South Dakota Doesn't License
Security Guards. We Train Like It Does.
There is no state board, no guard card, and no registry you can check. In a state with no licensing floor, the only real proof that an officer is trained is documentation a company can actually produce on request. Most can't. Here is exactly what ours do before they work your property, and exactly what we can hand you when you ask.
What “No Licensing” Actually Means
South Dakota maintains no statewide licensing scheme for security guards. Some municipalities run their own ordinances, but for most of the work happening around Sioux Falls there is no state board setting a minimum, no mandated training hours, and no registry a property manager can search before signing a contract.
This is not an argument that unlicensed states produce bad officers. Plenty of firms here hold themselves well above what any board would require. But the floor is at ground level, and a company content to operate there faces no obstacle at all. The screening function other states hand to a regulator lands entirely on the person signing the contract.
So the question worth asking every bidder is simple: show me the training record for the officers who will be on my property. Not a description of training. The record. It is a fair question, it takes one email to answer if the answer exists, and the silence that follows it tells you what you need to know.
Classroom Before Vehicle
Nobody gets handed keys and a clipboard and told to figure it out. Expectations are set in the classroom, in writing, before an officer ever sees the truck. That order is not a formality — an officer who learns the limits of their authority on the job learns them by crossing one.
Scope of authority — and its limits
What a security officer may lawfully do, and more importantly what they may not. Detention, trespass, and the line between presence and confrontation. This is the first module for a reason: most incidents that turn into liability start with an officer who thought they had authority they didn't.
Use-of-force law and de-escalation
The legal framework, the reporting obligations that follow any use of force, and — far more usefully — the verbal and positional skills that keep incidents from arriving there at all. The measure of a good officer is how rarely this training gets used.
Observe and report discipline
What to record, what to escalate immediately by phone, and what to leave alone. Officers are not police, and a patrol officer's value to a property manager is largely a function of what they notice and how clearly they write it down.
Incident documentation and reporting procedure
Writing a report that holds up when it is read months later by an insurer, an attorney, or a court. Timestamps, specifics, and the discipline of recording what was observed rather than what was assumed.
Emergency response and conduct on client property
What to do during a fire, a medical emergency, or an active threat, how to interface with responding units, and the standards of conduct expected on a client's site — including how to deal with residents and tenants who are having a bad night.
The Officer's Pledge
Before an officer works alone, they sign a written pledge acknowledging the standards they will be held to, recorded with name, timestamp, and IP. It is not a legal instrument. It is a moment where somebody has to read the expectations and put their name on them, which turns out to matter.
Only then does an officer ride along. Only after that do they patrol a property alone.
Why the Record Is Worth Anything
Most companies that claim to train their officers keep the proof in a spreadsheet, or in somebody's memory. Both fail at the exact moment they are needed. Ours is built to survive being read two years later by someone hostile.
- Version-locked results. Course content changes over time, which normally makes old records meaningless. Every version of every course is captured in a cryptographically hashed snapshot, and a passing result is bound permanently to the exact version and the exact questions that officer was served. The record doesn't say “completed patrol procedure.” It says which one.
- Enforced prerequisites. Advanced material is locked behind the foundational material it depends on. An officer cannot test past the basics, and the system enforces it rather than trusting anyone to remember.
- Recertification tied to decay, not the calendar. Stable, foundational material runs on twenty-four months. Perishable and life-safety material runs on twelve. Blanket short cycles on everything produce alert fatigue and box-checking, not safer officers.
- Tracked progression. Courses sit in tracks with Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced levels, and advancement is recorded automatically rather than informally remembered.
- Printable evidentiary records. Any client can request a printed training record for the officers assigned to their property — courses, dates, versions, current certification status.
The Question That Comes After an Incident
“Our guards are experienced”
No record, no versions, no dates. When an incident happens on your property and someone asks whether the officer was trained for it, the answer is a character reference. That is an argument, not a defense, and you are the one holding it.
