Almost every Irving student who calls about becoming an armed security officer arrives carrying at least one of the same three misunderstandings. Clearing them up first makes the whole path a lot shorter.

Misunderstanding One: That Level 2 Is Optional If You Want to Be Armed

It is the opposite of optional. Under 37 TAC §35.141(a)(1), Level 2 must be completed by anyone applying for a non-commissioned security officer license, and it is also the required first step toward a security officer commission. People read “non-commissioned” in that sentence, decide it is the unarmed track and therefore not their track, and skip it. Then the commission application stalls.

There is no version of the armed path in Texas that starts somewhere else. Prior military service does not substitute for it. Being a good shot does not substitute for it. If the destination is a commission, the Level 2 course is the door.

Misunderstanding Two: That Level 2 Involves a Firearm Somewhere

It does not, at any point. No firearms training and no firearms qualification is part of Level 2. There is no range day, no weapon handling and no defensive tactics component. Finishing it does not permit you to carry a firearm on duty, and it does not by itself lead to a commission. It is the first of two required courses, not a compressed version of both.

Here is what it does contain, and why it is worth your attention rather than your impatience. The material, prepared or approved by the Texas Department of Public Safety, covers Texas security law, the professional responsibilities of a security officer, emergency procedures, and ethics. The scope of your authority. What you can and cannot do. How an incident gets documented so it holds up later. An armed officer who is shaky on that is a liability to themselves and to whoever hired them, and the firearm makes every one of those questions heavier, not lighter.

Misunderstanding Three: That the Certificate Stops Mattering Once You Are Licensed

This is the expensive one. Your Level 2 certificate of completion, PSP 36 on this site, must be submitted with the license application, and most people file it and forget it at that point. But §35.81(a) requires the security officer commission application to be accompanied by both the Level 2 and the Level 3 certificates of completion.

• You keep the certificate. It is yours, not the employer’s.
• Keep a digital copy that survives changing jobs, phones and email addresses.
• Expect to produce it again at commission time, possibly years later.
• The underlying rules are public and worth skimming once, in 37 TAC Chapter 35.

Irving Is an Unusually Good Place to Do the Unarmed Stretch

The interval between Level 2 and a commission is the part people dread, and Irving softens it more than most Texas cities. The corporate office parks along the Las Colinas side of town run exactly the kind of posts a newly licensed non-commissioned officer is hired for. Lobby reception, badge desks, visitor management, access control, garage and campus patrol on foot. Add the hotel and conference traffic generated by the airport’s proximity, the medical offices and the distribution operations on the outer edges, and the volume of unarmed work here is substantial and reasonably steady.

Corporate accounts also tend to be the ones that notice professionalism. Presentation, report writing, the ability to defuse a situation at a desk without escalating it. Those are the same qualities that determine who gets offered an armed post later, which makes an Irving lobby assignment genuinely useful preparation rather than a waiting room.

No Continuing Education Until You Are Commissioned

A detail that surprises people: §35.161(b) specifically exempts noncommissioned security officers from continuing education requirements. Nothing recurring to maintain while you are unarmed. The continuing education obligation arrives with the commission, and from there the armed security renewal course is how you satisfy it.

Two Ways to Sit the Class, and Only One Way to Sit the Next One

Level 2 may be taught either by the licensee’s own designated person or by a DPS-approved school with a DPS-approved instructor, under §35.141(a)(1), §35.142 and §35.143. Some larger Irving contract firms use that in-house route, and it is perfectly valid. Level 3, by contrast, has no in-house option at all: the commission course always comes from an approved school.

East Texas Security Training Academy delivers Level 2 100% online, so distance is not a factor from the DFW side of the state. When you are ready, the Level 3 course is the second certificate §35.81(a) is asking for. The class list shows the full progression and the FAQ page handles the edge cases.