As we enter Spring of 2025 I have seen a huge wave of people enquiring to work with us at Delta 74 Private Investigations and so I thought I would explain how the private investigation industry works a little bit.
Now please bear in mind some of the way other businesses run their operations may differ and certainly in the different areas of the private investigation industry it will differ but for surveillance focused companies it is the way I describe.
The private investigation industry is unregulated and unlicensed. This is where the industry trade bodies have filled the gap to try and self regulate the industry. The main issue with this is that it is self-regulating and as such PI businesses and self employed investigators need to sign up themselves and adhere to the trade body by-laws.
Why is this an issue? The cowboys within the industry simply don’t sign themselves up and can use clever marketing to seem legitimate.
When looking for an investigator though, an investigator who is a member of a trade body shows that they are a credible business that is registered with all the correct procedures needed. Please don’t hire an investigator who isn’t a trade body member!
The main two forerunners in leading the way of professional standards are;
The Institute of Professional Investigators runs a very well oiled machine in how they vet their new members and then keep up to-date records for all it’s members with the relevant certifications required.
Delta 74 Private Investigations are proud members of The IPI and are active within the institute.
The larger of the two trade bodies, The ABI who were established in 1913 have strong working relationships with The Law Society and The Information Commissioners Office (ICO).
To become a member their process is very strict and requires an interview along with peer references from other investigators. This ensures The ABI know exactly who they are allowing into their membership and that the investigator knows the by-laws they must adhere to.
Within the private investigation industry there are then different sectors. Now with marketing the way it is many companies will boast they can do all manners of investigation work but this is simply not true.
Usually what happens is that if a surveillance focused company gets an enquiry to carry out handwriting analysis for forgery then they will take that project on and out source it. In other cases they will refer clients directly and charge the referral to the other company – this is what we do.
Let me explain the main different fields;
Covert Surveillance
This entails into following people and everything that goes along with it such as vehicle tracking, cameras and capturing audio evidence.
Tracing
This is the art of finding people. It is an art in itself. Not every company like Delta 74 offer no find no fee tracing because they simply can’t risk not finding people and losing the income because it isn’t their field.
Process Serving
This type of work is usually undertaken by companies who solely focus on process serving. They don’t usually offer many other services than this.
Process serving is whereby the court requires someone to deliver legal documents so that it is clear and evident that person has received those papers. Think of divorce notices or orders to attend court.
Forensic Investigating
This is a large sector and includes companies who investigate the scenes of a crash all the way through to phone interrogating. This is a very niche field and one that we are happy to admit we don’t get involved in as it is not our expertise. We wouldn’t know the first thing about handwriting and forgery for example.
Within the industry it is estimated that there are around 10,000 investigators working within the UK.
As explained above we don’t all work in the same fields as no one can know all that. So how does it work?
Delta 74 are a covert surveillance and tracing focused company so when we get an enquiry into carrying out a lie detector test we will handle that client all the way through the process but the test will be conducted by an out-sourced third party vendor.
Much the same as the building trade. When you ask a company to build and fit a kitchen. They will go and get a carpenter and a plumber. Those two will most likely be out-sourced and will send their invoices to the kitchen company separate to being on a payroll of the company handling the client.
Most investigation companies do this and try to not disclose that’s how they do it. Please ask as all contractors should be vetted and checked.
The Gig Economy
With the above example the best way to view the investigation industry is the same as the gig economy.
Whereby most private investigation companies are small companies with one or two investigators running the company. From there as jobs and projects come in, they hire assistance on a self-employed basis.
This is how companies can boast national coverage for surveillance services. As an example a London based investigation company may get a job/project in Manchester and to remain competitive they will source local agents in Manchester to carry out the work rather than travel and charge accommodation etc.
This model is most commonly known and used in the building trades where by a group of experts are required to work together to achieve the end objective.
Now that I have explained that the private investigation industry runs on the gig economy, for anyone starting out they need to position themselves ready to work in that type of way.
Ideally they will need to be already trained and have carried out relevant courses to their field in order to be ready for vetting by any company or investigator they approach for work.
The best example of this I can use is surveillance. I will not and cannot employ or deploy anyone that has not passed the vetting we set out. We do use contractors for larger projects when needed and to be on the preferred suppliers list someone entering the industry needs to have completed a recognised surveillance course, have all the correct insurances and registrations along with the full suite of surveillance equipment.
With all that I can then employ them as a contractor or refer them to other surveillance companies local to them, ready for them to get working. Please bear in mind when you do start out, your hourly rate will be reflective of your experience. The main effort for new entries is getting into the networking groups which are on Facebook and in WhatsApp groups where work topics are discussed and work passed when required.
Once a new starter has gained some confidence it is normal for them to set up a limited company (mostly for accounting purposes) and then build a business themselves from there.
This blog post is in all honesty a snippet into how the industry works as the private investigation industry is huge. This is coupled with the fact it is unregulated so navigating your way in and around it can be complicated.
If you are a new entry into the industry, I wish you a warm welcome and I hope this helps you! For the most part it is a friendly industry with a competitive spirit however, we do work together and always try towards bettering each other everyday.
Thanks for reading, Dan.
Delta 74 Private Investigations Ltd
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The Old Vicarage
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