18

Private Investigators
Tim Prenzler
Private investigators represent an important component of modern justice
systems. This chapter examines the evolving nature of their work, alongside
issues of ethics and conduct, law and regulation, cultural representations, and
the social impact associated with the expansion and diversication of the sector.
A major argument of the chapter is that private investigators in many countries
serve an essential function in supplying a demand for law enforcement and
crime prevention that is not adequately met by the public sector. Government
regulation is necessary to minimize unethical practices, but there is also a case
for giving licensed investigators special powers to access information and obtain
evidence in the pursuit of justice for their clients.
Denitions
What is a private investigator? The answer depends on the context in which
the term is used. The most common usage refers to an individual operating
a business that conducts inquiries for a client for a fee, or an employee of such
a rm. Colloquial usage includes PI, private eye, private detective or
gumshoe. (The latter refers to a type of soft-soled shoe worn by detectives in
the 19
th
century.) The idea of a private investigator can be extended to include
private sector in-house investigators. These are employees of a regular
company who conduct investigations or engage in forms of crime prevention
against customers or staff. Examples include store detectives (see Chapter 17)
and fraud investigators.
The term also overlaps with a broader eld of work that is covered by the
generic term enquiry agent. The enquiry process is frequently directed at
serving legal notices or repossessing property after locating a person. In govern-
ment licensing systems, these categories are sometimes distinguished from
private investigators by the use of terms such as commercial agents, process
servers or bailiffs. Often, however, such activities merge into one another. For
example a private investigator might be engaged to both locate a person and
serve a summons. Investigation services or enquiry services are useful terms to
describe this broader industry sector.
423
Historical background
Various forms of private and public provision of crime prevention and law
enforcement have existed throughout recorded history (see Chapter 1). The
modern period of public policing is most closely associated with the formation of
the New Police in London in 1829. But even after that time, and as government
police organizations spread around the world, people continued to seek justice
and protection outside the state. Public policing appeared as the primary form of
law enforcement in many countries from the latter part of the 19
th
century up
until the 1970s and 1980s, when the growth of private security became a major
phenomenon. The prominence of private security is not, however, new, as
indicated by the title of a book on the subject, The Rebirth of Private Policing
(Johnston, 1992). In his historical survey, Johnston emphasizes how the modern
criminal justice system, in which police take the initiative in investigations and
prosecutions, was not the norm in the past. Governments:
made little or no attempt at criminal detection. Crime was brought to the
courts when victims prosecuted offenders. Ofcials did not go out to nd it.
Justices dealt with the evidence, but detection and apprehension of suspects
was left to victims, who often went to great lengths to regain stolen property
(1992: 9).
This vacuum of government provision created a market for private investigators
and, in Britain, spawned various forms of thief taker organizations, and co-
operative felons associations concerned with recovery of stolen property and
prosecution of suspects for a reward. Frontier societies created by colonial settle-
ment, especially in the 19
th
century in north America, also spawned both in-
house security services (company police), with investigative functions, and
private contract security rms, also with investigative functions (Johnston,
1992). Wide-scale problems with theft of horses and cattle-rustling created a
market for recovery agents. Banks and railways were vulnerable to armed hold-
ups, and counter-measures included attempted recoveries of stolen valuables
and location of offenders. Bounty hunters stepped in and became a feature of
the frontier, but conditions also led to the establishment of large and well-
known rms including Brinks (1859) and Pinkertons (1850). The latter became
particularly powerful, providing services to both companies and government,
including espionage activities against the Confederate side during the Civil War;
and inltrating labour unions during the Great Depression (Gill and Hart,
1996).
Johnston (1992) observes that the enormous growth in security services in the
post-World War Two period was marked by a predominance of guarding services,
to the extent that private protection was seen to have largely displaced private
detection. Nonetheless, detection and recovery regained some ground, espe-
cially from the 1980s, when corporations placed more resources into investiga-
tions of illegal business competition. The massive growth in easy personal credit
424 The Handbook of Security
also contributed to the growth of debt recovery services. Other changes have
contributed to the growth of private investigation work. For example, there
appears to have been a resurgence in the demand for delity checks in the 1990s
following the AIDS epidemic (Miall and McDonald, 1993). Attempts to wind
back the welfare state and a trend towards privatization of government services
were evidenced in attempts to curb benet fraud in association with the out-
sourcing of surveillance work to private operators (George and Button, 2000).
