Shield of Steel Academy is the in-house training arm we built because contract training was failing us. PPSS-aligned pre-assignment courses, quarterly range qualifications, licensing liaison for TN DCI and the MS Board of Private Security, and corporate training for hospital, corporate, and school-district teams. Graduates get first look at open posts on our own roster.
Training was the first thing we outsourced when we opened in 2009 and the first thing we brought back in-house when it became clear the outside vendors were coasting. Candidates were passing courses they could not have passed again on a Monday morning. We rebuilt the curriculum against Tennessee Department of Commerce & Insurance (PPSS) statutory requirements, hired PPSS-registered instructors, and set our range standard above the state minimum. The officer who walks onto your property came through our classroom, our range, and our instructor's signature — not somebody else's.
The Academy exists because the training we contracted out between 2009 and 2017 was not good enough to put an officer on a hospital ED or a cash-room. These are the four failure modes that pushed us to build the classroom ourselves — and the standards we now hold the program to.
Contract vendors were hitting the statutory minimum on paper and the range in two hours. We saw candidates qualify on rented pistols they had never handled and walk out with a TN ASG endorsement. Our range block is now a full day, on issued duty sidearms, scored against an 80 percent B-27 standard — not the statutory 70.
Officers were graduating who could not explain, in plain English, the TN statutory force continuum or the meaning of Graham v. Connor. We rebuilt that module into eight classroom hours with a written practical at the end. No passing grade, no graduation — regardless of what the candidate did on the range.
De-escalation was a single PowerPoint slide in most contract courses. Our version is a 16-hour module with scenario drills, peer role-plays, CIT-informed theory, and a written case-study review. The goal is not a feel-good certificate — it is that the officer actually knows what to say in the first thirty seconds of an agitated contact.
Outside schools handed people a certificate and walked them out the door — no mentorship, no first shift, no follow-up. We use the Academy as our primary hiring pipeline, and a strong graduate is interviewed for a real post before they leave the building. Training that ends at the exam is training that hasn't finished yet.
Every course we teach maps to a real outcome — a TN or MS registration, an in-service renewal, a corporate training certificate, or a first shift on the Shield of Steel bench. The six pathways below cover roughly 98 percent of what moves through the classroom in a given quarter.
Statutory pre-assignment course for a TN Unarmed Security Officer registration. Covers legal authority, observation and reporting, emergency procedures, patrol tactics, radio discipline, and use-of-force doctrine at the unarmed tier. Classroom + written exam. Sits candidates for the TN DCI application on completion.
Full unarmed pre-assignment content plus the state-mandated 12-hour armed module, legal-authority expansion, Graham v. Connor, force continuum, and live-fire range qualification on issued Glock 17/19 Gen 5 platforms. Scored against an 80 percent B-27 standard — ten points above the statutory minimum.
Re-qualification block for currently endorsed armed officers — 25-yard static course of fire plus a low-light drill, 50 rounds issued, scored and signed by a PPSS-registered range officer. Results filed in the officer's personnel record and available on request for renewal paperwork.
Rolling calendar of in-service modules — use-of-force refresh, de-escalation recertification, first-aid / CPR / AED renewal, bloodborne pathogens, and incident-report writing. Each module sized to the hours required for TN and MS licence renewal cycles. Certificate issued on completion.
On-site training for hospital security teams, corporate security departments, schools, and property-management companies. De-escalation, workplace violence prevention, active-threat response, first-aid / AED, and custom modules built against the client's standard operating procedures.
Hands-on help with TN DCI and MS Board of Private Security paperwork — application packets, fingerprinting appointments, background-check explanations, renewal timelines, and endorsement transfers. We do not charge candidates in our hiring pipeline; for independent enrollees it's bundled into tuition.
The hours below are the published minimums for each major course — every cohort gets at least this, and most get more when a range day or scenario block runs long. Hours, topics, and instructor credentials are audit-ready and available on request for clients running corporate engagements.
From enrollment calls, corporate scoping conversations, and the pre-assignment paperwork desk. Same eight questions, asked in slightly different order, on every call. Direct answers below — specific to Tennessee + Mississippi law, our licensing posture, and how the Academy actually runs.
Individual enrolments for the next cohort are handled on a rolling basis — Academy staff will walk you through eligibility, cohort dates, and the TN DCI paperwork on the intake call. Corporate clients receive a written training proposal with scope, instructor bios, logistics, and per-seat pricing within five business days. No cost to enquire, no obligation.
