Armed Security License Renewal Class in Odessa, Texas

Before an Odessa officer buys a renewal course, there is one thing worth sorting out: whether renewal is even the right product. For some officers it is not, and the rule that decides has nothing to do with how the license looks today.

Find yourself in one of these three

1. Current commission, expiration coming up. Straightforward. You owe continuing education and the renewal course is built for exactly this.
2. Expired or inactive, but you never really left the work. Still the renewal conversation, though the timing rules below matter more than you might think.
3. Out of the industry for three years or more. This is the one that changes the answer. §35.141(d) provides that a person inactive or expired who has not been employed in the industry for three years or more must submit current training certificates to the department.

Notice what that third provision keys on. It is not the date printed on an expired commission. It is time spent out of the industry. In a town where people move between security work and a rig or a service company as the market moves, that distinction is not academic. If it describes you, the six-hour renewal is very likely the wrong purchase and the full Level 3 commissioned officer course is the more realistic route. We cannot make that call for you sight unseen, and neither can a checkout page. Ask before you enroll.

If renewal is the right answer, here is what it involves

§35.161(g) sets six hours of continuing education for commissioned security officers and personal protection officers, satisfied by completing the renewal portions of the Level III or Level IV training course, as applicable. The hours must be taught by department-approved training schools and instructors, and a commissioned officer must submit a firearms proficiency certificate with the renewal application.

Timing is its own trap. Under §35.161(n), continuing education counts only if completed within the two-year period preceding the license’s current expiration date: a validity window, not a standing instruction to renew every other year. And §35.161(a) prevents the renewal application from being submitted until the required hours are earned; your employer maintains the proof in your personnel file, and you indicate completion on the application.

Your employer cannot cover this for you

Larger Odessa contractors sometimes run their own in-house training and assume it takes care of everyone on the roster. It does not take care of armed officers. §35.162(d) states the in-house continuing education exemption for companies with ten or more licensed employees does not apply to commissioned security officers or personal protection officers, and §35.162(f) adds that credits earned through outside entities may not be used for them either. Whatever else a company provides, a commissioned officer’s six hours come from an approved school.

Who this does not apply to

Unarmed officers. §35.161(b) specifically exempts noncommissioned security officers from continuing education, so if you hold a Level 2 non-commissioned license and work unarmed posts, this requirement is not yours. It is also worth being precise about the two credentials that do share this pathway: Level 3 is the commissioned security officer and Level 4 is the personal protection officer, the bodyguard credential. They are separate qualifications, not two grades of one license, and each renews through the renewal portion of its own course.

Doing the classroom half from the Basin

Odessa is a long way from most of Texas, and the drive is the reason plenty of officers put renewal off until it is urgent. Our course runs 100% online, so the six classroom hours happen wherever you are. Between tours at a yard gate, at the kitchen table on a day off. The price covers the online training only. The in-person firearms qualification is not included and gets scheduled separately after you finish online. If you carry a shotgun on post, note that §35.146(b) sets a biennial familiarization of six rounds of “00” buckshot in connection with renewal of a commissioned security officer.

Keep your certificate, PSP 31, because §35.161(m) makes you responsible for holding certificates of completion for two years and furnishing copies to the department on request. You can read every provision cited here in 37 TAC Chapter 35, and our full class list shows what else we run if the renewal turns out not to be your course.