Industry dimensions
One common way of measuring the size of the security industry is in relation to
police numbers. This varies considerably from country to country but can be
as high as 2.5 or more security providers for every police ofcer (Jones and
Newburn, 1998). Within the security sector, the enquiry sub-sector can also vary
considerably. In the United States, the comprehensive Hallcrest Report estimated
that in 1990 there were about 70,000 private investigator employees and about
15,000 companies, taking about 10 percent of security market revenues. Within
the whole security sector, guards made up 54 percent of personnel, alarm
installers 12 percent, manufacturing personnel 9 percent, locksmiths 7 percent
and investigators 7 percent (Cunningham et al., 1990: 21639). In Britain, one of
the more comprehensive studies from the mid-1990s found that of 8259 security
rms listed with Telecom, in terms of their main service, detective agencies made
up 9 percent, bailiffs 1.9 percent, credit investigations 1.9 percent and debt col-
lectors 5.2 percent (Jones and Newburn, 1998: 75). One recent study found that
in the state of New South Wales, Australia, in 2001 there were more licence
holders in the enquiry sector alone (15,800) than police (13,614) (Prenzler and
King, 2002).
The Hallcrest Report found that most investigator companies were small, with an
average size of about 2.5 investigators. This would seem a typical prole for the
sector in advanced industrial societies (Newburn and Jones, 1998; Gill and Hart,
1997c). Sole operators and partnerships are still very much a feature. A major
reason for the small scale of enterprises is the extensive use of sub-contracting of
operative work, usually to single operators. Sub-contracting allows rms that deal
directly with clients considerable exibility in managing their workow and it
means they can avoid administering a large workforce. It enables rms to engage
specialists as required, and to extend their reach geographically (George and
Button, 2000). The sector is a traditional male domain, with women typically
making up less than 10 percent of investigators. But this is slowly changing.
Female agents are just as capable and successful as men, as demonstrated in Val
McDermids (1995) book A Suitable Job for a Woman: Inside the World of Women
Private Eyes.
Limited regulation of the industry means that in many countries, private
investigation is one of the easiest businesses to set up, although establishing a
client base can be difcult (George and Button, 2000). Employees have tradition-
ally received limited on-the-job training with only a few short courses available
Tim Prenzler 425
in the private training eld (Gill and Hart, 1997c). One British study (Jones and
Newburn 1998: 89) found that 30 percent of private investigators were ex-police.
Another study (Gill and Hart, 1997c: 133) found that 43.6 percent of investiga-
tors preferred to employ staff with a police background. However, views are
frequently divided on the value of police experience. Where ex-police may be
frustrated by more limited powers in private practice, they also tend to have a
better knowledge of the investigative process and evidence. The number of ex-
police in the industry facilitates communication and co-operation with police
(Gill and Hart, 1997b). Larger investigations can involve a range of private and
public sector specialists. For example, George and Button refer to specialists
engaged to recover the 26 million lost in the Brinks Mat robbery in the 1990s.
After 22 million was recovered the celebratory party included solicitors, barris-
ters, accountants, police, private investigators, bankers and loss adjustors (2000:
90).
Work prole
There is a popular image of the private investigator as a lone operator whose
clients are private individuals that walk in off the street. The main task
requested is to discover whether or not a partner is having an affair. Associated
tasks include discretely investigating a suspected fraud or theft, or locating an
heir or a missing person. The role of private investigators in delity checks was
driven by strict divorce laws that required evidence of indelity. The modus
operandi of such investigations involved obtaining material evidence, such as
photographs or letters, often by illegal means such as trespass or theft. Some evi-
dence would be admissible in court. However, with illegal evidence it was best to
threaten the guilty parties with exposure of the material through means that
could not be traced to the investigator nor their client. If all went to plan, the
errant partner would then plead guilty to adultery. Hence the negative image of
The man in the dirty raincoat with upturned collar, watching lights go off in
bedrooms and storming in with camera and ashbulb at the ready (Draper,
1978: 26).
