Three Key Challenges Facing Private Security in 2025

The private security industry is undergoing a period of quiet but significant transition. Driven by rising demand from high-net-worth individuals, corporate clients, and event organizers, the executive protection and event security markets are growing rapidly. But despite this growth, the industry generally remains rather fragmented and opaque. In our last blog post, we outlined some of the broad challenges facing private security today. This post narrows the focus: we examine three specific and solvable issues that sit at the heart of the industry’s inefficiencies—and which Lorica will address.

These problems are not theoretical. They are real, everyday obstacles that affect how security professionals get hired, how companies scale their operations, and how principals make decisions about whom they trust to protect them. We call them the Three Challenges: Word of Mouth, Vetting, and Contracting. Let’s take each in turn.

Challenge 1: Everything Runs on Word of Mouth

In private security, your reputation is your resume. From contract opportunities to personnel vetting, almost everything still happens through personal networks and referrals. That makes sense. After all, executive protection is a high-trust, high-risk environment. No one wants to hire an executive protection or event security professional based on a Google search.

But while word-of-mouth makes sense, it also creates a bottleneck. Nobody—not the agent, not the company, not the client—has access to the full range of business opportunities or personnel available to them. Everyone operates within their own slice of the industry network.

Why it matters for security professionals: If you're an agent, you rely on referrals to find work. That means you need someone in your network to actively recommend you when an opportunity arises. Whether your priority is high hourly wages, interesting clients, team quality, or flexible geography, there’s no way to know if you’re getting the best jobs available. You must hope your name gets floated to the right person at the right time.

Why it matters for security companies: Most companies take on contracts outside their home territory at some point. When they do, they often need to rapidly staff roles in unfamiliar locations. But who do they call? Maybe someone knows someone who worked a detail in that area once. Maybe not. The best-fit security professional for a job might be one state away and willing to drive—but unless someone happens to know that, the opportunity is lost.

Why it matters for principals: When information is this limited, principals can’t know whether they’re hiring the best people for their needs. That has obvious implications for safety, but also for professionalism and compatibility. Security is a personal service. A great security agent doesn’t just protect—they adapt to a principal’s lifestyle, personality, and expectations. Word-of-mouth networks don’t always surface that kind of fit.

Challenge 2: Vetting Professionals and Companies is Not Easy

Security professionals differ widely in experience, maturity, temperament, and training. Some are seasoned professionals. Others are new, undertrained, or simply unsuited to the role. Unfortunately, there's no centralized database or trusted platform to evaluate them. Some credentials live in state licensing databases; others exist only in the memories of those who've worked with that security professional before. Again, it all comes back to word-of-mouth.

Why it matters for security professionals: If you're highly qualified but don’t happen to get referred to the right people, you may never even hear about a job that fits your skills. Worse, you might get staffed onto a job with teammates who are underqualified, unprofessional, or unreliable—putting you, your client, and your reputation at risk.

Why it matters for security companies: Every part of a security firm’s business depends on agent quality. Reputation. Performance. Efficiency. Manager time. Every time you scramble to verify credentials or deal with a personnel issue, you're taking time away from other priorities. There is no easy, fast, and reliable way to find out whether someone is qualified to do the job.

Why it matters for principals: Ultimately, principals have the most at stake. Their physical safety and peace of mind depend on the quality of their security detail. When agent qualifications are unverifiable, clients are forced to rely on gut instinct or third-party assurances—neither of which guarantees a positive outcome.

Challenge 3: Contracting and Payment are Ad Hoc and Inefficient

In an ideal world, hiring and paying a private security team would be seamless. In the real world, that’s rarely the case. Because contract opportunities are discovered through informal networks, the deals themselves are layered and complex. Prime contractors often subcontract to smaller firms or individual agents, who may themselves rely on brokers or recruiters to find personnel. Payment is just as chaotic: wire transfers, ACH, Venmo, paper checks, and even hard cash are all still in use.

Why it matters for security professionals: Every layer in the chain takes a cut. By the time the payment reaches the agent, their hourly wage has been whittled down to a fraction of what the client paid. And many professionals experience delayed payments, unclear terms, or outright non-payment due to poor contract structuring and lack of accountability.

Why it matters for security companies: If you're a company trying to operate efficiently, inconsistent contracting workflows are a nightmare. Legal exposure goes up. Admin burden increases. Payment reconciliation becomes a part-time job. Worse, your best agents may walk if you can't guarantee reliable, transparent compensation.

Why it matters for principals: Inflated contract costs, poor transparency, and disgruntled agents all lead to one outcome: lower quality of service. Principals may be paying a premium for security services without realizing that the men and women on the ground only receive a fraction of the contract cost.

Looking Ahead

These three challenges compound to create serious friction within the industry. For security professionals, they create career obstacles and frustration. For companies, they limit scalability and efficiency. For principals, they undermine trust in the very services they depend on to stay safe.

At Lorica, we believe these problems are solvable. In our next blog post, we’ll introduce Lorica Marketplace—our solution to the three challenges outlined above. We’re building a high-trust, digitally native platform that connects the best professionals with the right clients, enables verified contracting and compliance, and ensures everyone gets paid, on time and on fair terms.

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