Level 2 Security Officer Class in Midland, Texas

Ask ten Midland applicants what they expect the Level 2 class to be about and nine will say rules and paperwork. The subject that surprises them is ethics: so let’s start there and work backwards through the curriculum.

Start With Ethics, Because That Is What You Are Being Hired For

A company does not really buy a person standing at a door. It buys the assurance that the person standing at the door can be trusted with the keys, the badge system, the camera feed, the visitor log and the knowledge of which parts of the site are empty at three in the morning. That is the product. The ethics portion of the Level 2 course exists because the product fails silently. Conflicts of interest, small favors, selective enforcement, the decision nobody would ever audit. It is a short block and it carries more weight than its length suggests.

Emergency Procedures: You Are the First Uniform on Scene

The second block deals with fires, medical emergencies, evacuations and severe weather. The premise is simple and a little uncomfortable: there is a window between when something goes wrong and when trained responders arrive, and during that window the officer on post is what the building has. People who have never met you will follow your instructions because of the shirt. The training is there to make sure the instructions are the right ones. A known sequence rather than whatever seems reasonable under adrenaline.

Professional Responsibilities: The Ninety-Nine Percent

The third block covers the ordinary substance of the role: observing and reporting accurately, controlling access, maintaining a visible presence that prevents problems rather than resolving them, and handling people who are frustrated with you for doing exactly what you were told to do. New officers underestimate this section because none of it sounds difficult. In practice it is the whole job, and it is what a site supervisor is actually evaluating.

Texas Security Law: The Line You Do Not Cross

The fourth block, and arguably the one with the highest stakes, is Texas security law. A licensed security officer is a private citizen doing a private job, not a peace officer, whatever the uniform suggests to a bystander. The course sets out what an officer may lawfully do, where the duty shifts to observe and report, and what belongs exclusively to law enforcement. The entire course material is prepared or approved by the Texas Department of Public Safety, and the governing rules sit in 37 TAC Chapter 35 for anyone who wants the primary source.

What Is Deliberately Absent

Four subjects, and not one of them involves a weapon. Level 2 is the entry-level, unarmed course and contains no firearms training and no firearms qualification of any kind. Completing it does not authorize carrying on duty and does not, by itself, produce a commission. It is the required first step toward one. If carrying is your goal, the Level 3 commissioned officer course is the training that a commission requires, and the armed security renewal course is what keeps it current afterward. In the Permian Basin plenty of officers stop at Level 2 and build a full career on it.

Then the Paperwork

1. Under §35.141(a)(1), Level 2 must be completed by anyone applying for a non-commissioned security officer license.
2. The course is taught either by the licensee’s own designated person or by a DPS-approved school with a DPS-approved instructor (§35.141(a)(1), §35.142, §35.143). Level 3 has no in-house option at all. This one does.
3. On completion you receive a certificate of completion, referred to here as PSP 36.
4. That certificate is submitted with your license application.

One more provision worth knowing about, because it removes an obligation people assume they have: §35.161(b) specifically exempts noncommissioned security officers from continuing education requirements. Nothing recurring, no hours to chase before an expiration date. Our FAQ page handles the follow-up questions that tend to come after that one.

Unarmed Work in the Permian Basin

Midland’s security market is shaped by the energy business and by how quickly the city fills and empties with crews. Corporate lobbies and badge desks in the downtown office towers, hotel front desks, hospital and clinic entrances, apartment and man-camp style residential communities, construction site access, retail centers and equipment yard gates. The great majority of these are unarmed posts staffed by non-commissioned officers. West Texas also has a long history of employers needing people quickly, which makes holding the license before you apply a genuine advantage.

East Texas Security Training Academy is on the other side of the state, but the course runs 100% online, so the geography is irrelevant. There is no drive to Odessa or Lubbock for a classroom seat. The full class list shows what comes after Level 2 whenever you are ready for it.