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Private
investigator
A private investigator, private detective, PI, or
private eye, is a person who undertakes investigations, usually for a
private citizen or some other entity not involved with a government or
police organization. They often work for attorneys in civil cases or on
behalf of a defense attorney. Many work for insurance companies to
investigate suspicious claims. Before the advent of no-fault divorce,
many private investigators were hired to search out evidence of adultery
or other illegal conduct within marriage to establish grounds for a
divorce. Despite the lack of legal necessity for such evidence in many
jurisdictions, according to press reports collecting evidence of
adultery or other "bad behavior" by spouses and partners is still one of
the most profitable activities investigators undertake.
Many jurisdictions require PIs to be licensed, and
they may or may not carry firearms depending on local laws. Some are
ex-police officers. They are expected to keep detailed notes and to be
prepared to testify in court regarding any of their observations on
behalf of their clients. Taking great care to remain within the law
(e.g., being forbidden to trespass on private property or break into
homes) is also required, on pain of losing their licenses as well as
facing criminal charges. Irregular hours may also be required when
performing surveillance work (e.g., outside someone's house during the
early hours of the morning).
PIs also undertake a large variety of work that is
not usually associated with the industry in the mind of the public. For
example, many PIs are involved in process serving, the personal delivery
of summons, subpoenas and other legal documents to parties in a legal
case. The tracing of absconding debtors can also form a large part of a
PI's work load. Many agencies specialize in a particular field of
expertise. For example, some PI agencies deal only in tracing. Others
may specialize in technical surveillance countermeasures, or TSCM, which
is the locating and dealing with unwanted forms of electronic
surveillance (for example, a bugged boardroom for industrial espionage
purposes).
Increasingly, modern PIs prefer to be known as
"professional investigators" rather than "private investigators" or
"private detectives". This is a response to the seedy image that is
sometimes attributed to the profession and an effort to establish and
demonstrate the industry to be a proper and respectable profession.
Global
Focus
In
some countries through out the world Private Investigations are illegal.
In the following countries private investigations thrive; United States
of America, Mexico, Canada, United Kingdom, France, Spain, South Africa,
Australia and Japan. In South Africa Private Investigators are in very
high demand due to poor police work and high crime. Other countries
through out the world have Private Investigators but a lot of their
duties are restricted. In South Korea surveillance is allowed only in
insurance fraud situations. In India, working the same case may have to
speak with a large network of people, drive long distances and contact
several companies over a weeks time to solve the case. Some countries in
the world require licensing of Private Detectives, but most do not.
Working conditions
Private detectives and investigators often work
irregular hours because of the need to conduct surveillance and contact
people who are not available during normal working hours. Early morning,
evening, weekend, and holiday work is common.
Many detectives and investigators spend time away
from their offices conducting interviews or doing surveillance, but some
work in their office most of the day conducting computer searches and
making phone calls. Those who have their own agencies and employ other
investigators may work primarily in an office and have normal business
hours.
When the private investigator is working on a case
away from the office, the environment might range from plush boardrooms
to seedy bars. Store and hotel detectives work in the businesses that
they protect. Investigators generally work alone, but they sometimes
work with others during surveillance or when following a subject in
order to avoid detection by the subject.
Some of the work involves confrontation, so the job
can be stressful and dangerous. Some situations call for the
investigator to be armed, such as certain bodyguard assignments for
corporate or celebrity clients. Detectives and investigators who carry
handguns must be licensed by the appropriate authority. In most cases,
however, a weapon is not necessary, because the purpose of the work is
gathering information and not law enforcement or criminal apprehension.
Owners of investigative agencies have the added stress of having to deal
with demanding and sometimes distraught clients.
Training,
Other Qualifications, and Advancement
There
are no formal education requirements for most private detective and
investigator jobs, although many private detectives have college degrees
or have taken legal or criminal investigation courses. Private
detectives and investigators typically have previous experience in other
occupations. Some work initially for insurance or collections companies,
in the private security industry, or as paralegals. Many investigators
enter the field after serving in law enforcement, the military,
government auditing and investigative positions, or federal intelligence
jobs.
Former law enforcement officers, military
investigators, and government agents, who are frequently able to retire
after 25 years of service, often become private detectives or
investigators in a second career. Others enter from such diverse fields
as finance, accounting, commercial credit, investigative reporting,
insurance, and law. These individuals often can apply their prior work
experience in a related investigative specialty. A few enter the
occupation directly after graduation from college, generally with
associate’s or bachelor’s degrees in criminal justice, police science or
with a private investigation diploma.
The majority of United States states and the District
of Columbia require private detectives and investigators to be licensed.
Licensing requirements vary, however. Seven states—- Alabama, Alaska,
Colorado, Idaho, Mississippi, Missouri, and South Dakota—- have no
statewide licensing requirements, some states have very few
requirements, and many other states have stringent regulations. A
growing number of states are enacting mandatory training programs for
private detectives and investigators. For example, the Bureau of
Security and Investigative Services of the California Department of
Consumer Affairs requires private investigators to be 18 years of age or
older, have a combination of education in police science, criminal law,
or justice and experience equaling 3 years (6,000 hours) of
investigative experience, pass a criminal history background check by
the California Department of Justice and the FBI (in most States,
convicted felons cannot be issued a license), and receive a qualifying
score on a two-hour written examination covering laws and regulations.
There are additional requirements for a firearms permit.
For private detective and investigative jobs, most
employers look for individuals with ingenuity, persistence, and
assertiveness. A candidate must not be afraid of confrontation, should
communicate well, and should be able to think on his or her feet. Good
interviewing and interrogation skills also are important and usually are
acquired in earlier careers in law enforcement or other fields. Because
the courts often are the ultimate judge of a properly conducted
investigation, the investigator must be able to present the facts in a
manner that a jury will believe.
