How We Verify Security Training Schools

Every school on Security Training Finder starts as a record in a state regulator's official licensee file, not as a paid ad or a self-submitted listing. In California, that means the Bureau of Security and Investigative Services (BSIS) data published by the Department of Consumer Affairs. We then check each organization by hand to confirm it offers training to the public before we publish it. This page explains each step, what we can and can't tell you, and how to check a school's license yourself.

Where our data comes from

California's Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) publishes licensee lists for its boards and bureaus as downloadable files on its public information page. DCA says the data is refreshed automatically at the beginning of each month. The BSIS file includes each licensee's license type, license number, name, business address, county, original issue date, expiration date, and license status.

We use this file because it is the official, sanctioned way to get the data in bulk, and it is more complete than anything we could assemble ourselves. California state website content is public domain unless otherwise indicated, per the state's conditions of use.

Why we don't scrape the license search

DCA also runs an online license search. Its robots.txt file, the standard way websites tell automated tools what they may access, disallows automated access to license detail pages and downloads. We respect that. We don't crawl the license search; we work only from the published file. You, as a person, can still use the search to look up any license, and we encourage you to.

Which licenses we use

BSIS issues many license types. We only use the four that relate to training security officers:

All the ATG and ATP records we use belong to organizations with business addresses, so no individual's home address is published.

After removing duplicates, the California file contains 898 organizations holding at least one of these training licenses. If you're working toward a guard card, our guide on how to get a guard card in California explains which kind of training you need first.

Is it a school, or an employer training its own staff?

This is the most important check we do. A training license doesn't mean an organization will train you.

Many ATG and ATP license holders are employers approved to train their own security staff: hospitals, stadiums, shopping centers, utilities, and security companies. They're licensed and legitimate, but they don't sell courses to the public. Listing them as "schools" would send you to places that can't enroll you.

So before an organization is published, we research it individually. We look for evidence that it offers training to the public, such as public course listings, enrollment information, or a public phone number for class inquiries. We record the contact details and the source we used.

• Confirmed public training provider: eligible to be listed.
• Not open to the public: not listed.
• Can't confirm either way: held as pending, and not listed until we can confirm.

As of this update, we've researched 193 of the 898 California organizations. Of those, 106 were confirmed to train the public, 11 were confirmed not to, and 76 are still unresolved. We keep working through the rest, and we'd rather show fewer schools than list ones we haven't confirmed.

How we handle addresses and duplicates

PO boxes

Some licensees list only a PO box. We don't turn a PO box into a made-up street address. Instead, we place the listing at the city level and show no street line. If a listing shows a city but no street, that's why. Call the school to confirm where classes are held.

Deduplication

One organization can hold several licenses. A facility might hold both a firearm and a baton license, for example. We merge records that share the same normalized name, street address, and city, so each place appears once with all of its license numbers.

The same organization at two different addresses stays as two listings, because they're two places you could train. Schools with multiple locations can ask us to link them after they claim their listings.

What our listings tell you, and what they don't

Each listing cites the BSIS license numbers it is based on. What you should know:

• A listing is not an endorsement. We verify that a provider is licensed and trains the public. We don't rate course quality, and we don't publish reviews we can't verify.
• License status can change after our last update. Licenses expire, lapse, or are disciplined. Before you pay for a course, look up the license number with BSIS through DCA's license search and confirm that it's current.
• The state file has no contact details or schedules. Phone numbers, websites and course offerings come from our own research. Schools change these often, so confirm dates and prices directly.

Schools: claim or correct your listing

If you run a training school and your listing is missing, out of date, or wrong, or if you're an employer listed in error, contact us with your BSIS license number. Once a school claims a listing, our data updates from the state file never overwrite it.

More states are coming

California is our first state because its regulator publishes a complete, regularly refreshed licensee file. We're working on other states one at a time and will follow the same rules for each: start from the regulator's own data, respect each site's access rules, and confirm public training before publishing. Meanwhile, our state-by-state license requirements guide links to each state's regulator.

To find a verified school now, browse California schools or search by course and location.

Sources

• California Department of Consumer Affairs, Public Information – Licensee Lists
• California Bureau of Security and Investigative Services, bsis.ca.gov
• California Department of Consumer Affairs, License Search and its robots.txt
• State of California, Conditions of Use