When I was first licensed as a private investigator, platform shoes, bell bottom pants, loud ties, handlebar moustaches and large sideburns were the rage. Tinted windows were not yet commercially available and a video camera cost a king’s ransom and was hard to find. Licensing a PI required a personal interview with a Sergeant at the local OPP (Ontario Provincial Police) detachment to determine whether you were deemed “suitable” and vouched for in writing by the agency owner to whom you were bound to serve.

The one advantage then was that producing a license as a PI in a court of law entitled you to “cause for pause” when providing testimony. Not so today.

Loss of Credibility

Are technology and our Ministry’s intervention responsible for our loss of credibility as a profession?

Three reasons come to mind that contribute to our loss of credibility:

1. 2012 technology has eliminated our need to bear unsupported eye witness testimony by virtue of raising the bar with new recording equipment.
2. Due to the reduced participation of the agency’s involvement in screening applicants (implemented with Bill 158 in 2005), the overall quality of PI candidates has deteriorated and qualifying standards have diminished.
3. Our society’s moral values have eroded so much that the truth is suspect and will only be believed if supported by video and audio evidence.

Sadly, all three are debatable and arguably correct.

Benefit of the Doubt

Imagine yourself arriving in court to testify on a file armed with a written report and your PI license. You have no photos, no video and no other means to support any testimony that you have to give.

• Q. “Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you God”?
• “I do”.
• Q. What training and experience do you have as a PI?
• “50 hours of mandatory PI training and I have worked for 6 agencies over the past 2 years.”
• Q. “What did you observe regarding this case”?
• “I conducted surveillance and observed the subject doing (…)”
• Q. “What evidence do you have to support your observation? Do you have any video, photographs, audio recordings”?
• “No”.
• Q. “Your Honour, I suggest that there was no such occurrence or observation made as there is no proof of claim in support against my client who makes equal claim that the testimony provided by this Investigator is in direct conflict with that stated by my client”.

Who is more likely to win the benefit of doubt challenge here?

Anyone Can Be a PI

Our profession is based on our credibility, and that seems to be in a downward spiral. We need to either re-gain control from the Ministry or redress the system that governs us. Do we need to dismantle it, re-engineer it, and re-build it? At the very least, we need to search for and find our lost credibility and re-establish a positive light on our reputation before it is lost completely.

Much has been said about the process for inducting new personnel in our industry. In my view, anyone (it seems) who is prepared to pay the money for a license is likely to get one.

A basic and integral component that agencies once served was to vet personnel entering this business. But three crucial elements have been eliminated:

• Pre-Employment and personal reference checks prior to licensing a PI
• Pre-employment suitability interviews and career screening by employers
• Active involvement by agencies to have any further say in determining a level of a hiring standard

Since the opportunity for intervention by our profession to influence a higher standard of candidates in our industry has been settled for us, our selection of investigators now comes from those already licensed and/or those who have worked with multiple agencies.

The Ministry bulldozed the licensing process over on us. They purport to having given industry stakeholders a voice in discussion groups that we doubt were much more than to placate. I stand to be challenged by anyone who feels the process is working the way we were told it would.

PI vs Security Guard

Security guards are becoming harder to find than PI’s. There is more work than available guards, likely due to the cost and time it takes to jump through the hoops of mandatory training and fees. In addition, guards must pay for emergency first aid training regardless of whether they carry a current certificate or not.

When a six-week wait time for a license is followed by a surprise deduction for a uniform with a promise of earning $10.25 to $12.00 an hour, I would ask: where is the incentive? A PI license is a more attractive solution.

A Profession in Crisis

As the industry continues to grow, it is likely to attract less responsible agency leaders who will keep the bar set at the government’s minimum standards to ensure a competitive edge and keep the industry down. Agencies need control returned to them in order to instill the morals and values that begin to elude us.

Agencies are being held for ransom by transient investigators in dire need of responsible mentorship and guidance. Before we are reduced to a revolving-door clearing house for PI’s who already find it hard to buy into loyalty, we should work on coming together to help ourselves.