Industry Standards

Something near and dear to us here at Elemental Solutions are industry standards for PI's, not only here in balmy Ottawa, Canada (of course I jest in the midst of one of the worst winters in recent memory), but around the world.

There has been a large push to bring PIs in line with other professional industries, particularly considering the ever increasing sensitivity to privacy issues and can be seen in most countries really beginning to take hold.

Canada, like may nations, benefits from a national requirement for privacy issues, allowing for fairly uniform standards between the provinces, which hold ultimate jurisdiction. Other countries, such as the US, operate on a state by state basis, which requires an understanding of each state's views on privacy and the industry to known how the laws and standards may apply to the industry.

The pushes all around the world are still largely in their infancies, focussing on bringing licensing out to the profession and basic levels of training and liability. These changes are also having the benefit seen in most industries when licensing and common practices are instituted, that of a reduction in unskilled and unethical businesses operating in the environment.

There are some in the industry who continue to resist the changes coming to the industry, and for those agencies, I would say that their time is rapidly coming to a close. Increasing liability issues in the face of breaches of privacy are on the move, a reduction in tolerance for obtaining black market information for cases is becoming more evident and the existence of an ever increasing well informed client base will lead to these agencies adapting or dying.

These changes are ultimately a boon to clients who need to know that their PI agency of choice has met some basic standards. It also benefits the investigations industry when sub-contracting out work across jurisdictions by ensuring that a potential contractor can be counted on to conduct themselves in a certain manner. It also ensures that our industry is kept in the highest esteem of the communities in which we serve, allowing our client bases to thrive.

If you want to learn more about the private investigator regulations in your jurisdiction, do a search fro your state, provincial or national level private investigator associations. They will be able to discuss the standards to which your local PIs are held, as well as how to ensure you are dealing with a licensed PI.

Blog post is courtesy Elemental Investigations: Private Investigator Edmonton, an Edmonton, Canada based private investigator agency. They can be found online at www.elementalpi.ca