What Does It Take to Become a Private Investigator (in Texas)?

April 30, 2004 1:50 AM

A friend of mine here in Texas is wild to become a private investigator. I did some searching, and as far as I can tell, at least in this state, you need a good amount of previous law enforcement or security experience. I've seen some shady-looking "Become a P.I. in two weeks!" websites, but I don't trust 'em. Anyone have any inside info on what it takes to become a professional dick?
posted by majcher to Law & Government (3 answers total)

My friend here in Utah is a PI. He got into it during college when he took a job with a PI firm. Started off doing the computer research, then eventually got his license. He now spends his time tailing cheating wives, investigating insurance fraud, and serving subpoenas. He enjoys it, but sometimes they slow down and he isn't making much money. Other times it is rocking and he's working lots of hours. He is basically on call 24-7 and a lot of it is just sitting in the car for hours and hours on end waiting for nothing to happen.
On the good side, people are always interested when he tells them what he does for a living. People find it pretty fascinating and he has lots of great stories. But, I'd say for the most part it isn't as exciting as it might seem and a ton of the work he does is on the computer doing research.
I think your buddy would really want to take a good class that really showed him the nuts and bolts of the business if he/she wanted to start out with his own business. He would probably have better luck if he got hired on to an agency with a good list of current clients. I imagine that it would be hard to get clients when you were new to the business and didn't have any experience.
posted by trbrts at 8:08 AM on April 30, 2004

Texas Commission on Private Security
posted by profwhat at 11:01 AM on April 30, 2004

I looked into the PI thing too and was heartily discouraged by North Carolina's requirements. Licensing requirements vary from state to state from being very demanding to fairly easy. I've heard one thing to do is get licensed in a state where it is not difficult (I think Alabama was one of the easiest) and practice for a while. It's much easier to get licensed in another state after you have been working for a while. It also seems to be a very insular community - knowing some people in the right places can get a lot done for you.
posted by headless at 11:19 AM on April 30, 2004