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Private Investigator Badge - Your License To Investigate

By Sid | January 3, 2008

Earning your private investigator badge means getting the appropriate training but it also requires you to have a relatively unblemished record. Apart from meeting the age requirements, private investigators need to have a criminal free history.

Depending on your state’s requirements, qualifications may differ from state-to-state however, getting licensed is the first step you need to achieve.

What Is A Private Investigator Badge

Basically, your badge is your means of identification. Much like a police officer needs to show their badge when interviewing people the same applies with private investigators.

The Private investigator association in your state issues badges and it’s your prime mode of identification. It has your name on it and a serial number with whom you are registered in your association. Private investigators need their badges as a form of legitimacy. It verifies your or for conducting investigations.

Just as badges are taken away from police officers if they over step their association’s guidelines the same applies to private investigators.

Keeping Your Badge

Keeping a clean record is vital to your survival as a PI. Being able to perform your duties means staying away from criminal activities. If you are a private investigator and you are found guilty of a criminal act, your license is taken from you and so is your private investigator badge.

An expired PI license also means your badge becomes inactive. If your license expires today after 30 days it becomes delinquent. And if you don’t renew your delinquent license in 3 years you are obliged, if you want to continue as a private investigator, to start all over again with the application process.

Some states have differing laws regarding badges. For example, Californian private investigators cannot carry a private investigator badge because they can be mistaken for an officer or other official. Yet, they can carry a gun if they have the permit of the Bureau to do so, and have passed the training course for using a firearm.

It’s important to remember that while a PI is labeled under the detective tag it doesn’t mean they have the same powers as police officers. Mis-use of your private investigator badge or false identification procedure can land a PI in plenty of hot water. The brazen use of a private investigator badge in identifying oneself as a policeman is frowned upon.

Private investigators are just that - investigators and they cannot make a legal arrest. Their role is to observe and report and their badge is their means of identification.

Topics: The Workplace |

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