Mobile Patrol in Las Vegas, Nevada

Security licensing requirements in Nevada

Private security in Nevada is licensed at the state level by the State of Nevada Private Investigators Licensing Board. A legitimate company operating in Las Vegas holds a Private Patrol Officer licence — the business-level licence for a company furnishing watchmen, guards, patrol officers or bodyguards to others, which means it has cleared Nevada PILB's ownership, background-check and insurance requirements. Ask for that license number in writing and verify it yourself — a certificate on the wall tells you nothing about current standing, since a license can be suspended or revoked.

Guard credential

a PILB work card, registering the guard as an employee of a licensed agency

no statewide pre-licensing classroom-hour requirement for an unarmed work card appears on a PILB source; the board issues a study guide and processes the card through the employing licensee

Armed officers

an armed work card (an armed endorsement on the PILB work card)

eight hours of training and instruction on carrying, handling and using a firearm safely, including a written exam passed at 75% or better, plus a minimum of five hours of firing-range instruction qualifying with the same type and calibre carried on duty; requalification every six months · Minimum age 21

Insurance

a policy of insurance for protection against liability to third persons with limits of not less than $200,000, or proof of sufficient means to self-insure; the licence is automatically suspended ten days after notice that the insurance is not in effect

Renewal

Licenses renew annual — licences and pocket cards expire June 30 each year — check the issue date, not just the status.

How safe is Las Vegas? The data behind the decision

Las Vegas is policed by a consolidated metro agency, so it doesn't appear as a separate city in the FBI's national table. We use the city's own reported incident data instead, mapped to 10 LVMPD area command — which is the more useful view anyway, since risk inside a city varies far more than it does between cities.

Scope your coverage to the block you actually occupy, not the city average. The breakdown below ranks Las Vegas LVMPD area command from safest to most affected.