Every badge desk and gatehouse in Frisco is staffed by someone the state has licensed. A contractor cannot hand you that post first and sort the license out later: which is why the training comes before the offer.

The Employer Has No Discretion Here

People sometimes read the license requirement as a company policy that a sufficiently keen candidate might talk their way around. It is not. Private security is a licensed occupation in Texas, administered by the DPS Private Security Bureau, and the security firm carries the consequence of an unlicensed officer standing a post. A branch manager who wants you on the schedule still cannot put you there. That single fact determines the order of operations for anyone breaking into this field.

Frisco Is a Lobby-and-Gate Market

This matters more here than in a lot of Texas cities, because of what Frisco is made of. The city has grown into a dense cluster of corporate campuses, headquarters relocations, mixed-use developments, professional sports and entertainment venues, hotels, medical offices and large retail. Plus construction sites in near-permanent rotation as the build-out continues north. The security work that generates is overwhelmingly the unarmed kind: reception and badge desks, tenant access control in office towers, hotel and event concourse posts, parking structures, construction site check-in and residential community patrols. A non-commissioned license is the credential that opens all of it.

Level 2 Is the Course That Gets You There

Under 37 TAC §35.141(a)(1), the Level 2 course must be completed by anyone applying for a non-commissioned security officer license, and the same rule makes it the required first step toward a security officer commission. The material is prepared or approved by the Texas Department of Public Safety and covers Texas security law, the professional responsibilities of a security officer, emergency procedures, and ethics. On finishing you receive a certificate of completion, PSP 36, which has to be submitted with your license application.

Set expectations correctly on one point. Level 2 is the unarmed course: it carries no firearms training and no firearms qualification, and it does not by itself authorize you to carry on duty or make you commissioned. If a job advert implies otherwise, the advert is describing a different license.

School or In-House, and Why the Choice Is Not Neutral

Level 2 has a feature the commissioned course lacks: it may be taught either by the licensee’s own designated person or by a DPS-approved school with a DPS-approved instructor (§35.141(a)(1), §35.142, §35.143). Both are legitimate. But the in-house path only opens after someone has already hired you, and hiring is the thing the license gates. Taking the course through an approved school turns you into a licensed applicant rather than a hopeful one, and the certificate stays with you across employers. Useful in a metro where officers move between contracts regularly. The rule language is public in 37 TAC Chapter 35.

One more piece of good news for the unarmed side: under §35.161(b), noncommissioned security officers are specifically exempt from continuing education requirements. The recurring training obligation people associate with this industry attaches to commissioned officers, not to you.

Finish It Online and Go Apply

East Texas Security Training Academy delivers Level 2 100% online, so there is no classroom to drive to and no scheduling conflict with a current job. When and if armed posts become the goal, the commission comes through the Level 3 course, and the renewal course is what keeps a commission in good standing after that. If you are unsure where you fall, the FAQ page is the fastest way to check, and the full class list shows the whole progression in one place.