The written exam at the end of your 8-hour course draws from two subjects: Powers to Arrest (3 hours) and Appropriate Use of Force (5 hours). This guide covers the concepts the exam returns to again and again.
You arrest as a private person — never as police
A security guard's arrest authority is exactly the same as any other private citizen's, under Penal Code §837. A guard card grants zero police powers. That framing decides many exam questions: if an answer implies special authority, it's wrong.
Under PC §837, a private person may arrest:
- For a public offense (misdemeanor) committed or attempted in their presence — you must have personally perceived it
- When the person arrested has committed a felony, whether or not in their presence
- When a felony has in fact been committed and they have reasonable cause to believe the person committed it
The misdemeanor rule is the tested one: witness reports, video footage, or a hunch are not "in your presence."
Arrest vs. detention
An arrest takes a person into custody, in a case and in the manner authorized by law. A detention is a temporary stop, short of arrest. The exam wants you to know that after a private-person arrest you must deliver the person to a peace officer without unnecessary delay — you cannot hold them for punishment, questioning strategy, or convenience.
Use of force: objectively reasonable, always minimal
The Appropriate Use of Force section tests a few core rules:
- Force must be objectively reasonable given the totality of the circumstances
- De-escalation comes first whenever feasible: time, distance, communication
- You may use reasonable force to effect a lawful private-person arrest and to defend yourself or others — never to punish
- Deadly force is a last resort, only against an imminent threat of death or serious bodily injury
- Positional restraint risks: prolonged prone restraint and pressure on the neck or back can kill — the exam expects you to know to reposition promptly
The duty to intercede
If another guard uses clearly excessive force in your presence, you are trained to intercede when it is safe to do so, and to report it. Answers that suggest looking away or deferring automatically to a senior guard are wrong.
How the exam works
52 questions, open book, and the passing score is 100% — the instructor reviews anything you miss and you correct your answers until the paper is perfect. That format means the exam is very passable, but employers and the state expect you to actually retain this material: it's what keeps you out of a false-imprisonment or excessive-force lawsuit.
Drill it until it's automatic
tessura's practice bank mirrors these topics with original questions, each carrying an explanation and a citation to the Penal Code or the BSIS training manual. Take the 52-question simulation until you clear it on the first pass.