
Local requirements in North Dakota
Some North Dakota cities layer their own rules on top of the state requirements. If your site is in one of these, confirm the local layer too:
- All North Dakota cities and counties: Statutory exclusivity under N.D.C.C. §43-30-05: “Notwithstanding any other law or ordinance, a person may not be required to obtain a license to provide private investigative or security services in this state other than the license required by this chapter.” No municipal guard-permit layer can be imposed on top of the board's licence.
How to verify a security license in North Dakota
Verification takes only a few minutes and is the check that protects you:
- Get the license number in writing from the provider — don't accept a logo or a verbal claim.
- Open the official source — ND PISB — Licensed Security Providers & Agencies directory (an alphabetical listing rather than a search box), not a third-party directory.
- Confirm the record is active, unexpired, matches the exact legal business name and address, and shows no disciplinary action.
- Verify the officers — confirm each holds a current registration as an apprentice security officer, security officer or commissioned security officer — the agency is responsible for registering all its employees and independent contractors, plus the armed credential for any armed post.
- Confirm insurance and subcontracting — request a current certificate of insurance and confirm it meets or exceeds $300,000 of general liability with errors and omissions insurance. The figure is absent from the statute but fixed by rule: N.D. Admin. Code §93-02-02.1-12(1) bars issuing any licence until the applicant files “a certificate of insurance … in the sum of three hundred thousand dollars of general liability with errors and omissions insurance”. Subsection (2) makes it directly actionable — the policy must provide that “any person injured by the breach of the conditions of the insurance policy may bring an action on that insurance policy in the name of the state of North Dakota for the use of the person so injured”, capped at the policy sum, and the underwriter may cancel only on 30 days' written notice to the board. Ask for the certificate; it is a remedy you can reach, not a formality, plus workers' compensation, and ask in writing whether any of your posts will be subcontracted to another firm.
Re-verify at renewal. Renewal in North Dakota: annual — licences, registrations and armed certificates all expire September 30. A credential can also be suspended between renewals, so a check isn't one-and-done — re-check at renewal time and before signing a new contract.
Our national guide on how to verify a security company's license explains what to look for on the record; our hiring guide and cost guide cover the rest of vetting and pricing.
Class B misdemeanor. Providing a private investigative or security service without a current licence, violating the chapter or its rules, or falsely representing oneself as an investigative or security officer is a class B misdemeanor. Injunctive relief is available without proof of actual damages, and the board may issue citations carrying administrative fees of up to $250, $500 and $1,000 for successive violations. (N.D.C.C. §§ 43-30-10, 43-30-10.1). And the exposure isn't only the provider's — an operator who puts an unlicensed, uninsured guard on site inherits the negligent-hiring liability, which is exactly what a two-minute license check prevents.
Hire a licensed security company in North Dakota
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Frequently asked questions
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How do I verify a security company's license in North Dakota?+
What do armed security guards need in North Dakota?+
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Sources
- ND PISB — Licensed Security Providers & Agencies directory (an alphabetical listing rather than a search box)
- N.D.C.C. ch. 43-30 — Investigative and Security Services
- N.D. Admin. Code ch. 93-02-02.1 — private security services
- ND PISB — Licensed Security Providers & Agencies
- US Bureau of Labor Statistics — Security Guards
