“Don’t pay for a class, the company handles it.” If you work security in Lubbock you have heard some version of that: and it is one of the few security-training rumors that is partly true, which is exactly why it goes wrong so often.

The Part That Is True

Level 2 has two lawful delivery routes, and most people only know about one. It may be taught by the licensee’s own designated person, or by a DPS-approved school with a DPS-approved instructor. That structure comes from 37 TAC §35.141(a)(1) read together with §35.142 and §35.143. So a company that has set this up properly really can train its own officers in-house, and anyone who tells you flatly that it must come from a school is mistaken.

This also makes Level 2 unusual. The Level 3 commissioned course has no in-house equivalent. That one runs through an approved school or it does not count. Officers who assume the same flexibility carries upward are in for a surprise later.

The Part That Is Not

“Signing you off” is not a thing. The in-house route means a designated person actually delivers the course and you actually walk away with a certificate. A verbal assurance, a note in a personnel file, or a manager vouching for your experience is none of those. The practical test is simple: at the end of a legitimate Level 2, whoever taught it, you hold a certificate of completion, PSP 36 on this site, and that certificate has to be submitted with your license application. If nobody can hand you one, nothing has happened.

Three More Things Worth Straightening Out

1. It is not a firearms class. Level 2 is the unarmed course. No firearms training and no firearms qualification is part of it, and finishing it does not let you carry on duty or make you commissioned.
2. It is not a License to Carry. An LTC is a personal permit. A security officer license is an occupational credential issued through the Texas DPS Private Security Bureau. Neither one substitutes for the other.
3. It does not drag continuing education behind it. Noncommissioned security officers are specifically exempt from continuing education requirements under §35.161(b). The CE obligation belongs to the commissioned side, which stays current through the armed renewal course.

What the Course Actually Teaches

Material prepared or approved by the Texas Department of Public Safety, covering Texas security law, the professional responsibilities of a security officer, emergency procedures, and ethics. Under §35.141(a)(1) it has to be completed by anyone applying for a non-commissioned security officer license, and it is also the required first step if a commission is in your longer-term plan. The full rule text is public in 37 TAC Chapter 35 if you would rather read it than take anyone’s word for it.

Working Unarmed on the South Plains

Lubbock is the hub for a very large and very empty stretch of West Texas, and that shapes the security work available. A major university and its student housing, a regional medical district that serves patients from hours away in every direction, agricultural processing and cotton facilities, energy and wind-service operations out on the plains, distribution warehouses, big retail corridors and a busy events calendar. Nearly all of it staffed by unarmed officers on gates, lobbies, badge desks and patrol-and-report rounds.

Distance is the other West Texas fact of life. Lubbock is a long way from most Texas training providers, which is part of why so much of what officers here know about licensing arrives as hearsay. East Texas Security Training Academy runs Level 2 100% online, so the drive is not a factor at all. Our FAQ page handles the questions that usually follow, and the full class list shows what comes after this one.