A document you can hand over
Courses completed, dates, versions, assessments, current status. It answers the question in one page instead of starting a conversation between your insurer and a lawyer. You may never need it. The point is that it exists before you do.
There is a second reason this matters, and it is more predictive than the first. How a security company handles training is a fair proxy for how it handles everything else. A firm that tracks this rigorously tends to produce visit logs on time and supervise its officers on shift. A firm with no answer here usually has no answer about reporting or supervision either — you are just finding out earlier.
Training and Accountability, Answered
South Dakota doesn't license security guards. So how do I know yours are trained?
You ask for the record, and we hand it to you. Because the state maintains no board, no guard card, and no registry, the only meaningful proof is documentation a company can actually produce. Every Red Obsidian officer trains through our own platform, every completed module is recorded against the exact version of the material they were served, and any client can request a printed training record for the officers assigned to their property. A company that answers this question with "all our guards are experienced" is telling you they have nothing on paper.
What does an officer complete before they work a shift alone?
Classroom before vehicle, without exception. Before an officer is handed keys they complete foundational coursework covering scope of authority and its limits, use-of-force law, observe-and-report discipline, incident documentation, radio and reporting procedure, emergency response, and conduct on client property. They sign a written pledge acknowledging the standards they are being held to. Only then do they ride, and only after that do they patrol alone. Nobody gets dropped in a truck with a clipboard and told to figure it out.
What is actually in the training library?
More than forty-five courses across physical security operations, emergency response, legal and liability, documentation and reporting, patrol procedure, and site-specific requirements. Courses are organized into tracks with Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced levels, and prerequisites are enforced by the system — an officer cannot test into advanced material without completing what it is built on. Progression is tracked automatically rather than remembered informally.
How often does training have to be repeated?
It depends on how fast the skill decays and how badly it hurts to get it wrong. Foundational and stable material runs on a twenty-four month cycle. Perishable and life-safety material — the things that fade quickly and carry the worst consequences when they do — runs on twelve months. We deliberately avoid six-month cycles on everything, because blanket short cycles produce alert fatigue and box-checking without producing safer officers.
What does "the record is welded to the version" mean?
Training content changes over time. That creates a problem for anyone who later needs to prove what an officer was actually taught. Our platform takes a cryptographically hashed snapshot of each course version, and when an officer passes an exam, the passing result is bound permanently to that exact version and to the specific questions they were served. Two years later the record does not say "completed patrol procedure." It says which patrol procedure, in which version, with which assessment. That distinction matters the day someone asks.
Why does any of this matter to me as a property manager?
Because if something goes wrong on your property, the question that follows is whether the people covering it were trained and whether anyone can prove it. Documentation is the difference between a defensible position and an argument. It is also a fair proxy for how a company operates day to day — a firm that tracks training rigorously tends to track everything else the same way, and a firm that has no answer here usually has no answer about reporting or supervision either.
Are your officers employees or contractors?
W-2 employees. This matters more than it sounds. Contractor classification removes payroll taxes, workers' compensation, and unemployment insurance from a company's cost stack, which is one of the main reasons a suspiciously low hourly rate can be quoted. It also means that if a contractor is injured on your property, the workers' compensation system that would normally absorb the claim may not apply, and the question of responsibility lands between your insurer and a lawyer.
Can I see the training record for the officers on my property?
Yes. Ask and we will produce a printed evidentiary record for the officers assigned to your site, showing courses completed, dates, versions, and current certification status. We would rather you ask for it than assume it exists.
Do you train to a national standard or your own curriculum?
Our curriculum is built in-house and written against the work our officers actually do in this market — mobile patrol across large properties, stationary posts, alarm response, apartment and mobile home park coverage, construction sites, and event work. We build it ourselves because generic guard training written for a national franchise does not address a 700-lot property in a South Dakota January.
Where These Officers Work
Ask Us for the Record. Then Ask Everyone Else.
It is a fair question and it costs you one email. Walk your property with us and we will bring the training documentation for the officers who would cover it.