Reliable Guard & Patrol Service Inc. posts licensed armed and unarmed officers at Houston commercial sites: construction, warehouses, vacant buildings, retail centers, and offices. Texas DPS company license B07315701, active since 2018, with about 150 officers working across more than 100 active sites. Every patrol is GPS-tracked and written up as an incident report you receive. No long-term contract, and we issue a certificate of insurance the same day.
What "best" actually means for Houston security in 2026
The ranking lists for this search sort companies by Google review count and star average. That tells you a company has customers. It does not tell you whether the officer standing at your gate at 2 a.m. holds a current license, or whether last night’s patrol actually happened.
The ground has also shifted, and most of these pages have not caught up. Houston violent crime fell about 19% from 2024 to 2025, and kept dropping through the first quarter of 2026, according to Houston Public Media reporting on Major Cities Chiefs Association data. Homicides, robberies, and aggravated assaults were all down.
So why hire a guard at all? Because the Houston Police Department still runs roughly 1,200 officers below its authorized strength, close to 5,200 of about 6,400 funded positions, even after adding more than 400 cadets. When an alarm trips at a commercial property, that call competes with every other call in the city.
That gap is the real reason commercial sites hire private security in 2026. It is not a “Houston is dangerous” pitch. It is response time and site-specific risk: the copper on a construction site, the empty building nobody watches on weekends, the loading dock after the last truck pulls out. The best security company for your property is the one that covers that specific gap and can prove it did.
The 5-point test for vetting any Houston security company
Run this on us, and on anyone else you shortlist. It comes from what goes wrong on commercial posts, not from a sales sheet. Most “how to choose a security company” advice stops at step one. The other four are where the real differences show up.
1. A TOPS license, at the right level, right now
Texas security companies and officers are licensed through the Department of Public Safety and listed on the Texas Online Private Security portal (TOPS). Confirm the company license is active, and confirm the officer level matches the post. An unarmed (Level II) officer cannot legally work an armed post. Our company license is B07315701.
2. The disciplinary record, not just “active”
A license status is a snapshot, and it changes. DPS publishes disciplinary actions, including summary suspensions and denials for ineligibility. A firm can hold an active license and still have officers who were suspended last quarter. Ask for the DPS disciplinary history, and on any finalist, run a quick court and news search for the last 12 to 18 months. The five-star Google summary will not show you any of this.
3. A certificate of insurance with your name on it
General liability, workers’ compensation, and commercial auto, issued as a certificate that names your business as the certificate holder. A lapsed policy is your liability problem, not just theirs. We carry all three and issue the certificate the same day you ask.
4. Officer-level proof for armed posts
The company license is not the same as the officer’s commission. For an armed post, confirm the individual officer holds a current Level III commission, by name. We provide officer names on request so you can check them yourself.
5. Proof the patrol happened
This is the one almost nobody checks until something is stolen. Ask how the company documents each round. We use GPS guard-tour tracking, timed patrol rounds, real-time incident reports, and supervisor check-ins, and you receive the record. A drive-by every few hours with no log is not security you can defend to an insurer.
CALL US FOR SMART SECURITY SOLUTIONS
We Cover Houston, TX, Sugar Land, TX, Pearland, TX, Conroe, TX
How to check a Houston security license yourself
This takes about three minutes, and you should do it before you sign with anyone.
First, open the Texas Online Private Security portal (TOPS), run by the Texas Department of Public Safety. Second, search by company name or license number. Enter B07315701, or search “Reliable Guard and Patrol Service.” Third, confirm the license is active and free of open issues. A lapsed or missing license is a real insurance and liability problem for you, the client, not only for the company.
For armed posts, take one more step: ask for the officer’s name and confirm the Level III commission. We hand over names for exactly this reason. A company that will not let you verify its own officers is telling you something.
Get Your
Free Armed & Unarmed Security Proposal
Why Houston businesses choose Reliable Guard & Patrol Service
Why Choose Our Armed Guards:
01. Fully Licensed to Carry in the State of Texas
02. Background-Checked and Drug Tested
03. Trained in Firearms Handling and De-Escalation
04. Experienced in High-Risk Property Protection
05. Serving Houston Businesses for Over 20 Years
06. Corporate, Construction, Retail, and Event Coverage
07. 24/7 Coverage Including Holidays
Armed or unarmed, and which your site needs
Most commercial posts are unarmed. Here is the honest line on when armed is worth the added cost.
Choose armed when the site has cash on hand, high-value or easily resold assets, a history of violent incidents, or a credible, specific threat. Everywhere else, unarmed deterrence and documentation handle the large majority of commercial loss: theft, trespass, and vandalism, not armed confrontation.