Since the 1960s and the introduction of no fault divorce in many coun-
tries, personal work of this nature has become a minor part of the work of
most private investigators. Two key developments have been apparent (Gill
and Hart, 1997b, 1997c; Jones and Newburn, 1998; Prenzler and King, 2002;
Reichman, 1987; South, 1988). The rst was a major shift, over the period
from the 1970s to the 1990s, away from personal work towards insurance
fraud, legal work and other commercial work. Increasing competition and
frustration with the growth of insurance fraud led to a well-organized system
of claims assessment and referral of suspect claims to investigators. The
second major change was the uptake of video camera surveillance. The
compact camera was a major technical innovation that greatly enhanced the
capacity for covert surveillance and production of legal evidence that could
be reproduced in court.
426 The Handbook of Security
Private Investigator work can be categorized in different ways. The following
provides a four-part set of types of work.
1 Anti-fraud work is conducted mainly for large insurance rms but also for
some self-insured private companies and government insurance agencies. The
work includes factual or surveillance work. For factual matters, the process
usually begins with interviewing the claimant, establishing a record of inter-
view, and then making further enquiries if necessary. With surveillance, the
investigator usually contracts to do a standard number of hours observation
on the person making a suspect claim. Many of these cases involve a claim of
physical disability, and agents will try to discover contrary evidence mainly
evidence of physical mobility. Insurance work is a very broad classication,
which includes arson and false claims of accidents. Welfare fraud includes
understating income or claiming unemployment benets when working.
2 Legal work is a mainstay of much private investigation. This background or
factual work for lawyers in civil, and some criminal cases, includes locating
and interviewing witnesses or claimants. The law rm may also request sur-
veillance on a party to gather evidence in relation to the defence or instiga-
tion of litigation. In some cases, agents will locate and analyse forensic
evidence, such as documents or scenes of trafc accidents, or investigate the
nancial condition of people in terms of their capacity to pay court-ordered
compensation. Another aspect of legal work is the service of legal summons
process service.
3 Commercial enquiry relates primarily to business competition, and entails
liability investigations, workplace investigations into theft or harassment, pre-
employment checks, and electronic counter-measures (de-bugging). A business
that keeps losing contracts might be subject to undercutting by rivals using
eavesdropping equipment to obtain tender information (George and Button,
2000: 89). Liability investigations relate to questions such as amounts of
money owing to parties in a contract. Pre-employment checks involve inter-
viewing persons who can attest to a job applicants character or checking edu-
cational qualications or previous work experience. Another area is trademark
and copyright investigations in cases where traders are suspected of using a
copyrighted logo without permission or selling pirated music, for example.
Some investigators may also undertake risk and security assessments, theft
recoveries, forensic accounting, and investigation of computer-based attacks
on businesses. An associated, and large, area of work is that of repossessions
and debt collection to enforce legal contracts and obligations. Due diligence
enquiries involve checking the bona des of potential clients or business part-
ners. This is especially important with the growth of a business beyond
national borders and the potential for businesses to be left with unpaid
invoices or saddled with business partners with criminal records intent on
fraud.
4 The nal area is domestic investigations or personal work. This can include
checking partner delity, checking for teenage drug use, searching for missing
Tim Prenzler 427
persons, abducted child recoveries, and private legal matters. The latter might
include such things as checking on the likely income of an estranged spouse
who is suspected of avoiding child maintenance payments. In some cases,
modern partner checks extend to integrity checks, where an undercover
operator tries to tempt a partner into beginning an affair (George and Button,
2000: 89).
A study of investigation rms in Britain in the 1990s found that solicitors made
up about 61 percent of customers, banks 33 percent, private companies 20 percent
and private individuals 14 percent (Jones and Newburn, 1998: 86). An Australian
study found that 70 percent of rms sampled did insurance work, 65 percent did
legal work, 60 percent did commercial work and 35 percent did domestic work
(Prenzler and King, 2002; see also Gill and Hart, 1997b). Information is the
product of private investigators. How to get information is the challenge. Their
craft knowledge and skills allow them to obtain information that their clients
cannot, or do not want to, obtain themselves. An investigation will often begin
with information supplied by the client, such as company records or addresses of
customers. The investigator may then follow these sources to other leads, includ-
ing interviewing associates or neighbours of the target. A range of publicly access-
ible legal data sources is also usually available. These include telephone books,
electoral rolls and property records. Governments or private rms may also
provide access for a fee to specialist databases such as lists of bankrupts, insurance
claimants or credit histories. Many of these are now in electronic form online or
on disc. In some cases, government departments, such as transport departments,
may allow conditional access to information such as details of trafc accidents
(Prenzler and King, 2002).
