Thank you so much for taking the time to visit our site and providing us with the opportunity to offer our easy and fun courses to help you get certified quickly. We are excited to offer an online version of the Texas DPS-RSD official Level 2 Non-Commissioned training course, and the Level-3 Commission security course to you. We have also just released an online version of the Pepper Spray, Handcuffing, and Baton courses to get you certified on the go!
Sign up on the Courses page tab above or use the class links at the bottom of this page.
Texas Certified Tactical Academy (TCTA) is a Texas Department of Public Safety-approved and licensed training academy. We have an actual Brick and Mortar location in Round Rock/ Pflugerville, Texas, with Board-Certified instructors, and a professional, state-of-the-art classroom.
2025- Now celebrating over 13,000 security officers trained, which has been our honor to do it!
Many security companies find it easier to have their employees/officers take these online courses in their office or at home for speed and convenience. Although we do recommend taking in-person courses as we feel you get more value and training experience, we understand security companies might not be able to take their staff off of the schedule, plus pay for travel time, lodging, and send them to long, drawn-out courses while trying to maintain coverage at their clients’ sites; this is exactly why we offer these basic courses as an option to get you going and quickly.
We do not have third parties run our site or our business like most other online courses do.
Unlike other online courses out there, we are not a website administrator that operates or maintains an automated website from our home (often out-of-state or in another country) and just collects checks. Often, with those guys you are not even dealing with actual instructors after their site was created. In our case, you will be interacting directly with our licensed, certified, and English-speaking staff/instructors throughout the process, located here in Round Rock/Pflugerville, Texas (the same ones you will meet in the classroom). Your interaction with our staff even online, and via email, will only be with our experienced industry professionals as we do not pawn off our interaction or administration tasks with our students to non-industry experienced employees like other online courses do. This means your emailed questions to us are being answered and responded back to by the instructors or industry experts that work here, and not a secretary, spouse, basic staff member, or just a web host who knows nothing about the industry; you are getting it from the real deal here.
We absolutely are not just cutting and pasting a generic class given to us by DPS or something that we found in a textbook somewhere and taking your money (like some other online courses have done). We have put a lot of time, effort, and added a great wealth of information into each and every course that we have posted here for you, because we care about this industry, you, your company, and your clients.
We provide the full class (buyer beware of other online schools)- shots fired!
Some other schools running online Level-3 Commission courses in central Texas are not providing you with the full course. After you pay them for Part-1 online (they call theory), they tell you to go find another security school to complete Part 2 (range qualification, weaponless defense and other topics), whereas you absolutely are going to be charged TWICE by the second school and is simply a ridiculous process. How is that not ‘bait and switch”? At best very questionable to say the least when a few say or advertise ” earn your license from home”– how on a Level-3 class??
Several schools and instructors have been lying directly to their customers’ faces to explain away what they feel is a minor inconvenience having their paying customers go attend two separate schools to be taken care of as far as their Level-3 Commission class they sold them.
They’re informing their paying customers that all they need to do is show up at our doorstep for a ‘firearm proficiency’ go to the range, shoot, and in 20 minutes they’re done, and they can leave. That is absolutely FALSE and these other training academies, and their instructors know it. A ‘firearm proficiency’ consist of several hours of classroom, range qualification, and now weaponless defense, this is not a short “20 minute” process (or just a trip to the range), they mislead their customers to believe. These other schools leave their paying customers hanging and hand them a DPS form with two signature blocks missing signatures and expect us to sign off on part of their form (cover them because they cannot fulfill the full program). We then get their students arriving here confused or frustrated and we have to get them back on track.
We will provide the full Level-3 Commission class from A-Z. You don’t need to go to two different locations or pay twice going through us.
