The current Colorado private investigator licensing program went into effect on June 1, 2015 and as with every licensing program, was given a sunset date. That is a date when legislators look at the program to see if it is working and worth continuing. The sunset date attached to that bill (which is the current law) was September 1, 2020. Therefore, the new bill (HB20-1207) was drafted in 2020 for the legislators to ask to continue the program past the sunset date and CPI supported this bill and the continuation of licensing. Although this bill passed the House of Representatives and the Senate with over 75% approval on both floors, the Governor chose to veto this extension of the law. That is enough support (66% is needed) in both chambers to over ride a veto however, the legislative session had already ended and the veto becomes the final word on HB20-1207. Keep in mind this is new legislation and the only way it would affect the CURRENT law would be to extend the law for another five years, if this bill had passed.

The original law which went effect on June 1, 2015 is still in effect, past the stated sunset date. Though DORA (Colorado’s regulating body) never notified any of the over 1000 Colorado license investigators of the veto or how this would affect our licenses, CPI has learned the following. DORA posted an FAQ on their web site which indicates that the current PI licenses (set to expire on May 31, 2021) are still in effect and all licensing laws are being enforced during their year long wind up period. According to the FAQ the licensing law may even stay in effect a short time after that.

Bottom line is the Colorado PI licensing law is still in effect until at least May 31, 2021 and DORA will continue to take complaints, applications for new licenses and continue to enforce all laws regarding this program, including complaints for unlicensed activity.

This licensing law has been heavily geared toward protecting YOU, the consumer, who is considering hiring a private investigator in Colorado. This gave consumers a place (DORA) to check that investigator is properly licensed, which means that they have gone through a background check, they carry a bond and it also gives the consumer a place to file a complaint, when necessary. After May 31, 2021 (or shortly thereafter according to DORA) none of these protections will be in place for the consumer. When hiring a private investigator, be sure to know they are legitimate and those being members of state, national or world associations, are often times an indicator of a trustworthy investigator. CPI is a member of the Professional Private Investigators Association of Colorado (PPIAC), the National Council of Investigation and Security Services (NCISS) and a past member of the World Association of Detectives (WAD).

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The entity that has oversight of this program in Colorado is the Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA) and with this program set to sunset in September of 2020, it brings a review to see if the program is still necessary. This review and recommendation from DORA was made public on October 15, 2019 and they recommended to discontinue the program citing very few incidents of bad actors in the profession. In order to understand how wrong this recommendation is, you have to go back to the legislative session of 2014, when mandatory PI licensing was only a bill being heard by the Colorado legislature. During those sessions the legislature was provided with numerous bad actors who were in the profession or claimed to be PIs. These bad actors, as well as the need for consumer protection was the reason this bill passed and made into the current law.

Up until that time, being an unlicensed state meant any PI with a criminal history who was not able to get licensed in another state or was barred from practicing in a licensed state, could come to Colorado and set up shop with just a business card. Our citizens had no way of vetting the person, and just simply took a leap of faith that the person presenting themselves as a PI was honorable and not a scam artist. Today the consumer simply needs to log onto the web site for DORA and can vet a licensed PI, or in turn find out the person is not legally licensed. This also gives the consumer a place to report a PI who is acting inappropriately. With licensing comes the requirement that the PI has a $10,000 surety bond, which is another protection for the consumer. These assurances are in place for the Colorado consumer and DORA’s own report in October of 2019, states a lack of bad actors. Yet DORA has recommended to end the program??

A new bill has been introduced into the 2020 legislative session to continue the program and during the hearings for this bill, DORA was asked the obvious question. You mean to tell me there were bad actors before licensing was mandatory and now you say there are minimal bad actors, suggesting the program is working, and you want to discontinue the program? The state representative who asked that question, signed on to become a co-sponsor of the bill to continue PI licensing at the end of that meeting.

Colorado has a unique structure in that a program like private investigator licensing can receive no (ZERO) general funds from the state or taxpayer dollars. Therefore, the program has to be self-sustaining through the licensing fees. Since Colorado had not had any licensing for 37 years, it was unknown how many PIs there were working in the state. DORA initially came out with an estimate the first year of 400 and set the fees appropriately so 400 licensees would share the cost of running the program evenly. However, five years into the program there are now over 1000 licensed Colorado private investigators, which reduces the fees significantly for each licensee. In fact, DORA just posted the renewal fees for the licenses of June 1, 2020 at $16. Yes, the cost of a few cups of coffee is what it costs the Colorado licensed private investigator to renew their license.

The current bill that was working its way through the Colorado legislature, before the COVID-19 pandemic, has bipartisan support in both the House of Representatives and the State Senate.

In summary, Colorado had bad actors before mandatory licensing and has minimal bad actors now. Colorado had ZERO consumer protection before mandatory licensing and now the consumer has a very easy way to vet a private investigator, a way to file a complaint, as well as protections against any financial wrong doing by a problematic PI, by going after their bond. There are 2½ times more investigators licensed than anticipated, and every year the fees have gone down because of that growing number of licensees, to $16 for a renewal in 2020. And DORA has recommended to discontinue the program.

