TCOLE Does Not License Off-Duty Security. Occupations Code §1702.322 Does.

TCOLE does not license off-duty security jobs. The Texas Occupations Code does, through Chapter 1702, and DPS Private Security administers it. Full-time peace officers who meet Occupations Code §1702.322 may work as a patrolman, guard, watchman, or extra-job coordinator without a private-security license. That exemption is narrow. It is not a blanket pass to run an investigations company on the side.

Read §1702.322 and the DPS Private Security page before you tell a class they “don’t need a license.”

DPS states the conditions. The officer must work as a peace officer an average of at least 32 hours a week, be paid at least minimum wage for those peace-officer duties, and receive the employee benefits that agency offers its officers. The officer may not be a reserve. The officer may not be employed by another peace officer. The work may be direct to the client or through a licensed security company. The exemption does not cover other Chapter 1702 services, including investigations. DPS has also stated that personal-protection work can fall under the “guard” language when the officer already meets §1702.322. That is a DPS interpretation dated 2020. Confirm it against the current page before you teach it.

Agency extra-job orders still apply. The statute is an exception to private-security licensing, not a substitute for the chief’s off-duty policy, workers’ comp rules, or uniform restrictions. Coordinators should put the Occupations Code cite and the DPS URL in the lesson plan, not a help-desk phone number as the whole article.

Sources: DPS, Texas Peace Officers and “Off-duty” Private Security Employment; DPS, Peace Officers’ Extra-Employment as Personal Protection Officers; Occupations Code §1702.322.