The real questions are who are these instructors/schools (term used loosely), where are they? Has anyone seen them? Do they have a real office/classroom or are they just running a website from who knows where? It is baffling that these guys are running a ‘school’ and charging money for a Level-3 Commission class but don’t take you to the range, and don’t provide weaponless defense (required by Tx DPS). Then hand their customers an incomplete form that DPS will reject unless all blocks are signed off on, and after charging their customers a fee they send you to their competition to finish the blocks of instruction they are unable or unwilling to provide? How is this ok? What a mess and clown show-they all feel this is ok to do this to the guards and it 100% is not ok. Why are they uninterested or unable to do it correctly? Do they lack range instructor licenses and/or Weaponless Defense instructor TX DPS credentials? Is the actual licensed instructor not available anymore? Do they not have a classroom to training anyone, so it is all online? Is it that they are no longer training anyone and they just collect a paycheck for the automated online part that runs itself? Someone needs to look into these locations, something is off and fishy. A certified range instructor would have no issue taking his/her class to the range, so this is baffling they are not, and directs them to another school. Loads of students are arriving here seeking help after being bamboozled elsewhere, and we are honored to get them taken care of. They all leave here saying: ” I should have come here first“-every last one of them said this.
Either way we feel this is a great inconvenience (and cost) to the student who now has to deal with two different security schools and pay two different fees.
We don’t play these shenanigans with our customers or their security agencies as we are a one-stop-shop, and we’ll take care of everything from A-Z (as all ‘schools’ should be)
We provide free weapon rentals (handguns and shotguns) if needed for range qualification day.
Level-2 and Level-3 courses are authorized to be taken online as Texas DPS-RSD regulations no longer state that it “must be given in a classroom environment” (they removed the statement years ago). This opens the door to an online class for the Level-2 Non-Commission, and Level-3 Commission courses (although to note, we are a certified school with certified instructors). Level-3 Commission range qualification cannot be done online.
These courses comply with the State’s minimum course regulations; also, several schools have been offering the Level-2 Non-Commission and Level-3 Commission courses online or partially for years, so this is not a new concept – as is the case for online LTC classes found all over the internet with DPS approval.
The Level-2 non-Commission class, Handcuffing, Pepper Spray, and Baton can all be completed in a day and they are 100% online.
Parts of the Level-3 Commission course still must be given in person, but a good 50% can be given online and save you 2-3 days of being in a classroom. The Level-3 Commission course is done in two parts:
Part 1: Online at your home or job site to read and review the course material (which should take a couple of days).
Part 2: You must come to our classroom for the hands-on portion of the course to cover: Weaponless Defense, Baton, Pepper Spray, Handcuffing, Firearms (with range qualification), and the state exam. These are done in two jam-packed full days, and at the end, we hand you your training certificates.
The days of sitting in a classroom for 4-5 days (often not being paid by your employer) are over. We listened to our customers, observed other schools, and double-checked the regulations on this; as such, here you go… a course and timeline that makes sense.
This is the perfect process for students with police, military, or prior security experience as you no longer have to sit through 5 painful days of “security 101” and can simply read through the site on your own, come for two days, test out, and leave… Too Easy.
We deeply value your business and look forward to a continued relationship with you.
“I took their Level III course two years ago. It was good quality training. However, what was more impressive, was the promise kept of free recertification two years later for my renewal.” – Lee Sodic
“The actual best training in the entire state. The range instructor was very patient and helpful showing me everything needed on the range.”– Rick White
Texas DPS-RSD required notice to all students and employees of guard companies that are seeking a license:
Please be advised under the Private Security Act (Occ. Code Chapter 1702) and Administrative Rule 35.4 (37 Tex. Admin. Code 1), a criminal “conviction” may disqualify you from a registration, commission or license under the Act (not traffic tickets). You may wish to review Rule 35.4’s list of disqualifying offenses and the related periods of ineligibility, available on the department’s website at http://www.dps.texas.gov/rsd/psb/index.htm. You also have a right to request from the department a criminal history evaluation letter under Occupations Code Section 53.102.
Texas Certified Tactical Academy TX DPS-RSD # F09418701