How To Start A Security Company in Oregon (2026 Guide)

Oregon is one of the friendlier states to break into if you have never run a security company, and that is deliberate policy. It does not ask you to have spent years in the industry first.

What it asks instead is proof you can pay your guards, real liability cover, and a person in charge who has sat through the training. The Department of Public Safety Standards and Training runs all of it, from the company licence down to the card in each guard's wallet.

The whole path, in order

Two steps below carry the whole schedule, and both are training-calendar problems — solved by booking early, not by working harder.

1. 1

   Executive manager licensed

   3–6 weeks

   Blocks everything downstream — start it early

   Whoever will represent the company to DPSST completes the 14-hour unarmed basic classroom course, then the online manager course and exam, then files Form PS-24. Oregon sets no experience-hour floor for this role, so the constraint is finding a certified instructor with an open date, not accumulating years.

2. 2

   Entity licensing exam passed

   One sitting

   Free, self-service, delivered through Workday. Under ORS 181A.904 it tests the prevention of sexual assault, sexual harassment and discrimination in the workplace — not business law. You need 80% and you must sit it inside the 60 days before you file.

3. 3

   Entity registered with the Secretary of State

   1 week

   Articles of Organization or Incorporation with the Corporation Division at $100. Your general liability certificate and wage-payment instrument all have to name this exact registered entity, so lock the legal name before you start ordering paperwork.

4. 4

   Wage security and insurance placed

   1–3 weeks

   Blocks everything downstream — start it early

   A corporate surety bond, irrevocable letter of credit or trust agreement at your headcount tier, plus general liability at $1M/$2M naming the entity as primary insured. DPSST publishes its own bond, letter of credit and trust forms — brokers who improvise their own wording get the packet bounced.

5. 5

   Application filed with the $936 fee

   Same day

   Application, exam certificate, wage instrument, insurance certificate and a tax compliance certificate go in together. DPSST may then issue a Temporary Authorization Form, which is a written permit to operate while the file is reviewed.

6. 6

   Guards certified or working on PS-20 permits

   2–8 weeks

   Each unarmed guard completes 14 hours of basic classroom instruction, assessment and exam. Your licensed manager can issue a Form PS-20 temporary work permit that covers 120 days, so hiring does not have to wait for cards to arrive.

7. 7

   Armed capability added, if you sell it

   4+ weeks

   A further 24 hours of basic firearms instruction, a written exam, a safe gun handling test and marksmanship qualification, at 21 years old minimum. No temporary permit exists for armed work, so an armed contract cannot be staffed at short notice.

8. 8

   Trading, and renewing every 1 July

   Ongoing

   Oregon's entity licence year is fixed, not rolling. Diary the renewal for the spring, keep the wage instrument matched to headcount as you grow, and re-file PS-24 whenever your executive manager changes.

Step 1: License Your Executive Manager

Oregon defines the executive manager as the person who represents the company to DPSST, hires and fires, manages certified professionals and bears final responsibility for compliance. Every licensed entity has one, and if you own the business it is you.

What Oregon does not ask for

No 2,000-hour requirement, no supervisory-experience log, no years-in-the-industry test. ORS 181A.865 holds an executive manager to the same qualifications as an entry-level professional: the unarmed basic course, the manager course and exam, a clean criminal history check, a diploma or GED.

In California that experience bar is what stops most first-time owners. Oregon has no equivalent.

The 48-hour filing

Form PS-24 must reach DPSST within 48 hours of the executive manager beginning employment or a contract, and again each time you change managers. Nor can a solo operator get by on a professional certification: under OAR 259-060-0015, contracting independently requires the manager licence. If you plan to borrow someone else's manager, check their load first — OAR 259-060-0130 caps an executive manager at ten entities at any one time.

Step 2: Form Your Legal Business Entity

Register with the Oregon Secretary of State's Corporation Division before anything else touches paper. Articles of Organization and Articles of Incorporation both cost $100, with a $100 annual renewal either way, and no minimum franchise tax of the kind California charges.

LLC or corporation in Oregon?

Either satisfies DPSST, so the choice is a tax and liability question, not a licensing one. Precision matters more: the name on your Articles must appear as primary insured on the liability certificate, as principal on the wage instrument, and on the entity application. An assumed business name is fine at $50, but keep the legal name on compliance documents.

Note too that SB 300, in force since 1 July 2025, widened the definition of a private security entity to catch anyone who for pay recruits, solicits, supplies or employs private security providers for another person, as well as anyone who subcontracts the work out. A staffing or broker model does not sit outside the scheme.

Step 3: Wage-Payment Security and Insurance

Here Oregon diverges from its neighbours. Most states want a surety bond protecting clients. Oregon wants proof you can pay your own staff.

