For those looking to enter the fields of private alarm contractor, private detective, or private security contractor, the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR) offers licensing exams twice a year in September and March. To assist those who are preparing to take a licensing exam, Edward Williams (formerly with Williams and Nickl) is again offering study-review sessions. I have helped hundreds of past participants successfully pass their licensing exam for over 30 years.
Scheduling dates for the prep class and the exam can be found at as well as all cost and registration information. Note that Continental Testing, IDFPR’s testing vendor, requires that an applicant has only ten days to submit any supplemental forms that are required to complete your application such as a verification of experience i.e. VE-DET, VE-DSC, VE-SAC, VE-PSF, or VE-PEC. If you miss that ten-day deadline, Continental will punt you six months to the next exam even though your application was on-time. Practice Tip: get all of your documents in by the end of June or December.
If you qualify for both the Private Security Contractor and the Private Detective licenses, you may choose to take a combination exam for both licenses at the same time. However, you must apply for each licensing exam separately. You will only be taking one exam, but you must apply and pay for each license fee separately. It helps if you understand that IDFPR sees you as two applicants, not one.
Our exam prep courses will be held via Zoom. You should have a good internet connection for the live video conference, which will include a lecture and interactive PowerPoint presentation. Visit our seminar page for more details on what each course will cover and prep course registration. There are also links to the license eligibility requirements and exam registration. There are multiple ways to qualify for each exam. If after reading my eligibility sections for your exam you are not sure or if you feel you fall into an eligibility grey area, feel free to call me to discuss. I would much rather you receive the correct information first before you mistakenly register and pay for my class and then find out later that you are not eligible. My credit card processor does not refund credit card fees which amount to approximately $60.00. There is never any charge for consultations.
In 30 years, we have helped over 1,950 private detectives and private security contractors pass their examinations. In the last 18 years, we have helped over 430 alarm contractor applicants pass their exams. While passing the examination is not guaranteed, we allow participants in our prep classes to retake the seminar as many times as they need to pass, without further fees. For those in need of additional help, we will provide limited one-on-one tutoring and analysis of what factors contributed to the fail attempt.