Despite the utility of many modern information sources, there is a group of
people who disappear off these databases and become extremely difcult if not
impossible to trace. Skip tracing is a term used for this type of work. Invest-
igators in this area, and those concerned with background checking, cast an
envious eye at databases usually closed to them, such as registers of births, deaths
and marriages; rental property information; adoption records; criminal histories;
and immigration records (to see if a person has left the country or to locate a
place where they may be hiding assets). Direct undercover work is occasionally
practiced by agents inltrating protest groups, for example, or working in a busi-
ness as a regular employee to check on employee crime (see Chapter 8) (Gill
et al., 1996; South, 1988).
Most private investigators maintain a comfortable living or average income,
with a few becoming wealthy. Differences in earnings appear to depend in part on
the nature of work, clients and location. There can be considerable competition
and attempted undercutting in tendering between rms but, once established,
most investigators seem to stay in the business until retirement. Normally, inves-
tigators charge an hourly rate, plus additional costs, such as petrol or accommoda-
tion. Only a few investigation rms bill on results only, although no serve-no fee
is practiced by some process serving rms (Gill and Hart, 1997b, 1997c).
428 The Handbook of Security
Most investigation work appears not to be dangerous, especially if agents have
good verbal skills. But process serving and debt recovery can be extremely danger-
ous, with the main risk coming from assaults. This work involves direct con-
frontation with people who are often under stress in extreme nancial difculty.
Repossessions of vehicles and furniture can at times lead to heated confrontations.
Surveillance carries some dangers, such as being accosted by the other party.
Discovery can lead to threats and attempted assault. But, overall, job satisfaction
appears fairly high. Personal autonomy is a major factor.
Ethics and conduct
Just as private investigators operate in something of a shadow land adjoining the
public justice system, they are also frequently portrayed as inhabiting a shadowy
realm of morality. In some media representations they are shown as willing to
engage in any kind of deceitful practice. This stereotype is not without some
basis in fact. Like policing, security work has a high opportunity factor and
strong pressures for misconduct. This results from the possession of privileged
knowledge about clients assets and vulnerabilities, and from the potential Dirty
Harry-style conict between noble ends and legal constraints as with police
detectives.
Illegal or unethical conduct includes trespassing, theft, intercepting and
opening mail, eavesdropping, obtaining condential information, deceptive
conduct (such as obtaining entry under false pretences), or using threats or
inducements. It can include practices such as staging incidents to provoke sur-
veillance targets into letting down their guard (by deating a car tyre or tipping
over a rubbish bin) or conducting inappropriate surveillance (such as at a
funeral). Advances in the range, power and compactness of electronic surveil-
lance equipment have greatly expanded the scope for invasions of privacy. The
scale of illicit practices in reality is difcult to assess. Some forms of malpractice,
such as purchasing condential information, have in modern times developed
into corrupt networks involving public servants and police, and have been
exposed in detail by ofcial inquiries (King and Prenzler, 2003). A major source
of information corruption is an old boys network of police and ex-police turned
investigators (Jones and Newburn, 1998).
In contrast to this negative image, research also suggests that many private
investigators see themselves as gatekeepers of legitimate privacy and safety (King
and Prenzler, 2003). In this regard, there appears to be a marked difference
between corporate and private clients. Corporate clients typically do not request
breaches of law. Concern with reputation is a major factor, and government
clients often verge on paranoia about adverse publicity. With insurance work,
there is always a chance that evidence may end up in court and therefore it
needs to be obtained legally. But the more private agents deal with the general
public, the more they are subject to enquiries regarding illegal or unethical ser-
vices. A private investigator can expect a trickle of requests for actions such as
placement of listening devices in homes or ofces, service of threats, breaking
Tim Prenzler 429
and entering to search for evidence, and location of people who enquirers want
to harass or assault. A small sub-category of this group is men on domestic vio-
lence protection orders seeking spouses who have gone into hiding, stalkers or
even organized crime groups with murder contracts to execute (Button, 1998: 9).
