A private investigator (PI) gathers information that individuals, attorneys, businesses, and insurance companies can’t easily obtain on their own. That work spans everything from sitting in a parked car for hours watching a subject’s movements to digging through public records databases and interviewing witnesses. The job is far more research-heavy and detail-oriented than TV shows suggest, and it operates within strict legal boundaries.
Surveillance
Surveillance is the task most people associate with private investigators, and it really is a core part of the job. A PI might be hired to document a spouse’s suspected infidelity, verify that an employee filing a workers’ compensation claim is genuinely injured, or track the movements of someone involved in a custody dispute. The work involves following subjects on foot or by vehicle, photographing or recording their activities from public spaces, and logging detailed notes with timestamps.
Modern surveillance relies heavily on technology. PIs use high-resolution cameras with telephoto lenses, GPS-enabled dashcams, and video equipment that works in low light. A single surveillance assignment can last a few hours or stretch across several days depending on what the client needs documented. The resulting photos, video, and written reports often become evidence in court proceedings.
Background Checks and Due Diligence
Background investigations make up a large share of PI work. Clients range from individuals running a check on a future spouse to corporations vetting a potential business partner. A PI conducting a background check will typically search criminal records, court filings, driving records, employment history, and credit-related public information to build a complete picture of someone’s past.
Pre-employment screening is a particularly common service. Companies hire PIs to verify a candidate’s identity, confirm professional credentials, and check for criminal history. On the corporate side, due diligence investigations help businesses evaluate the risks of a merger, acquisition, or major contract by examining the financial health and legal history of the other party.
Skip Tracing and Locating People
Skip tracing is the process of finding someone who has moved, gone off the grid, or is deliberately hiding. PIs use databases, social media activity, phone records, public filings, and interviews with associates to track people down. Common skip tracing clients include attorneys who need to serve legal documents, families searching for missing relatives, and bail bond companies looking for defendants who failed to appear in court.
The work goes beyond simply plugging a name into a search engine. A PI might cross-reference a subject’s old addresses with utility records, check property ownership filings, or monitor social media accounts for location clues. Finding a runaway teenager or a long-lost family member can require days of piecing together small leads.
Asset Searches
When someone needs to know what another person or company owns, a PI conducts an asset search. This involves combing through public records to identify real estate holdings, vehicle registrations, business interests, bank liens, and other indicators of wealth. Asset searches come up frequently in divorce cases where one spouse suspects the other is hiding money, in probate disputes where a trustee may be concealing estate property, and in civil lawsuits where a plaintiff needs to confirm the defendant has assets worth pursuing.
Some PI firms maintain proprietary databases that aggregate public records from multiple sources, giving them faster and more thorough results than a standard online search.
Fraud and Insurance Investigations
Insurance companies are among the biggest clients in the PI industry. When a claim looks suspicious, an insurer will hire a PI to investigate. Workers’ compensation cases are especially common: a PI might surveil a claimant who says they can’t lift anything but is spotted carrying heavy boxes at home. The investigator documents the evidence and delivers it to the insurance company, which uses it to approve or deny the claim.
Fraud investigations extend beyond insurance. PIs investigate embezzlement within companies, identity theft cases, and financial schemes. The work blends surveillance, document analysis, and interviews to determine whether fraud occurred and who was involved.
Legal Support and Evidence Gathering
Attorneys regularly hire PIs to support both criminal defense and civil litigation. In criminal cases, a defense attorney might bring in a PI to re-interview witnesses, locate new ones, or examine physical evidence that the police may have overlooked. In civil matters, PIs gather evidence for personal injury claims, contract disputes, and family law cases.
PIs also collect evidence through data analysis, pulling together phone records, social media posts, online activity, and court documents to build a timeline or establish someone’s credibility. The information they gather often ends up as exhibits in depositions or trials, so PIs must document everything carefully to ensure it holds up in court.
Specialized Niches
The PI industry has dozens of specialties beyond the general categories. Some investigators focus on cyber investigations, including computer forensics and electronic bug sweeps. A bug sweep involves scanning a home, office, or vehicle for hidden recording devices or GPS trackers. Other PIs specialize in accident reconstruction, working to determine how a car crash or workplace incident occurred and who bears responsibility.
Loss prevention investigators work inside retail environments, posing as regular shoppers or employees to catch theft. Arson investigators determine whether a fire was set intentionally. Corporate investigators may work full-time on a company’s staff rather than running their own firm, handling internal investigations into employee misconduct or intellectual property theft.
What PIs Cannot Legally Do
Private investigators have no law enforcement authority. They cannot arrest people, carry badges that imply they’re police officers, or access information that requires a warrant. Wiretapping phone calls, hacking into email accounts, trespassing on private property, and impersonating law enforcement are all illegal for PIs, just as they are for anyone else.
PIs are also prohibited from making false reports about their findings, divulging client information to unauthorized parties, and accepting cases where the information gathered would be used for illegal purposes. All of their evidence must be obtained through legal channels, including public records, observations from public spaces, and voluntary interviews, or it risks being thrown out of court.
Licensing Requirements
Most states require private investigators to hold a license. The specific requirements vary, but they generally include a minimum age (often 21 to 25), a clean criminal background, and prior experience in investigative work or law enforcement. Some states require three or more years of professional experience or equivalent time as a police officer. Many also require passing a written examination and posting a surety bond, which is a financial guarantee that protects clients if the PI fails to meet their obligations.
A handful of states have no licensing requirement at all, but even in those states, PIs are still bound by all applicable laws regarding privacy, trespassing, and fraud. Hiring an unlicensed investigator in a state that requires licensing can create legal problems for both the PI and the client, particularly if evidence gathered by the investigator is challenged in court.
Who Hires a Private Investigator
The client base is broader than most people expect. Law firms are the single largest source of PI work, hiring investigators for case preparation in criminal, civil, and family law matters. Insurance companies are a close second, using PIs primarily for fraud investigations. Corporations hire PIs for background checks, intellectual property cases, and internal investigations.
Individual clients make up a significant portion of the business as well. People hire PIs to investigate a cheating partner, find a missing family member, run a background check before a major personal decision, or document harassment and stalking for a protective order. Fees typically run between $50 and $150 per hour depending on the investigator’s experience and the complexity of the case, with surveillance work sometimes billed at a flat daily rate.