How to choose a Private Investigator?

Making the call to a private investigator can be a daunting task especially in private matters, there are countless agencies out there offering their services, but which one should you choose?

It’s a fact that today anyone can set themselves up as a private investigator. There is not at this time any licensing of PI’s in the UK. This means any Tom, Dick or Harriet can put themselves in business with little or no experience.

This means that you could be throwing good money after bad, as you are not to know who are the cowboys and who are the professionals. To help you a little I will give you some tips on how to choose the right private investigator.

Affiliations.

First of all check that they have some sort of affiliation. We are members of the Association of British Investigators (ABI) although there are other affiliations of available, anyone that is a member of the ABI will have been screened for criminal records, will have to prove that they hold professional indemnity insurance, and will have to sit through an on line test and then will be tested before a panel of 3 or 4 people asking numerous questions that will test the applicants knowledge on numerous subjects of private investigation and legal aspects. This also means they are accountable, it gives you someone to approach if you are not happy with the service or complaints procedure from the investigation agency. Trust me there are lots of horror stories about rogue investigation agencies taking money from clients and not delivering the goods in  our circles. Double check that they are affiliated, don’t just accept they are because they have the logos on their websites. Check us.

Make sure that by discussing with the investigator that they are competent to deal with your situation. Some may just specialise in surveillance, some in tracing etc. We have a team that can deal with just about any enquiry on your behalf as long as it is legal. From tracing, background checks, process serving to surveillance.

Ask how any evidence obtained will be presented to you and how it will be admissible in court if need be. Don’t go with the misconception that you need to go to a large agency with large reception areas and interview rooms, (There are very few anyway) they may look the part and can give you what you need but some of these agencies have “pop-up” offices that they can utilise just for meeting with clients, which gives a false sense of security. Many successful and established agencies work from a home office environment, especially since covid.

Be sceptical of the companies that advertise themselves as “Security & investigations” agencies. I guarantee the security services are their mainstay of income and it’s quite likely that they have touched on the subject of surveillance on a security course and then deciding to offer their own surveillance services as a side hustle with little or no training.

Be wary of any private investigators that say they are licensed. This is a blatant lie! You would be surprised just how many websites there are that either say or suggest that they are licensed. In the UK there is no requirement or possible way to be licensed at the time of writing this article. Again this maybe a security firm that has to be licensed with the SIA which holds no jurisdiction in the private investigation field.

Data protection

For your own peace of mind you need any investigation to be confidential. Ask for the companies data protection certificate. All private investigators have to be registered with the information commissioners office but you would be surprised how many are out there without being registered. You can search the ICO website by name or company name yourself here.

Ask how your data or your data subjects data will be stored and how it will be stored. Ask how data such as reports and videos will be passed securely. Also how long it will be stored.

Experience

Ask about how long they have been trading and previous experience prior to becoming a private investigator and what previous training they have had.

If they boast that they have been operating for a number of years, look out for red flags such as not being VAT registered. Sure, a lot of fledgling businesses do not have to be VAT registered, in fact we operated for a while without being registered but any successful company will eventually hit the VAT threshold. If they purport to have been operating for a number of years and not VAT registered then either they haven’t really been trading as long as they say, are not very successful in business or they are being dishonest with their finances.

Does the investigator have proper insurance?

Professional indemnity insurance is a fundamental requirement for a  legitimate business, so ask your investigator about their cover, ask to see their insurance certificate.

© M.R.Investigations 2024