Government oversight at its best!!

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Ask anybody who has never had the opportunity to know, hire or deal with a private investigator, and you will get the TV version of what we have all come to know. The shady character who meets with the client in a darkened back alley, to receive $100 in cash, to hand over some private, illegally obtained information. If TV is the only exposure a person has had to private investigators, it is not surprising that the general public believes private investigators will hack or illegally access ANY information the client wants. For most private investigators, this could not be further from the truth.

Today’s private investigators are generally professionals who have a strong desire to help people but an even stronger desire to stay out of prison, and therefore will do what we can to LEGALLY help our clients. We spend a significant amount of time educating clients about what we can and can not do. Keep in mind, if your private investigator is willing to break the law, not only will the evidence that is gathered be thrown out of court, but you are just as complicit as the investigator and might find yourself spending time in the gray bar hotel.

An ethical, professional investigator is happy to spend time talking to client’s about the ways we might be able to help, and at CPI if it is out of our area of expertise, we will gladly refer you to an associate who specializes in the type of investigations you need. We understand that not everyone understands what we can legally access and largely due to the television version of the private investigator, there are a lot of misconceptions, leading to a lot of expectations by the public. We WILL do everything we can to legally assist you with your goals and most times can come up with ways to investigate your case, so you will have evidence that can be presented in court, to get you your desired results.

CPI has supported the mandatory licensing of private investigators in Colorado. Licensing is done at the state level and there are only a handful of states that still do not have mandatory licensing of PI’s. To check for a Colorado licensed private investigator you can contact the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies. We also spend a significant amount of time at our State Capitol talking to Colorado Representatives and Senators about bills that they sponsor or laws that have been passed.

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We recently received our Cheyenne, Wyoming Private Investigator license. While the state of Wyoming has no PI licensing requirements, it is required to work within the city limits of Cheyenne. At this time we are one of only a handful of Cheyenne licensed private investigators and therefore when you are in need of a surveillance investigator in Cheyenne or Colorado or elsewhere in Wyoming, you can call us. Cheyenne is only a couple of hours north of our Denver, Colorado office.

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We hear it every year and justifiably so, be sure not to leave your children or pets in a hot car in the summer. Those of us in the surveillance business would agree 100% with that statement, but then there is always a part of us thinking, “What are we doing?”

Many clients or those not in the business of investigations do not understand the reality of how surveillance is conducted and how often the surveillance investigator is at the mercy of the elements to an extreme degree. Surveillance by nature, often times requires the investigator to sit stationary in a vehicle for numerous hours at a time, without moving or starting the vehicle and many times that vehicle has to be completely closed up. Ironic, it sounds exactly like the warnings that we get every year of what NOT to do. Many people who watch the TV version of the private investigator will see the investigator sitting in ideal temperatures and ideal conditions or sitting in a residential area with the engine running for heat or cooling. I can tell you that after 30+ years of conducting surveillance it is extremely rare (but very welcome) when you are working in a location where that is applicable. Imagine if somebody was sitting in front of your house for 8-10 hours with the engine running. It just might arouse your suspicion and the entire concept of a private investigator who is conducting surveillance is to be discreet and unrecognizable.

Private investigators who conduct surveillance are always looking for the newest and best portable cooling or heating (for winter) devices, however few have been ideal for 8-10 hours of performance.

That is why if you say to somebody that you shouldn’t leave their children or pets in their hot vehicles and they agree with you, but get a little bit of a smirk, you just might be talking to a surveillance investigator.

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The renewal fee for a Colorado licensed private investigator has been greatly reduced due to the diligent work of the Professional Private Investigators Association of Colorado (www.pppiac.org).

DORA, the regulating agency for Colorado private investigators had announced a renewal fee of $263. PPIAC immediately opened discussions with DORA as there are far more licensed private investigators in Colorado than originally anticipated. Since this is a self funded program, the more investigators in the program, the lower the fees. After numerous discussions with DORA they realized that the fees should be much lower and came out with a NEW renewal fee amount of $63. Those who renewed at the original higher cost, have already received a refund.

The fee for the initial license remains at $330, however the renewal fees are in line with the lowest renewal fees in the country.

Thank you PPIAC!!

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Colorado had been one of only a few states without a mandatory licensing program for private investigators for many years. This meant that anybody and everybody who wanted to hang up a shingle and say they were a private investigator, could do this. Often times this would allow them access to sensitive personal information, including but no limited to a clients credit card information.

This changed on June 1, 2015, when the mandatory private investigator licensing law, was implemented. This was after a time period of over three decades where Colorado had no such law. The last mandatory private investigator licensing law in Colorado was in 1977, when an investigator challenged the law by declaring there was no definition of private investigator in the law, and therefore it was struck down.

