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Moving my company to Texas - P.I. Licensing questions

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(@parabuser)
Posts: 9
Active Member
Topic starter
 

While holding down a full time job in IT and for the last 10 years in Cyber Security for a Pretty Large Company, I've also maintained a side business in computer and mobile device forensics and expert witness services for a little over 15 years. I've been pretty successful and have always had as much business as I care for while depending on referrals and word of mouth.

We both telecommute and are selling our Minnesota home with plans to move to Texas Hill Country while keeping our ties to "up north" by spending our summers at our lake cabin in Wisconsin.

My company is registered in Minnesota and I've learned that I'll need to be licensed as a Private Investigator in Texas, which requires me to be affiliated with a company with a physical address in Texas.

After waiting on hold forever yesterday, I spoke with a person Texas Department of Public Safety, which seems to be the agency responsible for PI licensing. All I could get out of them was that I need to get my business registered in Texas, then they can talk to me about the requirements for a PI license.

From what I can tell online it seems I meet the requirements of a Bachelor's Degree and a certain amount of experience, but I don't see any other info about training, certs, etc.

I'd love to hear from someone licensed in Texas. Feel free to respond in thread or contact me directly.

 
Posted : 28/04/2017 7:17 pm
(@cthies)
Posts: 2
New Member
 

I was a PI in Texas for 12 years.

I am a PI now in NJ and PA.

Texas is one of the more strict states when it comes to licensing. They area also one of the few states that require continuing education as part of continued licensing.

You can get your own license if you have the requisite years of experience. The # of years escapes me now but I want to say either 3 or 5 years.

They may accept your current experience doing you job now but only Austin can answer that. When I was there the licensing agency was called TBPIPSA (Texas Board of Private Investigators and Private Security Agencies). The agency has changed but ultimately Texas Dept of Public Safety (State Police) runs it.

IF you qualify to get our own license you will have to take a test that involves ONLY knowledge of the laws governing private investigators. The test does not involve any knowledge of doing the job…ONLY the law. Studying for the exam is boring.

IF you chose to not get a license be aware the board has field agents and their sole purpose is to bust unlicensed PI's. The local board investigator asked my agency for assistance on several occasions to help bust unlicensed PI's. They do prosecute unlicensed PI's

My advice is to get affidavits from your best client to attest to the years of experience you have in the IT Security field. The "major company" you work for could provide that affidavit. It will probably suffice.

Contact me with any questions.

 
Posted : 03/05/2017 9:31 pm
(@parabuser)
Posts: 9
Active Member
Topic starter
 

Thanks for the detailed response, I really appreciate it. It seems that acquiring the license is mostly a nuisance activity, save for the exam. I've been looking for some type of training manual but it looks like I'll have to man up and study the regulations!

 
Posted : 04/05/2017 4:25 pm
tracedf
(@tracedf)
Posts: 169
Estimable Member
 

Parabuser How did you market yourself when you were starting out?

 
Posted : 05/05/2017 1:58 am
(@parabuser)
Posts: 9
Active Member
Topic starter
 

Parabuser How did you market yourself when you were starting out?

I actually kind of fell into the business when my brother the defense attorney asked me some questions about a case he had involving yahoo chat transcripts and email records. I started fairly slow, finally took some training, and then a couple of speaking engagements with some lawyering groups. I get asked to write articles for some of their publications from time to time, but otherwise I don't do any active marketing at all.

 
Posted : 05/05/2017 5:22 am
MDCR
 MDCR
(@mdcr)
Posts: 376
Reputable Member
 

Just shows the insanity of the certification business (Yeah - it IS a business). If i remember correctly from Scotts speech (not sure if it's the right video), someone who know someone in government wanted to make some money and they made the PI crap into regulation, then the other states saw it and thought "hey, we got to do it if they did it". Same with the pointless CISSP. I've met a bunch of those people over the years and i wouldn't trust them to configure a firewall properly on Windows XP.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbiOADD7ATM

 
Posted : 05/05/2017 9:15 am
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