The things we would tell you even if you never hired us.

01

How much does a security guard cost in Louisiana?

Almost nobody in this state will tell you. Of fifteen Louisiana security companies we reviewed, exactly one published any rate at all. Here is the whole picture, including the number below which nobody can legally operate.

The market range

Published 2026 industry cost guides put unarmed guard bill rates at roughly $22–$35 per hour nationally and armed at $32–$50, with the South Central region toward the lower end of both. Aggregated New Orleans market data clusters around $35–$50 per hour. The single Louisiana competitor who publishes a range advertises $24–$50.

Mobile patrol is priced differently and is the best-value option for many properties: nationally around $20–$40 per visit, or a monthly figure by frequency. A patrol program typically costs about a third of what a standing post costs for the same property, because you are buying unpredictability rather than continuous presence.

The floor, and why a cheap quote should worry you

Louisiana guard wages average roughly $14.63/hour unarmed and $16.91 armed statewide, closer to $17 and $21 in New Orleans. Loaded labor, payroll taxes, workers' compensation, unemployment insurance, runs about 1.35 times the wage before a company has paid for a supervisor, a uniform, general liability insurance, or the office. That arithmetic means an unarmed post billed under roughly $20 per hour cannot be covering all of it.

When a bid comes in under that line, the money is coming out of something: officers paid below market who leave in six weeks, 1099 classification that voids the insurance, or officers working before their state registration is filed. All three become your problem, not the vendor's.

What moves your number

• Armed or unarmed. Armed officers cost more to hire, train, requalify and insure.
• Hours per week and shift length. Four-hour minimums are standard industry-wide; recurring weekly coverage earns the best rate.
• Differentials: overnight, holidays, and short-notice starts all cost more because they cost the vendor more.
• Standing post versus randomized patrol versus a blend of the two.
• Distance from the vendor's staffed cities, a post two hours from anyone's roster is priced for the drive.
• Contract length. Long terms usually buy a lower rate; decide whether that trade is worth it to you.

Six questions to ask before you sign anything

1. What is the hourly rate, and what is the minimum shift?
2. What are the overnight, holiday and short-notice differentials, in writing?
3. Who pays for overtime if you ask me to add hours inside 24 hours?
4. What happens if an officer does not show up, how fast is a replacement, and do I get billed?
5. How often do you bill, and what are the late-payment terms?
6. How much notice do I have to give to end this?

Our own quotes are written for your specific site and come back in 2 business hours through the quote form.

02

Hurricane season security checklist for Louisiana businesses

The security problem in a hurricane is not the storm. It is the two to six weeks afterwards, when your property is dark, your staff are displaced, and normal policing is consumed by life-safety calls. After Hurricane Ida, Orleans Parish logged well over a hundred looting incidents and the city imposed an overnight curfew.

Before June 1, the part almost everyone skips

• Sign a storm-standby agreement with your security vendor that fixes the rate and the scope in advance. When a storm is named, every business in South Louisiana calls at once; contracted clients get staffed first, and everyone else negotiates in a seller's market.
• Decide, in writing, who has authority to activate coverage and at what trigger (a named system in the Gulf, a watch, a warning).
• Photograph the property inside and out with date-stamped images. This is your insurance baseline and it takes an hour.
• Confirm the vendor's certificate of insurance is current and names your entity.
• Write down the contact tree: owner, manager, vendor, insurer, adjuster, utility, with mobile numbers that work when the office phone does not.

When a storm enters the Gulf (about 5 days out)

• Activate the standby agreement and confirm the officer roster in writing.
• Confirm fuel: generators, patrol vehicles, and enough on hand that nobody is sitting in a fuel line during the window that matters.
• Notify your insurer that you are pre-positioning protection; some policies care.
• Order supplies now, plywood, straps, fuel cans, batteries, while they exist.

72 to 24 hours out, lockdown

• Secure or remove everything loose outside: signage, furniture, pallets, dumpsters, scaffolding, cones, portable toilets.
• Move equipment and vehicles to higher ground and photograph where you put them.
• Board or shutter openings, and check that every exterior door and roof hatch latches.
• Remove cash, back up and remove records, elevate anything that matters on the ground floor.
• Run a final documented walk with photographs of each secured area, and agree the exact time your officers stand down. No property is worth a person, and any vendor who promises officers on post through the eye of a storm is either lying or reckless.

The first 72 hours after

• Re-staff the post as soon as roads and curfews allow, this is the highest-risk window for looting and for trespass by opportunistic "contractors."
• Control access. Everyone entering gets logged: employees, adjusters, contractors, utility crews.
• Escort your insurance adjuster and photograph the walk-through.
• Protect the generator and the fuel. In a wide-area outage, fuel is the most stolen item on a commercial property.
• Document everything with time-stamped photos. Carriers deny what is not contemporaneously recorded.

Details on how we staff storm work are on the hurricane and disaster response page. Standby agreements are signed in the spring; ask about one on the quote form.

03

How to verify a licensed Louisiana guard company

Eleven of the fifteen Louisiana security companies we reviewed do not publish a license number anywhere on their site. That is not proof of anything by itself, but it means the burden of checking falls on you. It takes about ten minutes.

