PI Licensing, The Other Side

An article from IA REGNUM, a Russian news service describes a new law regulating Private Security and Detective Agencies in Russia. Among some obvious regulations and restrictions it says the size of the statutory capital of private security agencies must be increased to RUR500 thousand from current RUR10 thousand. The meaning of "statutory capitol is not clear but a change in a requirement from approximately $422.00 to $21,100.00 is pretty clear. Just any Russian citizen is not gong to be able to hang up a sign and provide these services. The absence of private investigation services in countries with totalitarian governments has always been noteworthy and I have long been puzzled by the stampede by many, otherwise intelligent and reasonable private investigators to invite licensing and government regulation of private investigators.

The belief behind the move toward licensing apparently is: it will protect those already in the business from competition from the unwashed and unlicensed. Only the extremely naive believe it will protect the public in any way. One of our founding fathers, Thomas Jefferson, said: "The greatest [calamity] which could befall [us would be] submission to a government of unlimited powers." --Thomas Jefferson: Declaration and Protest of Virginia, 1825.

I have recently seen and heard investigators speaking of the possibility of federal legislation to manage private investigators. Thomas Jefferson would be dismayed. It is only a matter of time until private investigators will be referred to as "Government sanctioned investigators." Looking at the issue in its most simple terms, private investigators have always been prohibited from doing anything illegal the same as all citizens are.  Hence the word "private" in the name. Although it has been a  mistake to invite and work for the licensing of private investigators there is good news.  What private investigators do and the valuable role they fill in society will always be needed. The United States and other Western countries will eventually have two types of investigators.  There will be the government sanctioned investigators with the required amount of "statutory capitol" who buy their information from government sanctioned information sources while reporting to the appropriate government agencies and there will be the others.  Maybe the others will call themselves "Professional Valets".

Over twenty years ago an organization was created for the purpose of improving investigation for both clients and investigators. The simplicity of this goal has been mostly drowned out by the cacophony of claims by those selling everything from books with certificates certifying the book buyer as a certified this or that to electronic gadgets. There are many good investigator associations providing meetings where private investigators can mingle and learn from each other. None of these associations monitor the performance of investigators any more or better than the licensing agencies that accept licensing fees to keep a few clerks employed. ION originally stood for "Investigators Online Network" in 1987 before the Internet made possible the multitude of listserves now allowing every association to be an "Investigators Online Network." ION recognized within a few years the shortcomings of "online" and changed its marketing name to ION, Investigators Anywhere. It turns out being online no more makes a person competent and trustworthy than does paying a fee to belong to an association. ION is still the best way for clients to minimize their risk of hiring a problem when they need to use an investigator in a distant area where they don't have personal knowledge of who is available.