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DENVER (KDVR) – The protest shooting may be spurring security personnel to update their licensure. While there are fewer total security guards applying for licenses in Denver than last year, more of them are asking to carry a weapon.

“There has not been an increase in overall license requests since the shooting incident,” said Eric Escudero, marketing and communications manager for the Denver Department of Excise and Licensing. “But there has been a noticeable increase in applications for endorsements such as armed status.”

Since unlicensed security guard Matthew Dolloff shot and killed a protestor, the security companies involved have drawn public scrutiny regarding whose responsibility it is to ensure a properly licensed armed guard.

Since 2019,the amount of weekly security guard applications has halved while the weekly average of amendment licenses has doubled.

The city licenses both individual security guards and security companies. Individual guards can apply for “endorsements” to arm themselves. Denver currently has issued 1,422 armed endorsements for individual security guard licenses.

The weekly average of new security guard applications for 2020 to date is 63, compared to 112 in 2019. New security guard applications have declined 44% in that time period, from 4723 in 2019 to 2637 this year.

While the overall number of licenses has gone down, amended license requests have gone up. These licenses cover armed endorsements.

The weekly average of new SG applications for 2020 to date is 19, compared to 10 in 2019. Year to date, amendment applications have increased 80% from 437 in 2019 to 788 in 2020