During that licensing “drought” many private investigators have come and gone, some who held themselves out to be private investigators have seen the inside of the gray bar hotel, but with no regulation, there was no accurate count on how many private investigators there were in the state of Colorado.

Before this current law was passed, some speculated approximately 100, some speculated 250, and some speculated as high as 700. The number is very significant in Colorado due to the fact that Colorado has a TABOR law, which meant no money from the general fund can be used for this program. Therefore every dollar to operate the program has to come from licensing fees and this program itself. The end result of this type of system is that there is a set budget for the program itself, and that budget is paid through licensing fees, therefore the more licenses that are issued, the lower the cost of each individual license.

DORA, the agency that oversees this program anticipated 400 licenses would be issued, which at the time was only a best guess.

As we sit here in January of 2016, just over half a year into the program, there have been over 500 Colorado private investigator licenses issued.

The bottom line to the consumer is that this gives the person a place to verify that a private investigator has been properly vetted, licensed and with that license they are required to carry a bond. It also gives the consumer a place to file a complaint, when necessary, against a private investigator.

The end result of this program is that it is protection for the general consumer and the program appears to be bigger than most people anticipated.

At Night Moves of Denver, Private Investigations, we supported the legislation and testified numerous times at the State Capitol in favor of passing this into law.

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As of June 1, 2015 all Colorado Private Investigators are required to be licensed, with either a Level 1 (less than 4000 hours of experience) or a Level 2 (more than 4000 hours of experience) license. At Night Moves of Denver, Private Investigations, based in Denver, Colorado, we have Level 2 licensed investigators ready to assist with all of your investigative needs.

We are Denver private investigators who are licensed, bonded and insured and experienced in a variety of types of investigations. Call us today at 888-456-4779 or email at Coloradopi@aol.com

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Based out of Denver, Colorado, we have been conducting surveillance investigations since 1984. With over three decades of surveillance experience, you might suspect that we have seen a few changes over the years.

 With today’s technology, private investigators have access to phones, voice mail, texts and emails, from nearly anyplace the investigation might take them. However this was not always the case.

 In the early days of surveillance investigations we were armed with Beaulieu Super 8 movie cameras.  These had approximately 3 minutes of film per roll, which meant that if the investigator was obtaining substantial film, they would continuously have to reload the camera, leaving spots in the subject’s activity that they were not able to document. After obtaining the evidence, the investigator would then have to get this film developed. In those days, an investigator out on assignment was really on their own, with no communications to anybody else. Those were the days before cell phones, before pagers etc. In order to make a phone call and investigator would have to break away from their case, locate a pay phone (try to locate one of those now), make the call and then return to their case. This was a very risky proposition as a surveillance investigator as there was always the chance that you would return to your case and your subject would be gone. Therefore you would try to limit these trips to the pay phone to only “emergency” situations. Of course, over the years some things don’t change such as your client will think they frequently have “emergency” situations, when they need to speak to you as soon as possible.

Shortly after that we were armed with pagers, but you still had the same problem of locating a pay phone and breaking away from your case, any time you were paged. Still you tried to only do this for “emergency” situations and in those days, who didn’t get a page from time to time that started with 911, followed by the number to call? This meant ASAP, but many times it was a situation that could have waited. So while technology had some advantages, it also had a down side.

 The advent of the video camera came next. This had to be wired into a full sized VCR, while you were filming. This was really a problem, when the investigator was required to get out on foot, to follow a subject. Not only did the investigator have a huge, very obvious camera, but  also had to carry a VCR in a pack, which was strapped over the investigator’s shoulder. Being a Denver, Colorado private investigator, from time to time this meant that you also had to carry this entire “package” up the ski slopes, and have this on while you are skiing behind the subject you are following. One wrong turn or bump hit wrong and you quickly learn what skiers mean by having a “yard sale” on the slope.

 Next the investigator received a technology boost, with the advent of cell phones. However, early cell phones were  affectionately referred to as the “brick phone”  because they were about the size of a  brick. These large phones also came with a large monthly bill. In those days you were only able to make calls in your “home area” without huge expenses, but go outside that area and you would get roaming charges, usually over $1.00 per minute. So while the investigator was carrying around the “brick phone” it was a good thing that the technology for cameras was becoming more convenient, with the advent of the mini-cam, which was a self contained video camera, where the videotape was inside the camera. No longer a need to carry an entire, full sized VCR.

 Compare those early years to what we have today. Every investigator has at least one cell phone, that is practically a complete computer in itself. Cameras come in many sizes, shapes and forms, all of which are much smaller than the early cameras. In the early days, who would have ever thought there would be a day, when a camera was actually inside a pen, a button, a cap or your own phone.

Today a surveillance investigator is very rarely completely out of touch with others and I am not sure that this is actually a good thing.

 Technology has made leaps and bounds and has given the modern private investigator some incredible tools, but it is always fun to reminisce about the equipment we used a “few” years back.

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