Edward W. Williams

I am a former Chief of Prosecutions at the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation. I have been prosecuting and then representing and defending licensed professionals, including Private Detectives, Private Security Contractors and Private Alarm Contractors since 1989. I have been offering these same Private Detective, Private Security Contractors exam preparation seminars for 30 years and Private Alarm Private Alarm Contractors exam preparation seminars for 18 years. On May 1, 2024, I retired from my law firm to concentrate solely on these classes.

These seminars are based upon over 5000 hours of source research and interviews and feedback of actual test takers from all over the country. We alone do this after every single exam. We track which questions are no longer being asked and which questions are new. This class will also provide specific areas of focus on all subjects tested, without which it is nearly impossible to pass on your first attempt.

For example, 23 questions on the Private Detective and Private Security Contractor exam are drawn from Illinois court and criminal procedure statutes. These statutes comprise nearly 600 fine-print pages in length. How does one even begin to diagram out the thousands of concepts that are contained within those 600 hundred pages and which are all fair game for the exam? Additionally, the Private Detective and Private Security Contractor exam applicants must thoroughly understand all provisions of the Illinois and United States Constitutions. Then an applicant must understand the arcane intricacies of the Illinois Private Detective, Private Alarm, Private Security, Fingerprint Vendor and Locksmith Act of 2004 (Act). Good luck with that one! Not even our fellow veteran IDFPR licensing defense lawyers tackle that Act; instead, they routinely referred their detective, security and alarm cases to my former partner and me.

Regarding the Private Alarm Contractor examination, the breadth of content one is required to digest to pass this exam is staggering. First, there are 2200 pages combined between the National Fire Alarm Code and Signaling Handbook and the Life Safety Code Handbook. Everything in those books is fair game. Then there are NFPA 730, 731, a chapter in NFPA 70, three other publications and sources before one then must begin tackling the Act. A daunting challenge indeed.

I teach this test-taking preparation class according to the principles and methodologies I learned while studying for the Bar examination many years ago from a company called Bar/Bri. I employ their proven strategies to assist people with creating new memories – not with just trying to get an applicant to memorize a long list of concepts from reading and rereading a long list of sentences and phrases. With as much material that an applicant must digest in order to pass any of these exams, that system simply does not work.

No one is better able to prepare you to take these licensing exams than me. I cannot guarantee that you will pass on your first attempt, but I will guarantee that you will have the best possible chance of success. I have a proven, demonstrable record of success. If you do not pass, you are grandfathered into the next class and thereafter until you do pass without cost.

If you have any questions whatsoever, feel free to call or write. There is no charge for any consultation.

Edward W. Williams