State Regulations For Private Investigation
Who regulates private investigators?
The regulation of private investigators, with the exception of six states, is by a state agency. In California it's the Department of Consumer Affairs, Bureau of Investigative Security - BSIS is what they call it. They have very stringent laws on what you can and cannot do. One of their number one no-no is that you may never lead somebody that you are questioning into believing that you are a law enforcement official. You may not in any way impersonate a police officer. Your gathering of evidence techniques has to be, you know, without invading somebody's privacy and you must be truthful in your reporting to both your client and you have a fiduciary responsibility to your client to find out the truth in an investigation, but they do respond to complaints from consumers, they respond to complaints from the public or somebody working on license, but they're very, very strict if you violate some law you will lose your license.
Which states do not require a license for private investigators?
The biggest location for unlicensed private investigators who actually investigate in other states is Idaho. One of the major database operators called "Merlin" is located in Montana and has their databases located in Idaho, specifically because it's a non-regulatory state. The government, in many cases, some people who operate the databases are trying to control what they do, so they like to operate in a state where they can't be controlled.
Which state has the strictest regulations for private investigators?
In California, in order to get a license, you're required to have a total of 6,000 hours of experience over a minimum of 3 years. It can be 6 000 hours over 6 years, but it has to be a total of 6,000 hours and a minimum of 3 years before you can get a license.
If a private investigator is licensed in one state, does that mean he is licensed in all states?
The licensing in one state does not necessarily allow you to operate in another state. California has reciprocity with about half a dozen states and then they are probably another dozen states that allow you to operate in their state if the investigation initiated in your state and you crossed the state line as far as following the investigation. Some, however require you to register with them as an out of state investigator within 30 days, while some require you to register with them within 10 days. You can usually find those specific requirements are by checking on the Internet with whatever specific state you want to work in.
Is there a network of private investigators?
Private investigator networking is a very big business. There's one company that specifically does that, it's called ION. They're located in Colorado. What they do is... As an example, let's say I'm in California and somebody comes to me and says, "I need to have this guy in Iowa investigated. I need three days of surveillance on him. Can you do that?" And you say, "Yes." You don't tell them that what you're going to do is call up ION. You tell ION, I need a surveillance specialist in Iowa. They have that guy call you and for ten percent of what his bill is. That's what they charge for the referral service. He does the whole surveillance, writes the reports. Sends you everything you need to satisfy your client. And you can charge a surcharge on top of what he's billing you for doing the investigation for you. Usually that surcharge, the amount of money you make as a profit, is what you would have spent if you had to travel there for three days. Stay in hotel, rent a car, have meals and all that. So your profit margin for farming the case out is that money you would have spent, if you had actually gone there yourself. And that's done; trading investigators is done all over the world. The World Association of Investigators does that all the time, you can call up and say, I'm a P.I. in California and I need an investigator. I work with an investigator in Tel Aviv, an Israeli investigator that calls me up all the time to work cases here. And he works cases for me in Israel. I've got an investigator in Mexico that I use.
