“I finished Level 3, so I’m commissioned.” That sentence gets said in Lewisville break rooms more often than it should, and it is wrong in a way that can cost somebody a job.

Finishing the Course Produces a Document, Not a Credential

What you get at the end of Level 3 is a certificate of completion. The form referred to as PSP 30. It is proof that you completed an approved course to standard under the supervision of an approved school. It is not the security officer commission. The commission is issued by the Texas DPS Private Security Bureau after you apply, and until that happens you are a person who has completed training, not an officer authorized to carry on a post.

The distinction matters because the application itself has a requirement people miss. Under §35.81(a), the application for a security officer commission calls for copies of both the Level 2 and the Level 3 certificates of completion, plus the other items the department requires. Your Level 2 certificate is not retired when you go armed. It is half of the training evidence in your file. Two courses, two certificates, one application.

Three Numbers Worth Writing Down

• Seven days. Under §35.147, an approved school issues the original certificate of completion to a qualifying student within seven days of qualifying. You should not be chasing it for a month.
• Twenty-four months. The same rule requires the school to retain training records for 24 months. Your safety net if a certificate is lost, damaged or left behind in a move.
• Seventy-five percent. §35.144(c) sets the minimum passing grade on Level 3 and Level 4 school examinations at 75%, which is a higher threshold than the Texas License to Carry written test.

Those three numbers describe the whole administrative side of getting armed in Texas. Everything else is study and range time. You can read the sections yourself in 37 TAC Chapter 35 rather than taking anyone’s word for it, ours included.

What the Course Is, Precisely

37 TAC §35.141(a)(2) makes Level 3 the required training for anyone seeking a security officer commission, the credential permitting an officer to carry a firearm on duty, and for personal protection officers. The course material is prepared by and obtained from DPS, and it may only be taught by a DPS-approved school with a DPS-approved instructor. That closes off the in-house route that exists for Level 2, where a licensed company can use its own designee. For Level 3, there is no such option.

Part 1 is the classroom material, delivered 100% online here: the law governing armed security work, use of force, the duties that attach to a commission, and the written exam. 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. Under §35.145 that qualification may use the DPS Primary Issued Handgun Qualification Course or the DPS Approved LTC Course, and §35.146 sets out a shotgun course of fire for commissioned officers, so qualifying with a shotgun as well as a handgun is available to you.

One more label to keep straight, since job postings in the DFW area routinely blur it: 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). Signing up for the wrong one is an expensive way to learn the difference.

Why Lewisville Officers Bother

Lewisville sits in the thick of the north DFW corridor. Corporate office parks, data centers and technology facilities, large distribution and fulfillment operations along the interstate, big-box retail and a growing base of gated residential and mixed-use development around the lake. Armed contracts cluster in exactly those places: data center perimeters, high-value distribution, bank and credit union branches, and medical campuses. Moving from an unarmed post to a commissioned one is the single clearest step up the ladder available in this market.

Because the classroom half is online, you do not have to burn vacation days sitting in a room somewhere across the metroplex. Finish Part 1 on your own schedule, book the in-person qualification, assemble the paperwork. After that, the renewal course keeps the commission alive, and our full class list lays out the whole progression in one place.