How Private Investigators Work

The stereotypical private investigator comes from books, TV and movies -- so does the stereotypical client. In the world of fictional investigators, clients often turn to investigators for help because the information they seek doesn't fall within police jurisdiction. They may also be afraid or unable to ask the police for help. In some portrayals, clients have already tried to work with law-enforcement agencies but aren't happy with the result. Often, fictional clients are looking for:

Although real clients aren't the archetypal damsels in distress that appear in fiction, the types of cases that surface most often in movies and books are also common in real life. A real investigator's caseload often includes background investigations, surveillance and skip traces, or searches for missing people. Investigators may also serve legal documents, notifying people of their involvement in legal proceedings. In the United States, this is part of the due process guaranteed in the Fifth and 14th Amendments to the Constitution.

Naturally, day-to-day duties vary depending on a detective's expertise. Someone who specializes in intellectual property theft will spend far more time studying patents than staking out hotels looking for errant spouses. Some cases are also more common in specific regions. For example, in New York City, some landlords hire private investigators to determine whether tenants in rent-controlled apartments are violating their lease terms. The investigators look for physical proof of violations like subletting apartments and living elsewhere or using residential units for business purposes. [Source: New York Times].

Finding the perpetrator in an unsolved crime might not seem to have much in common with running a background check or finding grounds for a tenant's eviction. But they all involve the same basic task -- in order to solve any case, a private investigator has to collect and organize facts.

Gathering facts involves more than the luck and intuition that some fictional investigators seem to rely on. Successfully solving a case begins with planning and analysis. The investigator must:

Like any good researcher, a private investigator uses multiple sources of information to solve a case. The source most commonly associated with private investigators is surveillance. The basic idea behind surveillance is very simple -- the investigator follows a target and documents where he goes and who he meets. Actually conducting surveillance can be far more difficult. Following people without losing them or being noticed is a difficult skill to master. While some affluent investigation agencies have sophisticated surveillance vans, many investigators simply work from their cars. The process of watching someone can also be long and tedious with no possibility for breaks.

Researchers can also interview suspects and witnesses. In general, the person being interviewed has no legal obligation to speak to the investigator. For this reason, the process often involves time devoted to building rapport and making the interviewee comfortable. In addition, some investigators use pretexts or ruses to get information from people who might otherwise be reluctant to talk to them. Using false pretenses to gain information can have legal and ethical implications -- see "Private Investigation and the Law" to learn more.

Public records are another source of information. Many of these are records that private citizens can access on their own. However, private investigators generally know who to ask and how to access the information easily. In some cases, private investigators can access databases that search multiple record sources at once. These databases are not usually available to the general public. The records investigators often search include:

In addition to gathering information, private investigators must know how to analyze it and present it to their clients. Along with the investigative techniques that they use to gather information, this skill is part of their investigative training. We'll look at training and licensing procedures for private investigators in the next section.

Many people who decide to become private investigators already have experience in a related field. They may have served in a branch of the military or worked as police officers. Others have experience in crime-scene investigation or surveillance. While this experience can be helpful, it doesn't entirely replace education and training.

In most cases, a person learns to be a private investigator through apprenticeship with an experienced investigator or formal instruction. Either on the job or in a classroom, the future investigator learns about:

Some investigators also use DVDs and distance-learning programs to continue their educations.

In many parts of the world, education and training are only a first step -- becoming a private investigator also requires applying for and obtaining a license. But the process a person has to go through, or whether licensure even exists, varies from place to place. England and Wales, for example, have no official licensing procedure. However, the Security Industry Authority, which regulates private security in Great Britain, conducted research in 2005 and 2006 which may eventually lead to licensure for private investigators.

In the United States, each state has its own licensing requirements. Alabama, Alaska, Colorado, Idaho, Mississippi, Missouri and South Dakota have no statewide licensing procedure. Most other states require some combination of education and training and a clean criminal record. Some states also require schools to submit their curricula and meet specific criteria for state approval. In those states, only people whose education comes from an accredited school can become a licensed investigator.

The length of study and exact steps required to obtain a license vary considerably. In California, applicants must complete specific educational courses and pass a written exam. The terminology can also differ -- in Massachusetts, private detectives hold state licenses, but private investigators do not. Some states require investigators to have liability insurance. Finally, some states allow private investigators to carry firearms. Generally, this requires the investigator to apply for and receive a weapon permit.

Having a license allows a private investigator to practice in one particular state, but the nature of investigative work can require investigators to cross state lines. Some states have reciprocity agreements with one another -- a license in one state allows a person to practice in the other as well. Investigators practicing in states without such agreements sometimes apply for licensure in nearby states as well. Others develop working relationships with investigators in other states, working as assistants, apprentices or trainees when traveling.

While licenses give people the right to present themselves as private investigators, they do not give people the right to break the law in the course of investigations. We'll look at the legal and ethical issues surrounding private investigation in the next section.

Reading books and watching movies about private investigators naturally requires some suspension of disbelief. After all, many fictional detectives are impossibly heroic or improbably cool. But fictional investigators aren't just too smart, too good-looking, too lucky or too witty to be true. Much of the time, they make decisions that would land a real investigator in jail and out of a job.

When a TV private eye dons a cap with a cable company's logo, picks up a clipboard, and pretends to have questions about when a neighbor will be home, he's using a ruse to get information. This technique has become known as pretexting, and while it isn't always illegal, critics argue that it is often unethical. Others contend that the ends can justify the means -- if using a disguise and fake identification leads to an arrest, then the ruse is worth the risk.

However, in some cases, pretexting is against the law:

Another common scenario in detective stories involves trespassing or breaking and entering. In many countries, entering private property without the permission of the owner or tenant is illegal. For this reason, private investigators typically conduct surveillance from public property to avoid legal issues. In many jurisdictions, the surveillance itself is legal, especially if the investigator has notified the police of his presence. Private phone surveillance using recording devices or wiretapping, on the other hand, is usually illegal.

Fictional investigators also sometimes apprehend, detain and interrogate criminals, which could be considered kidnapping. However, in some cases, detaining a criminal might be legal. Some states and countries allow citizens who witness a felony or identify a felon to detain that person. The exact situations in which such citizen arrest is permissible can vary in different jurisdictions.

Some critics feel that private investigators' work is an invasion of people's privacy. A number of laws and constitutional amendments protect people's privacy in many countries throughout the world. However, many of these laws regulate the steps that the government or certain businesses can take. They do not necessarily affect whether a private investigator is permitted to take surveillance photos or to use pretexts to get information that would otherwise be confidential.

Because of privacy concerns and depictions in popular culture, some people believe that private investigators are often on the wrong side of the law. Private investigators have also appeared in a negative light in some high-profile cases, such as the Hewlett-Packard corporate spying trial in 2006 and 2007. However, as more states and countries begin to regulate and license investigators, this perception may gradually begin to change. To learn more about licensing procures, legal issues and how to become a private investigator, check out the links on the next page.