I have always thought I wanted to be a Private Eye. What does it take to get licensed?

To conduct an investigation for another in the state of Texas, it requires a license issued by the Texas Commission on Private Security. The licensing scheme operates much like a real estate broker and a real estate sales person. If you can find a company owner (licensee), you can go to work tomorrow as an investigator with no training or specific education other than a short course from the Texas Commission on Private Security and passing a test administered over the Internet. However, much like in the real estate business, the licensee or company owner meets a much higher standard, including having at least three years of Investigative experience, being insurable, taking a rigorous test, and meeting certain character and fitness requirements. Today, most company owners are people who have worked in the private investigative business for another company for a period of time even if they have worked previously for a law enforcement agency, insurance company, or other investigative entity. As a registrant, the licensee must vouch for you to the State Board and be willing to put his license on the line to supervise you because when you make a mistake, they will go after the licensee as well as you. If the licensee loses his license, he is out of business.

Yet, once out in the field, a registered private investigator can do everything a licensed private investigator can do - conduct interviews, do surveillances and research. What they can't do is to solicit business in their own name or do work outside the supervision of the licensee. If you go to work for a licensee as a registrant, you are limited to working for that licensee doing what you are told to do only and you may not solicit business on your own on the side. It is now a criminal offense to solicit business without the licensee's permission and the Texas Commission on Private Security investigators have recently become Peace Officers under the definition of Peace Officers and can file criminal cases.