Operating in Poland? Speak with a security consultant.
Poland’s corporate security market splits along an unusual line for a European country: genuinely low street-level crime in Warsaw, Krakow, Wroclaw, Gdansk, and Katowice alike, sitting alongside a strategic security picture shaped by Poland’s role as NATO’s main logistics corridor into Ukraine. The network’s coverage now spans Poland’s main business-services hub (Wroclaw), its historic Baltic port and Solidarity-movement birthplace (Gdansk), and its Upper Silesian financial and former coal-industry capital (Katowice), alongside the Warsaw and Krakow coverage already established.
The Act of 22 August 1997: still the governing statute
Poland’s private security industry has operated under the Act on the Protection of Persons and Property since 1997, amended repeatedly but never replaced. Providing close protection commercially requires a concession from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Administration, a formal state licence rather than a standard business registration. Each officer must also be entered on the list of qualified physical security staff kept by the Chief Commander of Police, and must complete refresher training every 5 years under Article 38b. The result is a two-tier check: does the company hold a concession, and is the individual officer on the list.
Armed protection: within the concession
The concession sets out the scope and forms of the services a company may provide, so armed protection is open only to a company whose concession covers it. Such a company may hold firearms on a weapons certificate (świadectwo broni) under the Act of 21 May 1999 on Weapons and Ammunition, and its officers may use them only on duty once cleared to possess weapons. Unarmed protection remains the standard for the large majority of corporate deployments.
Warsaw’s hybrid-threat backdrop
What makes Poland distinctive within this site’s coverage is not crime, it is geopolitics. Poland’s ABW internal security agency has run multiple operations against foreign intelligence networks, and sabotage incidents linked to hostile state services have escalated beyond conventional espionage in recent years. None of this changes the practical experience of a corporate visitor walking through central Warsaw. It does change the threat-assessment inputs a serious security provider should be tracking for clients whose business touches defence, logistics, or anything visibly connected to NATO’s Ukraine-support mission.
The Poland-Belarus border adds a second, geographically separate consideration: an engineered migration crisis and periodic incidents involving Belarusian forces have led to access restrictions in that specific zone, wholly distinct from the Warsaw or Krakow travel experience.
Source: ABW public statements on counter-intelligence operations (2025). Act of 22 August 1997 on the Protection of Persons and Property (Dziennik Ustaw 2025, item 532, consolidated text). Act of 21 May 1999 on Weapons and Ammunition. FCDO Travel Advice: Poland (2026).
Licensed operators across Poland provide bodyguard hire and executive protection for corporate, defence-sector and NATO-adjacent principals. See our Warsaw close protection guide for the full threat and regulatory briefing, or our Wroclaw, Gdansk, and Katowice city briefings for regional detail.
Cities We Cover
Warsaw
Low riskThe capital and Poland's principal close protection market, and the country's main NATO logistics hub for Ukraine support. Low ordinary crime, but a distinct hybrid-threat and espionage backdrop tied to Poland's frontline position relative to the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
View city guide →Krakow
Low riskPoland's second city and a major business-travel and tourism destination. A calmer security profile than Warsaw, with demand concentrated around corporate visits and event security rather than any state-level threat backdrop.
View city guide →Wroclaw
Low riskPoland's leading business-services and BPO hub outside Krakow, hosting 234 modern business-service centres including Google, HP, Nokia, and UBS operations, per a May 2025 KPMG Poland report.
View city guide →Gdansk
Low riskThe Baltic seaport city where the Solidarity movement began in 1980. A calm, low-risk destination with a genuine institutional and diplomatic visitor profile around the European Solidarity Centre.
View city guide →Katowice
Low riskHistoric capital of Upper Silesia's coal-mining region, now in active transition toward financial services and IT, anchored by the Katowice Special Economic Zone and the COP24-hosting International Congress Centre.
View city guide →Security Regulations
Firearms
A company that holds a security concession may keep firearms on a weapons certificate (świadectwo broni) issued under the Act of 21 May 1999 on Weapons and Ammunition. Its staff may use those weapons only on duty and only once they are cleared to possess weapons. Whether a company may offer armed protection depends on the forms of service written into its concession, so ask to see the concession before an armed assignment in Poland.
Licensing
Private security in Poland is governed by the Act of 22 August 1997 on the Protection of Persons and Property. A business that provides protection of persons or property needs a concession from the minister responsible for internal affairs, and the concession sets out the scope and forms of its services. Each officer must be entered on the list of qualified physical security staff kept by the Chief Commander of Police, and must complete refresher training every 5 years.
Foreign Operators
The Act requires a concession for any business providing protection services in Poland and sets out no separate route for a foreign security company. Only Polish citizens and citizens of another EU, EEA or Swiss state can be entered on the list of qualified physical security staff. Take local legal advice before a foreign team carries out protective duties in Poland.
Sources, checked : Act of 22 August 1997 on the Protection of Persons and Property, consolidated text Dz.U. 2025 item 532 (Sejm); Act of 21 May 1999 on Weapons and Ammunition, consolidated text (Sejm).