Private investigators claim to lter and reject such requests. In other cases, they
will moderate clients requests and try to nd a legal compromise. For example,
an enquirer who travels for work may suspect their partner is having an affair
and requests bugs be placed in the house and telephone. The investigator will
explain this is illegal but suggest that legal surveillance would be equally effective
in discovering the truth.
Some investigators will defend deceptive tactics such as leaving a dead cat
outside a front door to induce a person to make an appearance (Miall and
McDonald, 1993) or using an attractive woman to knock on a targets door under
the pretext of door-to-door sales and asking questions that will involve checking
the targets identity (King and Prenzler, 2003). One interviewee in a British study
recalled growing up in the business and helping his father with similar pretext
enquiries:
Weve been going out on surveillance operations since the age of ten Dad
would be taking the family out to the seaside for the day, then hed stop the
car for a while and ask us to play football in front of someones garden. He
would then take a picture of whoever came out to complain, probably to
check who lived at that address (in Gill and Hart, 1997c: 131).
Such practices are defended by the argument that the aim of nding a person
evading a legal obligation outweighs the ethically questionable means of
deception. In the words of a recovery agent:
[Bending the rules] is usually to right a civil wrong We may be looking at a
debt thats owed to a client on the verge of bankruptcy. If he is owed 20,000
and I nd that the debtor has 20,000 and can get enforcement against the
creditor and a bank, it is surely more moral to do this than to protect the
privacy of the debtor (in Gill et al., 1996: 313).
Regulation
There is a trend in many countries towards governments taking a greater role in
controlling the security industry through a variety of regulatory mechanisms, and
this trend has included the enquiry sector. The main aims of regulation are to
ensure entry-level competency and integrity, and ensure that standards are main-
tained (see Chapter 24). The primary mechanism is occupational licensing.
Compulsory pre-entry training is used in an attempt to ensure the skill basis is
sufcient to start work; and personal referees and a criminal history check are used
to try to exclude persons who may be disposed towards corrupt or criminal
conduct. A licensee who commits such an offence loses their licence for a period,
430 The Handbook of Security
and clients or members of the public who feel they have been subjected to mal-
practice may complain to the regulator and have the matter investigated.
Regulation may also include specic codes of conduct or enforceable guidelines on
particular aspects of security work. Debt recovery agents, for example, often have
restrictions placed on them about the time of day when they can approach a
debtor and the type of language they must use excluding intimidating behaviour
and threats of violence.
Misconduct problems and the inherent ethical risks of private investigator work
have been recognized by governments and enhanced regulation appears to be
largely supported by professional bodies that represent investigators (Jones and
Newburn, 1998: 92). However, effective regulation is a problematic task because of
the difculties in monitoring conduct. Many victims, for example, may not even be
aware that their privacy has been violated. Investigators and surveillance operatives
are highly mobile and could be engaging in misconduct that regulators are unable
to detect. In addition, pre-entry training levels in many jurisdictions remain mini-
malist and questionable one week of training is not untypical (Prenzler and King,
2002). A common contradiction in regulation is that bugging devices are often
freely available for sale that are illegal to apply in most circumstances (Button,
1998). Industry self-regulation is a supplementary form of control by which profes-
sional bodies aim to represent a quality membership. However, despite these strate-
gies, clients of investigators and members of the public are still heavily dependent
on trust and on individual investigators self-regulating their conduct.
Legal powers and responsibilities
The law as it relates to private investigators varies, of course, between jurisdic-
tions, but there are some common principles that tend to apply, especially in
liberal democracies. One important point is that a licence does not usually confer
any special powers or rights. Consequently, in the course of their work, investi-
gators are subject to criminal and civil laws in the same way as any other citizen.
Generally speaking, the critical areas of law that relate to private investigators
cover contract law, property access and trespass, nuisance, defamation, privacy
and eavesdropping.
Investigators have contractual obligations to their clients that come under
common law or commercial statute law provisions (Sarre, 2003). The investigator
is acting as an agent of the client and therefore has a duty to follow instructions
that are legal and to generally act in the interest of the client. There may be
specic contract requirements such as acting in person, or there may be an
explicit or implied agreement that the work can be passed to employees or sub-
contractors. There is also likely to be a responsibility to account for time and
costs, through time sheets or receipts. If the private investigator acts outside the
clients instructions, they will be in breach of contract and may be liable to pay
damages. But, generally, the investigator must exercise discretion in pursuing
lines of enquiry, and acts by way of an implied authority of the client on many
operational decisions.