It helps to know what you are actually buying, because a lot of buyers assume a guard has police powers. In Texas, a licensed security officer has a citizen’s authority to detain or arrest, no more. Under the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure, any person may make a warrantless arrest only when a felony or a breach of the public peace happens in their presence (Art. 14.01), and for theft, Texas lets any person recover stolen property and hold the suspect on reasonable grounds (Art. 18.16). A detained person is turned over to police without delay.
A Level III commissioned officer may carry a firearm on duty. That does not widen arrest authority. The difference is deterrence and the response option on a high-risk post, not extra legal power. An officer who oversteps that authority creates liability for the property owner, so training, clear post orders, and a written record are what keep a stop defensible later. That is the work behind the officer standard we hold every guard to before deployment. See how the two levels compare on our armed security guard in Houston page.
What we protect, and who we are not for
We staff two officer types across a short list of commercial site types, and we say no to the rest on purpose. Commercial posts are the whole business, which is why our officers know them. If you are weighing the options, our overview of the types of security guard services breaks down each post.
What we cover: construction sites, warehouses and distribution centers, vacant and commercial buildings, retail and shopping centers, and office properties. Armed or unarmed, on foot or vehicle patrol, set to what the site needs.
Who we are not for: we do not take residential or HOA work, and we do not staff events. We do not run K-9, fire watch, alarm response, or parking enforcement. If that is what you need, we are the wrong call, and we would rather tell you now than sell you a post we do not specialize in. A company that claims every service for every site is spreading its officers thin across work they rarely do.
Proof it works: five nights from our patrol logs
These are taken from our own patrol records, with client names and exact addresses removed. They are the reason a documented officer on site beats a camera nobody is watching. Every one was GPS-logged and written up as an incident report the client received.
Construction site. A pickup circled the site, then stopped near a gated entrance while the occupants studied the access points. The officer switched on the patrol vehicle’s emergency lights and moved toward the gate. The truck left. The officer logged the vehicle description and notified site management. No property lost.
Construction site. Two people carried materials toward the perimeter fence in an unlit corner of the lot. The officer lit the area with a spotlight and gave a verbal challenge. Both dropped the materials and ran. The officer recovered everything and called police and site management. The inventory check came back complete.
Construction site. On a scheduled round, the officer found a storage container forced open and a person pulling out rolls of copper wire. The officer called police, held visual contact from a safe distance, and fed updates to dispatch. Responding officers arrived and made an arrest. The copper went back to site management.
Vacant building. Two people were prying at a boarded rear window. The officer called dispatch and police, kept watch from cover, and ran the patrol vehicle’s lights. Both left before getting in. A later check found minor damage to the window covering and no entry. The officer secured the site and notified the owner.
Distribution warehouse. After hours, an unauthorized vehicle sat near the loading docks while a person tried a secured storage area by the dock doors. The officer called dispatch and the site supervisor, identified himself, and directed the person off the restricted area. The person left. A dock-and-gate check found no forced entry, damage, or missing inventory.
That written record is the point. It is what holds up with an insurer or in a dispute months later, long after the night itself is forgotten.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do you require a long-term contract?
No. You can run weekly, month-to-month, short-term, or long-term. We set the term to the job, not to lock you in.
How fast can you start?
In most cases, the same day. After the first call we put together a free proposal, and for some sites we do a short assessment before deployment.
Are you licensed, and how do I verify it?
Yes. Texas DPS company license B07315701. Search it yourself on the TOPS portal by license number or by “Reliable Guard and Patrol Service,” and confirm the status is active.
What’s the difference between armed and unarmed officers?
Unarmed (Level II) officers handle deterrence, access control, and observe-and-report on standard commercial posts. Armed (Level III) officers add a firearm for high-risk or high-value sites. Both work inside the same citizen-authority limits under Texas law.
Do you offer event security, fire watch, K-9, or residential service?
No. We focus on commercial posts: construction, warehouses, buildings, retail, vacant properties, and offices. We do not staff events or residential, and we do not run K-9, fire watch, alarm response, or parking enforcement.
Are your officers background-checked?
Yes. Before any officer works a post, we confirm the DPS license for the level, run a fingerprint-based criminal background check, complete drug testing, interview to company standards, and verify references. Armed officers requalify on firearm proficiency at each two-year renewal.
Do you have Spanish-speaking officers?
Yes. We staff bilingual officers across the metro, and clients tell us it matters most on overnight coverage.
How do you prove the patrols actually happen?
GPS guard-tour tracking, timed patrol rounds, real-time incident reports, and supervisor check-ins. You receive the record, not a verbal assurance.
Talk to us
Get a free proposal for your site. Tell us the property type, the hours you need covered, and whether the post is armed or unarmed, and we will scope it.