The eight-point check

1. Company license. Ask for the license number issued by the Louisiana State Board of Private Security Examiners and look it up on the board's public licensee listing. Numbers appear either as a short numeric code or in a PSE-YY-CO-NNN format. Ours is issued; ask us for the number and check it against the listing before you sign.
2. Officer registration. Every officer must be registered with the board, with fingerprints submitted for state and federal background checks, and must carry the card on duty. Ask what happens between hire and card issue, the correct answer involves a temporary registration card and a filing inside 20 days.
3. Training. Louisiana requires 8 hours of board-approved training within 30 days of hire and 8 more within 60 days, each with an exam. Ask who pays for it. If the answer is "the officer," expect turnover.
4. Armed credentials. Armed officers must be 21 or older, complete board-prescribed firearms training and range qualification before an armed post, and requalify annually. Ask to see a requalification record, not a promise.
5. General liability. The state floor is $500,000 with the State of Louisiana named as an additional insured, covering hiring, training and retention, errors and omissions, firearms, and care, custody and control. Most property managers and general contractors require $1M. Ask for a certificate naming your entity, not a generic one.
6. Workers' compensation. Mandatory in Louisiana from the first employee. An uninsured injured officer on your property becomes your exposure. Ask for the policy.
7. W-2, not 1099. The licensing board has stated that officers must be W-2 employees; 1099 guards are not covered under the company's general liability policy. Ask directly, and ask about event staff specifically, that is where the exception usually hides.
8. Uniform and vehicle compliance. Louisiana prohibits "Police" wording, SP or SO badges, and red or blue emergency lights on security vehicles, and requires the company name on uniforms. If a vendor's own marketing photos break those rules, that tells you how they treat the rules you cannot see.

Two questions that reveal more than the paperwork

"Who supervises this post, and how often do they visit unannounced?" A named person with a schedule is a different company from "our operations team."

"What happens at 2 a.m. when my officer does not show up?" Listen for a specific replacement window and who answers the phone. If the answer is a call center and a promise to look into it, you have your answer.

Every one of these eight points, answered for us, is on the about and licensing page.

04

Fire watch: when Louisiana requires it and what the log must show

Fire watch is the most time-critical service on this site. The call usually comes late on a Friday, usually by someone who found out an hour ago that they need it. Here is the shape of the requirement so it does not surprise you.

When a fire watch is typically required

• Sprinkler impairment. Under NFPA 25, a sprinkler system out of service beyond the standard's threshold, commonly more than 10 hours in a 24-hour period, requires either evacuation of the affected area or an established fire watch.
• Fire alarm impairment. An alarm system out of service is treated similarly; your fire marshal or insurer will usually specify.
• Hot work. Welding, cutting, grinding and torch work generally require a fire watch during the work and for a defined period after it stops.
• Occupancy and event conditions. Some assembly occupancies and temporary conditions draw a fire watch requirement from the authority having jurisdiction.

The exact interval, scope and duration are set by your authority having jurisdiction, the Louisiana State Fire Marshal's office or your local fire department, and sometimes by your insurance carrier. Confirm it with them. No security company, including us, can define your requirement for you.

What a fire watch officer does

• Patrols the impaired or affected area continuously on the required interval, with no other duties assigned.
• Knows the location of extinguishers, standpipes, exits and the fire alarm pull stations before the watch begins.
• Has a reliable means of notifying the fire department immediately.
• Logs every single round, in writing, as it happens.

What the log must show

Inspectors and carriers ask for the log first. It should record, at minimum: the date; the time each round started and finished; the specific areas covered; the name and signature or initials of the officer; any hazardous condition found and what was done about it; and any notification made to the fire department or building management. Keep it on site and keep it legible.

What to have ready when you call for fire watch

1. Site address and how to get in after hours.
2. Which system is impaired, when it went out of service, and the expected restoration time.
3. What your authority having jurisdiction has told you to do, interval and area.
4. An on-site contact and their mobile number.
5. Any site hazards or PPE requirements.

We staff fire watch as part of construction and job-site security, frequently the same day it is ordered. Every watch is quoted in writing; for an urgent watch, call (504) 236-4820 rather than using the form.

05

What property managers should require in a security contract

Security contracts are usually written by the vendor, for the vendor. These ten clauses move the risk back to where it belongs, and none of them is unreasonable to ask for.

1. Post orders as a signed exhibit. Duties, tour route, checkpoints, escalation ladder and after-hours contacts, attached to the agreement and revised only in writing. Without this, "the officer was supposed to check the pool" is an opinion.
2. Certificate of insurance naming the right parties. Ownership entity and management company as additional insureds, general liability limits stated, workers' compensation confirmed, and a requirement to notify you if coverage lapses.
3. W-2 warranty. A clause stating that all personnel assigned are W-2 employees of the vendor, covered by its general liability and workers' compensation. This closes the single largest gap in the industry.
4. Licensing warranty. All officers registered with the state board before their first shift, with records produced on request.
5. Replacement-officer window. A stated number of hours to fill a no-show, and no billing for the uncovered time. Vague "commercially reasonable efforts" language means no remedy.
6. Incident reporting service level. Written report with photographs within a defined window, two hours is achievable, and immediate verbal notice for anything involving injury, weapons or law enforcement.
7. Proof of service. GPS- or checkpoint-verified evidence that rounds occurred, delivered on a schedule you can forward to ownership without editing.
8. Change-order process. Added duties or hours get priced and approved in writing. This protects both sides from scope creep that quietly becomes an expectation.
9. Termination for convenience. Thirty days' notice, either party, with no penalty. Multi-year lock-ins with liquidated damages exist to protect vendor revenue, not your property.
10. Rate review, not rate surprise. A defined annual review tied to wage movement, rather than a mid-term increase letter.

One more thing worth adding

Name the supervisor. Put a specific person's name and mobile number in the agreement, along with how often they will visit the site unannounced. Everything else on this list is paperwork; that clause is the one that changes what happens at 3 a.m.

We build all ten of these into our standard agreement. See how it works for apartments, HOAs and property managers.