“It expired, so I have to take the whole thing over.” We hear that from Pearland officers regularly, and it is often wrong: though not always, which is why it is worth ten minutes of your attention before you buy anything.
Expiration is not the thing the rule measures
The provision people are half-remembering is §35.141(d), and what it actually says is that someone inactive or expired who has not been employed in the industry for three years or more must submit current training certificates to the department. The measuring stick is time away from the work, not the date on the card. An officer who has been on armed posts continuously and simply missed a deadline is in a different position from one who has been doing something else entirely since 2022.
So there are genuinely two roads. One ends at six hours of continuing education. The other ends at the full Level 3 commissioned security officer course, taken again from the beginning. Which one is yours depends on facts about your own employment history that we cannot see from here, so confirm it with us or with the bureau rather than assuming. Nobody enjoys finding out after the fact that they bought the wrong course.
If you are on the renewal road
The hours and where they come from
§35.161(g) requires six hours of continuing education from commissioned security officers and personal protection officers, earned by completing the renewal portions of the Level III or Level IV training course, as applicable, and taught by department-approved training schools and instructors. A commissioned officer also has to submit a firearms proficiency certificate with the renewal application. Two further provisions rule out the shortcuts: §35.162(d) withholds the in-house exemption for companies with ten or more licensed employees from commissioned and personal protection officers, and §35.162(f) bars outside-entity credits for them.
When they have to be taken
§35.161(n) makes continuing education valid only if completed within the two-year period preceding the license’s current expiration date. Treat that as a window rather than a schedule. Hours taken outside it are simply not usable for this renewal. On the other end, §35.161(a) blocks submission of a renewal application until the minimum hours are earned, with proof kept by your employer in your personnel file and completion indicated on the application.
Who is exempt, and who is confused with whom
Unarmed officers owe nothing here. §35.161(b) exempts noncommissioned security officers from continuing education, so a Level 2 license renews without it. And Level 3 and Level 4 are not a ladder. Level 3 is the commissioned security officer; Level 4 is the personal protection officer, a separate bodyguard credential with its own course. They share a renewal pathway because §35.161(g) points each one to the renewal portion of its own course.
Pearland specifics
Pearland sits in a useful spot for security work: close enough to the medical corridor and the Ship Channel industrial belt to draw from both, with its own growing base of clinics, retail centers, distribution space and residential development along State Highway 288. Plenty of officers here hold a commission but work a mix of posts across Brazoria and Harris counties, which is exactly the pattern that makes renewal dates easy to lose track of. The obligation follows you rather than the employer, so a change of contract does not reset anything.
Our renewal course is 100% online for the classroom portion. The price covers the online training only: the in-person firearms qualification is not included and is scheduled separately afterwards. You receive a certificate of completion (PSP 31), which under §35.161(m) you keep for two years and furnish to the department on request; §35.162(b)(3) sets what it must show, down to your license number and the school director’s signature. If you serve in the military, §35.182 grants two additional years for a continuing education or other renewal requirement and §35.181 waives late-renewal penalty fees.
Verify any of this yourself in 37 TAC Chapter 35, and take licensing questions to the Texas DPS Private Security Bureau. Our class list shows both routes side by side if you want to compare before deciding.
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