We are an East Texas school, so Longview is not a market we found on a map: it is down the road. And the question we field most often from officers here has nothing to do with shooting: it is “what do I actually have to hand in?”

Armed Work in Gregg County Looks Like This

Longview’s security work follows Longview’s economy, and that economy is industrial. Pipe yards, fabrication shops and oilfield service operations run along the corridors out toward Kilgore and Gladewater, there is manufacturing and rail on the east side, and the I‑20 and US 259 routes keep freight and distribution moving through around the clock. Layer on the regional hospitals and medical offices, the bank and credit union branches, the retail along Loop 281 and the utility and pipeline facilities scattered across the county, and you get a market where a fair share of the posts that pay best are the ones that specify an armed officer.

Those industrial and utility contracts are also the ones with the tightest documentation habits. A contractor working a plant gate or a yard after hours is usually working under a client that audits files. Which brings us to the part of Level 3 nobody advertises.

What Turns a Finished Course Into a Commission

The certificate is called PSP 30

Complete Level 3 and you earn a certificate of completion, referred to on the site as PSP 30. Say this part out loud a few times: the certificate is not the commission. It documents that you completed a DPS-approved course to standard. The security officer commission, the credential that lets you carry on duty, is issued by the Texas DPS Private Security Bureau when you apply and the department approves it. Nobody at a school can hand you a commission.

Seven days to issue, two years on file

§35.147 gives the school a deadline and a duty. The original certificate of completion goes to a qualifying student within seven days of qualifying, and the school keeps training records for 24 months. In practice that second half rescues somebody every few months. A certificate gets soaked in a truck, or lost in a house move, or left with an employer who closed up shop, and the record is still retrievable because the rule requires it to exist.

The application wants both certificates

This is the single most common stumble we see. Under §35.81(a), the application for a security officer commission requires copies of both the Level 2 and the Level 3 certificates of completion, along with the other items DPS lists. The Level 2 certificate stays live in your file forever. Going armed does not retire it. If yours came from a company you left in 2019 and you never got a copy, start hunting now, not the night you sit down to fill out the application.

The Course That Produces That Paper

Under 37 TAC §35.141(a)(2), Level 3 is required for anyone seeking a security officer commission and for personal protection officers. The material is prepared by and obtained from DPS, and the course may only be taught by a DPS-approved school using a DPS-approved instructor. That is stricter than Level 2, where a licensed company can use its own designee in-house. For Level 3 there is no in-house shortcut, which is precisely why the certificate carries weight.

It runs in two parts. Part 1 is the classroom side, the law governing armed security work, use of force, the duties that attach to a commission, and the written exam, and we deliver it 100% online. Part 2 is in person: defensive tactics, firearms handling and a firearms proficiency exam. The online course price covers the online training only. The in-person firearms qualification is scheduled separately and is not included, so treat it as its own appointment on the calendar.

The Exam Threshold Is 75%

§35.144(c) sets the minimum passing grade on Level 3 and Level 4 school examinations at 75%. Plenty of students arrive expecting the standard they remember from their License to Carry class; this one is higher, and the written portion deserves real study rather than a skim on a lunch break. The range side is friendlier territory for most East Texas students, who tend to have grown up around firearms: under §35.145 the qualification may use the DPS Primary Issued Handgun Qualification Course or the DPS Approved LTC Course, and the format is close to identical to the LTC proficiency exam. §35.146 also lays out a shotgun course of fire for commissioned security officers, so you have the option to qualify with a shotgun in addition to a handgun. All of it is public. Read it in 37 TAC Chapter 35.

Because §35.144(c) names two courses in one breath, people assume they are steps on one ladder. They are not. Level 3 is the commissioned security officer course. Level 4 is the personal protection officer course, the bodyguard credential, separate, with a minimum of fifteen classroom hours under §35.141(a)(3).

After the Commission

A commission is a thing you maintain, not a thing you collect. The armed security renewal course is what keeps it current once you have it, and the same habit of keeping copies of everything applies for the rest of your career. If you are weighing where to start, or you are not sure whether your old Level 2 still counts, our FAQ page covers the usual cases and the class list shows everything we run out of East Texas.