Tim Prenzler 431
Law commonly reects the saying that ones home is ones castle. Normally, a
police ofcer or a private citizen cannot enter another persons property or
conduct a search without expressed or implied consent, unless under special cir-
cumstances such as to prevent a criminal act. An entrant upon land for a lawful
purpose (such as delivering a parcel) is assumed to have consent unless notied
to the contrary by the occupier (Sarre, 2003). An investigator commits trespass if
they enter a property where it is clear there is no consent (for example, a private
property do not enter sign), or remains on the property after being asked to
leave or is found there without lawful excuse. If the investigator enters the
property by a misrepresentation this will negate any consent. Thus the law
empowers a private agent to enter property and approach occupiers in some cir-
cumstances, but largely restricts their capacity to covertly obtain material
evidence or identify or contact someone trying to hide. This can make process
serving very challenging, as direct delivery of a legal notice into the hands of the
nominated person is usually required. In the case of repossession, an agents
ability to enter and seize property without permission is also usually restricted.
Together with forcible entry, this could lead to a charge of break, enter and
steal. Where resistance is anticipated, repossessors may obtain a court order, but
this is unlikely to authorize any use of force. As a last resort, the police may be
able to attend and assist. Of course, if an agent is attacked, they would be
allowed to use reasonable force to protect themselves. Outside private property,
there may not be any legal restriction on seizing goods. This can include forcibly
breaking into a car parked in a public location in order to repossess the car
(Hardy and Prenzler, 2004).
Common legal rights facilitate surveillance work in public places. It is usually
not illegal to tail or photograph someone. But if the surveillance becomes too overt
it could be become an act of nuisance or harassment. The same may apply to
overzealous investigations, with repeated questioning of persons colleagues or
acquaintances. Similarly, stings or set ups designed to expose fraudulent disabil-
ity claimants might be legal unless they become too overt. Additionally, any action
that leads to harm is likely be open to an action for tort. In many cases it is also
possible that the law allows investigators to act deceptively in approaching people,
although fair trading legislation might make some actions illegal. An example
would be where an investigator claims they are employed by a market research
company in order to access a persons property (Hardy and Prenzler, 2004).
When acting on private property on behalf of the owner, investigators often
have enormous power that follows from the right to place conditions on entry to
premises (Rigakos and Greener, 2000; Sarre, 2003). This gives authority to in-
house investigators in the public or private sector who can require a person to
attend an interview, answer questions or have their locker or bags searched. If a
subject refuses to co-operate, they may have their employment terminated or be
expelled from a premise. Targets of enquiries receive some protection from
defamation laws. Investigators need to be careful that in questions they ask, and
statements they make, they do not wrongfully impute anything that may be
harmful to a persons reputation.
432 The Handbook of Security
Listening devices have typically been subject to some form of regulation long
before privacy laws were introduced. Investigators may be allowed to covertly record
conversations they are party to, but it is unlikely in most jurisdictions that they will
be allowed to listen in on, or record, conversations as a third party although this
might be possible in certain circumstances such as extreme threat. Intercepting or
opening mail is also typically an offence that restricts private investigators.
Often laws related to privacy have been scattered across a variety of sources,
such as telecommunications intercept law and acts governing government
departments. However, there has been a trend in many countries to more clearly
dene and protect peoples privacy in specic legislation (Gill and Hart, 1997b).
Typically, this legislation will stipulate that information can only be used for the
purpose for which it was gathered. This prohibits private investigator access in
many cases. However, the evolution of the law is not necessarily all bad news for
private investigators. Privacy legislation can allow voluntary disclosure of in-
formation to agencies involved in law enforcement, including private enquiry
agents, in some circumstances (King and Prenzler, 2003).
Cultural images
Private investigators have a high prole in the murder mystery and suspense
genre in novels, lms and television dramas. Most readers would be familiar with
ctional private detective gures such as Arthur Conan Doyles Sherlock Holmes
or Agatha Christies Poirot, or with lms such as The Maltese Falcon or Chinatown.
