Contrary to the picture we may hold of private investigators thanks to television and movies, the profession is fraught with more chases of the paper nature than those of the dark alley kind. According to Daniel J. Benny, MA, CPP, who is a local private investigator, most of his work involves doing pre-employment background checks, professional inquiries into prospective business partners, searches of public records, consulting on security and being an expert witness. Benny states he doesn’t do a lot of surveillance work, which is one thing we may think of when envisioning the life of a P.I., since he doesn’t handle Worker’s Comp cases. “The only time I do surveillance is in internal security cases where there’s been problems with employee theft or in custody cases where proof is being sought of neglect.”

“I don’t do spouses!” Benny emphatically stated. “I get people who call me all the time who have been watching too much t.v. They want me to bug their phone or place a camera in their bedroom because they suspect their spouse of being unfaithful. I have to explain to them that both of those things would be illegal and even if they did manage to capture evidence proving infidelity, it would immediately be thrown out of court as inadmissible evidence. You can only place cameras or directly survey someone in places where they have no ‘reasonable expectation of privacy’. Tapping someone’s phone or spying on someone in their home is definitely out.”

Benny went on to say that most private investigators are shying away from that type of work nowadays anyway. When I asked him why, he stated that it’s because divorce is so easy to obtain that it’s not worth the bother. So, if you have visions of sneaking onto someone’s property and listening below windows or even nosing around in someone’s house for evidence, think again. Recording someone’s voice without their permission is also out. Only still photos and video cameras without the audio are allowed in surveillance work. According to a representative from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Pennsylvania law dictates that if you are taping a conversation, it must be a “consensual monitoring”, meaning that the subject must agree to being recorded on the tape, or the information is not admissible in court. The only entities that are allowed to bug (to tape without mutual consent) are law enforcement agencies, and “only with the proper authorization”, meaning that an individual employed by a law enforcement agency cannot go out on a personal vendetta and monitor and stalk someone for their own reasons—it has to be part of an established and documented case. This is called Title III coverage—and has to be court ordered.

In Pennsylvania, the preliminary requirement to be a Private Investigator is that you become licensed. An unlicensed PI is generally considered to be trespassing or a stalker, sometimes worse, and these offenses are punishable to the fullest extent of State and Federal law.

To acquire one’s PI’s license in the Commonwealth of PA, one must either be, or have been a police officer, above the rank of patrolman, for a minimum of three years, or have worked for a licensed private investigator for at least three years. Additionally, the candidate must have a clean criminal record. No further educational requirements or training other than those two elements is required.

A private investigator licensed from another state cannot legally spy on someone in Pennsylvania unless said PI is licensed from a state that has licensing reciprocity with PA. However, a resident of Pennsylvania traveling, for instance, to Connecticut, can be spied on legally by an investigator from Connecticut, as long as that person stays within the state lines of their jurisdiction.

To get around this element, PI’s do a great deal of networking, and sub-contract each other so as not to break the law when their work necessitates crossing over from state to state. Many Private Investigation firms have several offices, and employ investigators in each office that are licensed in more than one state.

Upon fulfillment of the basic requirements for becoming a PI, there are hundreds of courses available in both classroom settings and correspondence situations, as well as training for firearms, fighting and combat. There are hundreds of websites on the Internet offering a full gamut of information and training for different areas of practice in the private security and investigation industries. No additional training of this type or any other is mandated in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania as necessary for the receipt of the state’s Private Investigator’s license.

Mr. Benny stated a private investigation firm looking for an employee might look for someone with college courses in criminal justice or some experience in security. A new hire would most likely be sent to do the records research needed for the background checks and inquiries. They may do a ‘stake-out’ on a surveillance case, but the more interesting work interviewing or going undercover in internal security cases is left to those with more experience.

I asked Mr. Benny what type of person does well as a private investigator and he stated that it takes someone with a lot, and I do mean A LOT of patience. “A private investigator must also have a sense for detail and be able to make deductions with the evidence obtained. The most important characteristic of a good private investigator, however, is the ability to talk to people from all walks of life. I’m not talking about trying to impersonate all kinds of people,” he said with a laugh, “but one day you may be talking to someone on the street with little or no education and the next day interviewing a college professor. You have to be able to relax and be yourself and get people to trust you so that they’ll open up and tell you what you want to know.”

And that, folks, is that. So, if you’ve been daydreaming about becoming a private investigator because it sounds glamorous and exciting, you may want to reconsider and be an actor instead. That’s probably the only way you’re going to get to chase bad guys or save the world by uncovering a diabolical scheme to detonate a stolen nuclear weapon on any sort of a regular basis. If, however, you find the thought of long hours of doing audit trails or sitting in a car with cold coffee and a stale donut for company exciting, then go for it, dude, the life of a P.I. is probably right up your alley.