What are the requirements to be a private investigator in Austin Texas?
The demand for PIs (private investigators) has been rising all around the world, especially in Texas. PIs are very skilled regarding their work and can tell a thing or two about someone you're suspecting to build a solid case. You can hire a private investigator for cheating wife, missing children, or general investigation. Due to the rising demand of investigators, the Texas workforce commission thinks that this might be the best time to become a certified PI.
The Texas Department of Public Safety and its Private Security Bureau (PSB) takes full responsibility for the supervision of private investigation agencies, agency owners, and the PIs working under them. To gain the authority to legally conduct investigative services, the Texas Private Security Act requires the PI to associate with a registered agent of their respective investigation firm or to initiate an independent private investigation agency on their behalf. The private investigation can be made up of just the owner working on his own or alongside a bunch of employees working with him.
If you are keen to join an investigation agency but you don't have any hope get a job in a PI agency, you might need to join the business on your own. Here you will find out about all the things you need to know to either start working at an agency or become a PI agency owner. You will need to follow the steps written below to associate yourself with a private investigation agency:
1. Meet the basic requirement for PI registration.
2. Accomplish your requirements regarding your education and work experience
3. Join a private investigation agency or establish an independent firm.
4. More about PI services and what to do.
Let’s get deep into the steps to exactly know what are the requirements to be a private investigator in Austin Texas:
· Step 1: Meeting the basic requirements for PI registration:
Some people want to work at an agency as a PI while others want to own their private agency. But there are a few requirements that are necessary to be fulfilled in to become a licensed investigator in Austin, Texas.
Examine all these points and make sure that you fulfill all these basic requirements:
· Your age should be at least 18 or above.
· You have never been accused of any kind of felony in any jurisdiction.
· You have never been dismissed dishonorably from the U.S military services in your life.
· You haven’t been accused of a class B misdemeanor in any jurisdiction in the past five years.
· You are not currently charged for an alleged Class A misdemeanor of a felony.
· You are not charged with a Class B misdemeanor as of the present day.
· You have not been found incompetent by any means due to a mental problem or an unfortunate disease by the court.
· You cannot register in Texas or any other jurisdiction as a sex offender.
These are some of the requirements needed to be fulfilled to become a Private Investigator Austin Texas or to join a PI agency and work for them.
· Step 2: Accomplish requirements regarding your education and experience:
To apply for your registration as a PI in Texas, you must be sponsored by a licensed Private investigation service working in Texas. To explain this in easy terms, you must be either employed at a licensed and registered PI in Texas or have a strong offer to work for them.
If you are looking forward to working as an independent private investigator for a licensed investigation agency in Texas, you are only obliged to get education and training as per the requirements of the agency's owner. There are no such regulations or training requirements for PIs working for a licensed agency in the state of Texas. The main goal of the employers is to find the most skilled and qualified candidate. You might want to consider starting an undergraduate degree in criminal justice or a field related to it if you don't have any experience in the investigative or militant field. The following degree options are recommended and available at schools in Texas:
1. Bachelor’s in Business Administration – Legal studies.
2. Bachelor’s in science-criminal justice
3. Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice – Homeland Security and Emergency Management.
4. Bachelor’s in Science in Criminal Justice – Human Services
If you are looking forward to owning your private licensed investigation agency in Texas, you must fulfill the following requirements to manage a private investigation firm. With all being said, you need to at least accomplish one of the following education and experience requirements:
· Minimum three years of experience in private investigation.
· A graduate degree in criminal justice or a related field.
· Minimum 200 hours of specialized private investigator training.
· A graduate degree in any field with at least six months of investigative experience.
· One year of investigative experience alongside an associate degree program in criminal justice or a related field.
After completing the requirements related to your education and work experience, it's time to move on to our next step.
· Step 3: Joining a private investigation agency and establishing your independent firm:
If you are trying to apply for registration and work as an initial private investigator in the state of Texas, your boss will collect all of your personal information which will include your work experience, your education, your personal and family background, and a couple of other things. After that, you will have to complete the Original Registration Application Supplement, and to get registered with the Texas Department of Public Safety, Private Security Bureau (PSB) you will have to submit an application as an employee through the online application system. You will be required to submit your fingerprints which will be used for an FBI background check.
After you have submitted the application fee and completed the online registration procedure, your boss will receive a receipt with which instructions about how to go about getting your fingerprints taken by a list of third-party locations approved and authorized for electronic fingerprinting in the state of Texas.
Whereas for the people planning to open their private investigation agency might need to read this to get a basic idea of how things are done. You will need to submit a PSB-01 Company License Application Form alongside the required documents and information. You will have to choose a unique name that is not taken by some other agency in Texas to get your PI agency's name approved. The license application of the company also involves naming all partners/shareholders/owners and the ownership hierarchy of your company.
If you have submitted the form online, you will have to wait for 24 hours before submitting your personal manager application. If you are looking forward to becoming an owner, you should make sure to apply online to submit the Online Manager Application Supplement.
In this case, you will need to fulfill these requirements:
· Submit 33$ of the application fee
· 25$ FBI classification and two completed fingerprint cards or a receipt of electronic fingerprinting service.
In the case of mailing your application, the payments are meant to be completed by the use of a cheque or money order payable to the Texas Department of Public Safety.
You are also required to pass the Qualified Manager Program during the 90 days of submission of your application. It is a two-hour, MCQs and true-false-based paper with 140 questions. To pass the exam, you must answer at least 105 questions correctly. The result is sent after 30 days of your attempt.
· Step 4: More About Private investigation agency:
Congratulations on completing your whole procedure of becoming a registered private investigator with a PI agency or as an owner of your company!
The registration must be renewed online every year. If you are working as an employee, then there is no need to worry since the employer will take care of the annual registration for you.
As a private investigator either working on your own or employed by an agency, you must complete continuing education requirements to renew your registration to work legally in the state of Texas.
If you are employed as a private investigator with a licensed agency or a partaking owner that has been registered for less than 15 consecutive years, then you are required to complete 18 hours of CE (continuing education) which will include:
· Education of 14 hours must be related to an investigation
· 2 hours of specific ethics
· 2 hours must be to review the Texas Private Security Act
If you are working as a private investigator with a licensed agency in the state of Texas or if you are a partaking owner of an agency that has been registered for more than 15 consecutive years, then a total of 12 hours of continued education is required to be completed in which these things are included:
· 8 hours must be for investigation
· 2 hours must be specifically for ethics
· 2 hours must be to review the Texas Private Security Act
You will receive your CE from a PSB-approved provider.

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