Training in subjects such as criminal justice and
police science can be helpful to aspiring private detectives and
investigators. Most corporate investigators must have a bachelor’s
degree, preferably in a business-related field. Some corporate
investigators have a master’s degree in business administration or a law
degree, while others are CPAs. Corporate investigators hired by large
companies may receive formal training from their employers on business
practices, management structure, and various finance-related topics. The
screening process for potential employees typically includes a
background check for a criminal history.
Some investigators receive certification from a
professional organization to demonstrate competency in a field. For
example, the National Association of Legal Investigators (NALI) confers
the Certified Legal Investigator designation to licensed investigators
who devote a majority of their practice to negligence or criminal
defense investigations. To receive the designation, applicants must
satisfy experience, educational, and continuing-training requirements
and must pass written and oral exams administered by the NALI.
Most private-detective agencies are small, with
little room for advancement. Usually, there are no defined ranks or
steps, so advancement takes the form of increases in salary and
assignment status. Many detectives and investigators work for detective
agencies at the beginning of their careers and, after a few years, start
their own firms. Corporate and legal investigators may rise to
supervisor or manager of the security or investigations department.
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department
of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2006-07 Edition, Private
Detectives and Investigators, on the Internet at
http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos157.htm (visited November 13, 2006).
History
of the Private Investigator
In 1833 Eugène François Vidocq, a French soldier,
criminal and privateer, founded the first known private detective
agency, Le bureau des renseignments (Office of Intelligence) and, again,
hired ex-cons. Official law enforcement tried many times to shut it
down. In 1842 police arrested him in suspicion of unlawful imprisonment
and taking money on false pretenses after he had solved an embezzling
case. Vidocq later suspected that it had been a set-up. He was sentenced
for five years with a 3,000-franc fine but the Court of Appeals released
him. Vidocq is credited with having introduced record-keeping,
criminology and ballistics to criminal investigation. He made the first
plaster casts of shoe impressions. He created indelible ink and
unalterable bond paper with his printing company. His form of
anthropometrics is still partially used by French police. He is also
credited for philanthropic pursuits – he claimed he never informed on
anyone who had stolen for real need.
After Vidocq, the industry was born. Much of what
private investigators in the early days was to act as the police in
matters that their clients felt the police were not equipped for or
willing to do. A larger role for this new private investigative industry
to was to act as pseudo law men, particularly when dealing with labor
and employee issues. The wealthy found that the need to help control
large numbers of workers who had developed new ideas as a result of the
French Revolution and the freedom of men did not sit well with the
wealth resource owners. Some early private investigators were nothing
short of mercenaries and or professional military companies helping
private entities with problems that could be solved with force or the
show of force, usually in foreign countries.
In the US, the Pinkerton National Detective Agency
was a security guard and detective agency, established in 1850 by Allan
Pinkerton. Pinkerton had become famous when he foiled a plot to
assassinate then President-Elect Abraham Lincoln. Pinkerton's agents
performed services which ranged from the equivalent of both a private
military contractor to that of security guards. During the height of its
existence, the Pinkerton Detective Agency had more agents than the
standing army of the United States of America, causing the state of Ohio
to outlaw the agency, due to the possibility of its being hired out as a
"private army" or militia.
During the labor unrest of the late 19th century,
businessmen hired Pinkerton guards to keep strikers and suspected
unionists out of their factories. The most notorious example of this was
the Homestead Strike of 1892, where Pinkerton agents ended up killing
several people by enforcing the strikebreaking measures of Henry Clay
Frick, (acting on behalf of Andrew Carnegie, who was abroad). The
agency's logo, an eye embellished with the words "We Never Sleep"
inspired the term "private eye.
Pinkerton agents were hired to track western outlaws
Jesse James, the Reno brothers, and the Wild Bunch including Butch
Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
It was not until the prosperity of the 1920s that the
private investigator became a person accessible to the average American.
With the wealth of the 20s and the expanding of the middle class came
the need for middle America.
Since then the private detective industry has grown
with the changing needs of the public. Social issues like infidelity and
unionization have impacted the industry and created new types of work,
as has the need for insurance, and with it insurance fraud, criminal
defense investigations, the invention of low cost listening devices and
more.
PIs
in fiction
Perhaps the most famous fictional PI is the Sherlock
Holmes character created by Arthur Conan Doyle, who would refer to
himself in the jargon of his age as a "private inquiries agent."
Since about the 1940s, PIs have also been frequently
found in fiction as a stock character; they are a hero archetype who
stumbles into detective stories to solve a mystery case, whether it be a
whodunit murder or other crime activity. The PI is usually cool, relaxed
and intelligent. A stereotypical look would have him drink whiskey,
smoke, dress in a trenchcoat and fedora and be a good marksman.
PIs are also popular in television fiction, including
such hit series as Magnum P.I., Tropical Heat, Veronica Mars,
Moonlighting, Remington Steele, The Rockford Files, Monk, and Spenser:
For Hire; both TV and movie PI fiction often utilize the device of the
main character first-person voiceover to make up for the fact that
visual fiction is rarely ever shot in the true first-person, as well as
to provide exposition about the detective's thoughts. Meanwhile
filmmakers like Joel and Ethan Coen (The Big Lebowski), David O. Russell
(I ♥ Huckabees), and writers like Jennifer Colt (The Butcher of Beverly
Hills), Laura Anne Gilman (Staying Dead) and Jim Butcher (The Dresden
Files) have moved the traditional PI protagonist towards new genres.
PIs in reality television
Since 2000, the syndicated television show Cheaters
has been on the air. The show focuses on infidelity cases.
Parco PI was a cable reality television show. The
show featured Vinny Parco, a private investigator in New York City, New
York.
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