Looking For A Private Detective?

When you think "private detective" you probably picture some shadowy figure like Sam Spade with a cigarette dangling in one hand and a gun concealed in the other. The fictional Sam Spade carried his gun illegally, didn't call the police to report dead bodies if it inconvenienced him to do so, and often lost his paying clients to a bullet. Still his life was a mixture of danger and glam with a new dame around every corner and every case and his existence held an allure that living in the suburbs, and working a nine to five office job, simply could not compare to.

Private detectives today have come a long way from the seedy streets that Detective Spade occupied in his shadowy world and the services they are able to provide have expanded from just tracking cheating spouses and stumbling over dead bodies as Spade did. Today clients hire private detectives for a wide range of services such as skip tracing, looking for lost loved ones, performing background checks on future employees or even future spouses, and investigative work to solve minor crimes.

Before you hire a private detective there are a few things you should know. Most states require a private detective to be licensed to practice. For the states that don't have this requirement, there is likely a requirement to have a business license and/or to pass a state test to practice private snooping. In short, it takes more than just printing up some business cards and hanging up a shingle to practice detecting today. Most detectives come from a legal background either as retired law enforcement officers, attorneys or something similar giving them the ability to know how to navigate the system and how to use it.

Another thing to consider is the price to accomplish the job you need completed. Private detectives pay to have access to records to help them find people and they know the shortcuts so they don't waste time and resources on dead ends. With that being said however, what you are ultimately paying for is his or her time and that is what it can take sometimes to locate someone or solve a problem. This is probably where the old nickname of “Gum Shoe” comes from. It takes a lot of shoe leather to track down leads. Make sure you understand the rates up front and do as much of the legwork you can yourself so you can present your detective with a sufficient amount of leads and information to go off to begin their end of the search.

Finally you need to make sure you hire someone you can trust. Check with the Better Business Bureau and the Chamber of Commerce, to see if the agency you are considering hiring has had any complaints against them. If your state requires a detective to be licensed you can also check with the state's department of public safety to make sure their license is current and doesn't have any blemishes to be aware of.