Proof of ability to pay wages can be a corporate surety bond, an irrevocable letter of credit, or a trust agreement holding cash. The amount tracks headcount: $5,000 at ten or fewer employees, $10,000 at eleven to twenty, $20,000 at twenty-one to fifty, $30,000 above fifty. Post cash and DPSST releases it only against a final wage-claim order from the Bureau of Labor and Industries.

General liability is separate: $1,000,000 per occurrence and $2,000,000 aggregate, entity named as primary insured. Use a carrier that writes guard services — standard commercial policies routinely exclude the work.

Step 4: Pass the Entity Exam and Apply to DPSST

The order catches people out, so be clear: the entity licensing exam comes before the application, not after it. No invitation letter, no fee. You register in Workday, take it online, score 80% or better. The certificate is an attachment to your application, and only valid if the exam was taken within the 60 days before you file.

Key tips for your application

• Assemble all five attachments first, with the entity's legal name character-identical across them. The tax compliance certificate is the one filers have never heard of.
• Use DPSST's own bond, letter of credit and trust templates, not a broker's house form.
• Ask about the Temporary Authorization Form once the fee clears. It is why Oregon launches faster than the paperwork suggests.

What it actually costs

Oregon's headline number is high and everything under it is low: no separate issue fee, no exam fee, no franchise tax floor.

Step 5: Certify Your Guards — and Arm Them Correctly

Unarmed certification is 14 hours of classroom instruction, assessment and exam; the card runs two years and renews on a four-hour refresher. Alarm monitors take a shorter 12-hour path, and Oregon licenses its own online Event and Entertainment class for venue staff.

Armed work is a different order of commitment: a minimum 24-hour firearms course on top of the 14 unarmed hours, a written exam, a safe gun handling test, marksmanship qualification, annual requalification, minimum age 21. Two rules deserve attention. ORS 181A.906 requires training with a firearm matching the make, model and caliber the guard will carry — issue a new sidearm and you have created a training gap. And armed certification does not authorise concealed carry; that takes a concealed handgun licence from the county sheriff.

One more line before you quote an event: crowd management and guest services staff can work uncertified provided one certified professional is on site per ten or fewer of them, in constant contact. That ratio decides whether a festival bid is viable.

Step 6: Go Live Across Oregon's Metros

Roughly half the state's population sits in the Portland metro and the contract market follows it — Portland, Gresham, Hillsboro, Beaverton — with Salem's government and healthcare campuses and Eugene's university work next, and Bend growing fast east of the Cascades.

• Because ORS 181A.895 preempts local regulation, one DPSST licence covers all of them. No Portland permit, no Multnomah County registration.
• Put a Google Business Profile live in each metro you genuinely staff, and collect reviews from the first client you keep.
• Salem and Eugene reward specialisation — public-sector and campus procurement runs on cycles you can plan a year ahead.

Step 7: Build Smart, Not Fast

The company you are licensing is a payroll business wearing a security uniform. Oregon puts workers' compensation on you from the first employee under ORS 656.023, with no small-employer grace band, and BOLI enforces wage and hour rules with appetite. Not coincidentally, that is why DPSST wanted your wage instrument.

Set the habits early: written post orders, shift records you can produce on demand, incident reports a client's insurer would accept. Staffing across the Columbia into Vancouver? Read the Washington guide first — nothing transfers. Same over the Snake River in Idaho, or south into California and Nevada. For the employment side, our labour law and onboarding guide covers what trips up new operators everywhere.

Your launch checklist

Tick these off as you go — progress saves in your browser, so you can leave and come back to the same place weeks later.

Bonus: Use Technology to Stay Compliant

Oregon's rules are legible but evidential — a 120-day permit window, a two-year certification clock, annual firearms requalification, a wage instrument that moves with headcount. Guard management software like Safetrac holds those dates and the shift records behind them in one place. See how it works.

Final Thoughts

The interesting thing about Oregon is what it chose to regulate. Not experience, not municipal paperwork, and not a waiting period before you can trade. What it polices is whether your guards get paid, whether firearms training matches the weapon on the belt, and whether the person in charge knows harassment and discrimination law well enough to pass an exam on it.

That is a state which decided the real risk here is how operators treat their own staff. Build around that and licensing is the easy part. Get it backwards and Oregon has handed your guards, and the public, a formal way to object.

Resources & Links:

• DPSST Private Security Entity Licensing Application
• DPSST Proof of Ability to Pay Wages
• DPSST Training and Fee Requirements
• DPSST Certification and Licensing Fees
• Oregon Secretary of State Business Registry