IAPSC membership is open to full and part-time security consultants who meet the following qualifications:
Applicants must have at least one of the following:
- A baccalaureate or higher degree from an accredited college or university
- Eight years of direct, broad security experience
- One of the following certifications:
- Certified Protection Professional
- Physical Security Professional
- Certified Security Consultant℠
- Certified Information Security Systems Professionals
- Other certifications (accepted at the discretion of the Membership Committee)
Applicants must have at least five years of broad security experience in paid positions¹, demonstrating increasing responsibilites² with at least three years of management³ for higher levels. Time submitted in fulfillment of this requirement may not be used to substitute for the educational requirement above. In no case will the five-year security experience requirement be waived.
Consideration will also be given to the following cases:
- An otherwise-qualified Security Consultant, who in some rare instance, has no prior qualifying experience, but who has fulfilled the criteria of an independent Security Consultant, as defined elsewhere in the By-Laws, for five or more years prior to date of application.
- In the event an applicant was hired directly into a top security management position of an enterprise or institution, and served at least five years as such, the requirement of this section is considered fulfilled without the necessity of demonstrating increasing responsibilities.
- Those practitioners/applicants whose sole expertise has been in the development of specialized technological aspects of architectural or engineering security design, access control, or specialized electronic or computer security application, not necessarily in management positions, but who otherwise meet the five-year criteria.
The following practice requirements also apply to Active and Associate members. They do not apply to Internal Consultant members as long as such services are used internally and not offered for a fee to others outside the members organization:
Shall be individuals, not companies or firms, who engage fully in the activity of management consulting, specializing in:
- Security management
- Loss prevention or security training
- Information security
- Security equipment system technical design
- Evaluation, specification and integration
- Forensic consulting
May not be known or advertised as an investigator, except for the purposes of developing information to complete their surveys, design or testimony¹.
May not engage in any of the following activities:
- Sale or installation of any security equipment, including alarms systems, access controls, access controls, closed circuit television systems, contract guards, or strike forces
- Surveillance
- Skip tracing
- Repossession of property
- Standalone civil or criminal record checks or other background checks
- Providing undercover or bodyguard personnel
- Detection of deception, including polygraph services, paper and pencil honesty testing, voice stress analysis, handwriting or grapho-analysis, or any other means
- Have any form of affiliation with a product or service that could be construed as a conflict of interest
- Be an employee of, be employed by a subsidiary of, hold a direct financial or controlling interest in, or participate in the management of a business entity that manufactures, distributes, sells, installs, maintains, or in any way provides services or products whose activities are prohibited by the IAPSC By-Laws. Members shall be permitted to provide marketing, design or product analysis consulting services to such entities for fee compensation, provided that Members disclose all activity as described in Section A2 (L) of the By-Laws.
May not have been convicted of any felony or any crime involving moral turpitude, or engaged in any act which constitutes moral turpitude.
Must comply with the IAPSC Code of Ethics
May sell books, manuals, computer programs, programs, videotapes, or similar training materials that they have authored or investigations that they have designed.
Any traditional investigative work must be contracted out to private investigators or similar practitioners. It is understood that certain fields may require a greater level of investigation and require specialized knowledge/experience outside the scope of a routine private investigator.
A complete outline of Member Requirements can be found in the IAPSC By-Laws.
¹ Nothing herein prohibits any member from complying with any law or regulation, by any governmental or regulatory body, which requires that consultants be licensed as Investigators or any other related license..