Stories about private detectives have contributed to an image of the cynical lone
operator in a seedy second oor ofce, taking the occasional case from a private
client. As enquiry work has become more routinized and commercial, the
cultural image persists because of its narrative value and intrigue.
The cultural image is also typically dualistic: both glamorous and sinister
(George and Button, 2000: 87) and with investigators either knaves or knights
(Gill and Hart, 1997a). What is usually certain is that the classical detective novel
will end with a reassuring and satisfying resolution of the mystery by the protag-
onist. Although the intervention of the ctional private eye might bring the mis-
creant before the courts, the story is likely to include the realization of private
justice or real justice. Gill and Hart (1997a: 636) cite as an example the ending
of the 1970s lm version of Raymond Chandlers Farewell My Lovely, when the
investigator, Philip Marlowe, kills a murderer who has faked his own death and
escaped justice by bribing the police.
Of some interest is an Atlantic divide in the genre. Gill and Hart (1997a) iden-
tify an English preference for the gentlemen amateur detective with upper class
clients, a leisurely plot, and reassurances for the reader of restored social order
and hierarchy. The counterpoint to the detective hero is the bumbling local con-
stable. The American version displays a more gritty realism, with a more action-
oriented and violent depiction of mean streets, and a more pessimistic message
about the need for the heroic individual to continuously struggle against crime
and corruption. The counterpoint is the corrupt or indifferent city police.
Tim Prenzler 433
Social impact
The last 2030 years have seen a substantial increase in the use of private agents
to counteract fraud and assist lawyers and businesses in other work related to
crime reduction and the pursuit of justice. There is, however, very little research
measuring the achievements of investigators, whether for their clients or indi-
rectly for the public good. Private investigators interviewed for an Australian
study claimed very high success rates for clients. They generally estimated their
ability to obtain concrete results in the range of 7090 percent (Prenzler and
King, 2002). This was assessed in terms of recovery of losses, dropping of suspect
insurance claims, criminal convictions or employment termination of offenders.
Respondents claimed an approximate minimum saving of between $3 and $6 for
every $1 spent on a case. Signicant reductions in government payments have
also resulted from the deployment of private surveillance agents against sus-
pected fraudulent welfare claimants (Prenzler and King, 2002: 2). Anecdotally,
many investigators claim satisfaction from helping private clients in difcult cir-
cumstances: by stopping long-term stalking for example, or providing assurances
about the safety of a runaway teenager. These achievements are sometimes con-
trasted with an under-resourced or indifferent criminal justice system. Many
investigators also have very positive views of the wider contribution they make
to society, primarily as champions of the honest worker by keeping down costs
affected by fraud and debt evasion (Prenzler and King, 2002).
Although under-resourcing of government services is a likely factor in the
demand for private enquiry work, condentiality is another factor. For example, if
police discovered on behalf of concerned parents that a teenager was using drugs
there would probably be an obligation to lay charges. A private investigator could
simply reveal their ndings, and parents could then try to get their child into a
treatment programme. More generally, private investigators can provide a personal
service, and continuity of case management and communication, not usually
available from even the best police department. In the case of debt recovery, in
many countries this is treated as a civil matter that must be pursued by the
wronged party. Debt recovery agents are therefore involved in a response to a type
of hidden crime. Tracing and interviewing witnesses is also an essential component
of the delivery of justice in cases of a civil, but often criminal, standing. Here there
is also a role to be played by private investigators in the defence of civil liberties
and prevention of miscarriages of justice. Much of the legal work in relation to
criminal justice is for the defence; in part because once the police have decided to
press charges, their efforts are generally geared towards gathering evidence for the
prosecution (Gill and Hart, 1997b: 557). Hence, private investigations play a vital
role in balancing the power of the state in the courts.
