Security Services in Poland

Poland’s corporate security market splits along an unusual line for a European country: genuinely low street-level crime in both Warsaw and Krakow, sitting alongside a strategic security picture shaped by Poland’s role as NATO’s main logistics corridor into Ukraine.

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. Individual officers must additionally complete certified training specified under Article 38b before they are permitted to work. The result is a two-tier check: is the company licensed, and is the individual officer trained and certified.

Armed protection: a separate concession

Firearms for private security sit under Poland’s Act on Firearms and Ammunition, and armed protection requires its own concession on top of the base security licence. It is available, and Poland’s well-developed defence and security sector means the process is more established than in some neighbouring markets, but 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, consolidated text). 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.