A Statutory Analysis of State Regulation of Security Guard Training Requirements

Abstract

Security guards outnumber police by almost three to one, and they perform many of the same functions as police officers and many even carry a firearm, but to what extent do states regulate the private security industry? Prior research has examined state statutes regulating security guard hiring requirements; this article builds on this research by examining state statutes regulating security guard training requirements. This article compares the change in state regulation of security guard training since 1999. We are interested in determining what threshold requirements the states have seen fit to establish for training in the security industry and whether these threshold requirements provide adequate protection for the public.