One downside, however, for many theorists, is the potential injustice associ-
ated with the growth of private justice. This involves two dimensions. A social
justice critique (Prenzler, 2004) emphasizes how a mixed economy of law
enforcement and crime prevention favours the rich, resulting in unequal secu-
rity and unequal access to justice (Loader, 1997). The second dimension more
434 The Handbook of Security
narrowly dened as a justice critique (Prenzler, 2004) focuses on the impacts
on due process of privatized justice (Shearing and Stenning, 1983). Offenders
dealt with privately may benet unfairly from decisions not to enforce the law
and not to inform police of an offence. At the same time, suspects may suffer
from the denial of due process. Where, for example, police would prosecute a
suspect in a case of employee theft, a rm might take the easier option of dis-
missing them, thereby denying the suspect the presumption of innocence and
the protection of the court process. Allied with this is fear of a new surveillance
(Marx, 1986), widening webs of surveillance (Reichman, 1987) and the disper-
sal of social control away from democratic government (Hoogenboom, 1991).
This follows from the new technologies of CCTV, listening devices, x-ray
scanning, and computerized access to personal records. Theorists such as
Hoogenboom acknowledge, nonetheless, that the growth of security services
and new technologies do not pose a direct threat to democracy and civil liber-
ties. They do, however, pose a challenge to improved accountability and the
appropriate regulation of security technology. It is also unlikely that govern-
ments are going to address inequalities in access to justice with large increases
in expenditure on public justice systems. It is important therefore that there is
more public debate about how regulation and policy can address these vital
issues of liberty, privacy and equity (Stenning, 2000: 347).
Conclusion
Private investigators provide a wide range of services to their clients. Some of
these services are essential to the business operations of insurance companies,
legal rms and other businesses. Investigation services also provide a public
benet in the ght to reduce the cost of fraud and to facilitate justice for
aggrieved parties who are the victims of crimes and other wrongs. However, there
are potential large-scale inequalities and injustices that can result from the expan-
sion of such forms of private justice. There are also powerful pressures on private
agents to breach the law in pursuit of legitimate goals; and there are pressures to
pursue ends that are not justiable, such as assisting with revenge or harassment.
This potential for misconduct means that regulation is essential to protect clients
and innocent third parties from breaches of privacy or other violations of liberties,
and to maximize the benets of private agent work. Many investigators argue that
increased controls on their conduct through government regulation should be
matched by enhanced powers for licence holders, such as access to information
under strictly controlled conditions. This is potentially a future direction for
private agent work, entailing enlarged interactions with government agencies,
and contributing to the greater acceptance of private investigators as a legitimate
part of the complex network of justice services.
Key readings
Draper, H. (1978) Private Police, Sussex: Harvester Press is an easy-to-read early qualitative
study on the work of private investigators in Britain, with an extensive exploration of types
Tim Prenzler 435
of occupational deviance. Gill, M. and Hart, J. (1997a) Private Investigators in Britain and
America: Perspectives on the Impact of Popular Culture. Policing: An International Journal of
Police Strategy and Management, Vol. 20, pp. 63140 is a particularly good study for devotees
of the private detective novel with a summary of cross-Atlantic perspectives on how the
genre works differently in the US and Britain. Similarly, Gill, M. and Hart, J. (1997b)
Exploring Investigative Policing: A Study of Private Detectives in Britain, British Journal of
Criminology, Vol. 37, pp. 54967 is based on questionnaires completed by private detectives
in Britain. It makes a close examination of the changing work prole of private investigators
with an emphasis on commercial work and a section on potential conicts with ethical
standards. Jones, T. and Newburn, T. (1998) Private Security and Public Policing, Oxford:
Clarendon Press combines quantitative and qualitative data sources to show the diverse
range of types of work now done by private investigators. McDermid, V. (1995) A Suitable Job
for a Woman: Inside the World of Women Private Eyes, London: HarperCollins is a very inter-
esting read based on interviews with female detectives. It highlights both the capability of
women private detectives and the often amusing and difcult situations in which private
investigators can nd themselves in. Miall, T. and McDonald, M. (1993) Gumshoe, Sydney:
screened on ABC TV is a fascinating documentary that includes interviews with investigators
and extended re-enactments of aspects of their working days. It puts the viewer right in the
scene and oscillates between the hilarious and the tragic. See also, Prenzler, T. and King M.
(2002) The Role of Private Investigators and Commercial Agents in Law Enforcement,
Trends and Issues in Crime and Criminal Justice, No. 234, pp. 16, based on interviews with
40 private detectives. This study explores the evolving nature of their work and clientele,
explores the types of ethical issues they face and how they seek to resolve them, and
includes attention to ways of assessing the benets of private agency work.
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