In-person training locations: Culver City, LA & Sacramento
In-person training locations: Culver City, LA & Sacramento
BSIS licensed training facility ATG3001
To work as a security guard in California you need a security guard registration from BSIS. You have to be at least 18, pass a Department of Justice and FBI background check, and complete Power to Arrest training before the registration is issued. This page covers the job, the pay and the rules before you spend a dollar.
Training from
$79.99
$99.99
Wage and employment figures: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2025
Quick answer
To become a security guard in California, be at least 18, pass a California DOJ and FBI criminal background check, and complete Power to Arrest training. BSIS then issues your security guard registration, the card most people call a guard card. Initial training is 8 hours: 3 online and 5 in person. After registration you owe 32 more hours of training within six months.
The state does not issue a personal security guard licence. It issues a security guard registration, and that is the wording BSIS uses. It expires two years from the date it was issued, and you must carry the card while on duty.
Guard card is what employers and job listings say. Security guard license, security officer license and security license in California are searched constantly. They all mean the same document. If you have been searching one of those and finding nothing useful, that is why.
A Private Patrol Operator licence is a company licence, held by a business that supplies guards to clients for money. If you want a job as a guard you need a registration. If you want to own a guard company, that is the PPO licence, a separate application with its own requirements.
The California median. The mean is $44,920. The national median for the same occupation is $38,020, so California pays above it.
Metro medians from the same release. Armed posts, supervisory posts and specialized sites generally pay more than standard unarmed posts.
One of the larger occupations in the state, and one you can enter without a degree.
That is the statutory minimum for a security guard registration. The rule is different if you later want to carry a firearm on duty, which requires you to be 21.
Done by Live Scan fingerprinting, which you complete yourself at a Live Scan site. It is a separate step from your training, and no school does it for you.
Required before BSIS issues the registration. That is Part 1 of the initial training, and it is the piece you can do online.
Citizenship is not listed as a requirement anywhere in the BSIS security guard application. You do need a Social Security Number or an ITIN: BSIS states it is legally prohibited from processing an application without one of the two.
Under Business and Professions Code section 135.4, BSIS must expedite initial licensure for refugees, people granted asylum and special immigrant visa holders. Evidence is a Form I-94 with an RE or AY admission class code.
An employer is not one of the three eligibility requirements. You apply for the registration yourself. Employment matters afterwards, because some continuing training deadlines are counted from your employment date.
Initial training is 8 hours: Part 1, Power to Arrest, 3 hours online, and Part 2, Appropriate Use of Force, 5 hours in person. After you are registered BSIS requires 32 hours of security officer skills within six months, then 8 hours every year. Your training certificate is not the guard card: we issue the certificate, BSIS issues the registration.
Online start
Save 23%
The Power to Arrest training the state requires before your registration is issued.
3 hours · online
What most people need
Save 20%
The full 8 hours of initial training, which is what gets you to the application.
8 hours · online + in class
W/o Part 2
Save 17%
For anyone taking Part 2 elsewhere. Covers your first six months of continuing education.
35 hours · online
Best value
Save 46%
Your whole first six months of required training in one purchase.
40 hours · online + in class
After the guard card
You must be at least 21, be a US citizen or have permanent legal immigration status, already hold a qualifying BSIS registration, pass a DOJ and FBI check, and complete the Bureau firearms course with a written exam and range qualifications. It expires two years from issuance. Note the citizenship condition here, which the guard card itself does not carry.
To carry a baton on duty you must already be a registered guard and complete a course at a Bureau approved baton training facility. It expires after two years and by law cannot be renewed once expired, so a lapse means a fresh application.
We are an Approved Trainer Guard facility, license ATG3001. For a firearm or baton permit you need a Bureau approved firearms or baton training facility, which you can find on the state registry.
You may not carry a firearm or a baton on duty unless you are employed by a licensed private patrol operator, or by the state or a political subdivision of it. The same rule is why a registered guard cannot sell guard services independently: supplying guards for money is the business of a PPO, and that needs a company licence.
Part 2 in person
Part 1 runs online from anywhere in California. For the 5 hour Appropriate Use of Force class you come to a classroom, and we run two. Culver City is inside Los Angeles County and serves the LA area.
Yes. California does not issue a personal security guard license. The state issues a security guard registration through BSIS, and that is the card everyone calls a guard card. Security officer license and security license in California refer to the same document. The only genuinely different credential is the Private Patrol Operator licence, which a security company holds, not an individual guard.
The median wage for security guards in California is $43,240 a year, or $20.79 an hour, and the mean is $44,920, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics May 2025 Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics for occupation 33-9032. The national median for the same occupation is $38,020. In the Los Angeles metro the median is $40,030 and in Sacramento $39,460. Pay varies by post type and whether the position is armed.
The training itself is 8 hours: a 3 hour online Power to Arrest course and a 5 hour in person Appropriate Use of Force class. Beyond that the timeline depends on when you complete Live Scan fingerprinting and how long BSIS takes to process your application and the DOJ and FBI background check. That processing is handled by the state, not by us, and BSIS publishes its current processing timeframes on its own website.
No. You apply to BSIS for the registration yourself, and an employer or job offer is not one of the three eligibility requirements BSIS lists. Employment matters afterwards: BSIS notes that security guards are employed by licensed Private Patrol Operators or private security employers, and some of the continuing training deadlines are counted from your employment date rather than from your registration date.
Not as a freelancer selling guard services to clients. Supplying guards for money is the business of a private patrol operator, and nobody may engage in that business without a PPO licence. A registered guard works as an employee of a licensed PPO or a private security employer. You also may not carry a firearm or baton on duty unless you are employed by a licensed PPO or by the state or a political subdivision.
No. Citizenship is not listed as a requirement anywhere in the BSIS security guard application. The application does require a Social Security Number or an ITIN, and BSIS states it is legally prohibited from processing your application without one. Refugees, people granted asylum and special immigrant visa holders are entitled to expedited initial licensure under Business and Professions Code section 135.4. The firearms permit is stricter and does require citizenship or permanent legal status.
At least 18 to apply for a security guard registration. The age rule is different if you want to carry a firearm on duty: a BSIS exposed firearms permit requires you to be at least 21, and also requires United States citizenship or permanent legal immigration status, which the guard card does not.
No. Most posts in California are unarmed, and the guard card alone covers unarmed work. Carrying an exposed firearm on duty requires a separate BSIS firearms permit with its own age, citizenship, training, exam and range qualification requirements. Carrying a baton requires a separate baton permit. World Academia does not provide firearm or baton training, so those must be completed at a Bureau approved facility.
A security guard registration expires at midnight on the last day of the month two years after it was issued, unless it is renewed. You can check the expiration date on your own record using the state registry, and we explain how to look it up.
There are two separate costs: what you pay a school for training, and what you pay the state. BSIS charges $60 for the application and the DOJ and FBI charge $49 between them for fingerprints, plus a Live Scan site fee. We break every fee down on our guard card cost page.
