AB 2632, Olsen. Private investigators: experience for licensure.
Existing law, the Private Investigator Act, provides for the licensure and regulation of private investigators by the Bureau of Security and Investigative Services within the Department of Consumer Affairs and requires the Director of Consumer Affairs to administer and enforce the act. Existing law requires an applicant for licensure under that act to take an examination. Existing law requires an applicant for examination to have experience in certain activities performed in connection with investigations, as specified, and only if the activities are performed by persons who are employed or managed in certain capacities, including, among others, persons trained as investigators and employed by a public defender to conduct investigations.
This bill would include, under the above-mentioned experience required to take the licensure examination, persons employed by a media source who are trained as investigative reporters and whose experience is comprised of primary investigations, as defined.
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
Section 7541.1 of the Business and Professions Code is amended to read:
(a) Notwithstanding any other law, experience for purposes of taking the examination for licensure as a private investigator shall be limited to those activities actually performed in connection with investigations, as defined in Section 7521, and only if those activities are performed by persons who are employed or managed in the following capacities:
(1) Sworn law enforcement officers possessing powers of arrest and employed by agencies in the federal, state, or local government.
(2) Military police of the armed forces of the United States or the National Guard.
(3) An insurance adjuster or their employees subject to Chapter 1 (commencing with Section 14000) of Division 5 of the Insurance Code.
(4) Persons employed by a private investigator who are duly licensed in accordance with this chapter, or managed by a qualified manager in accordance with Section 7536.
(5) Persons employed by repossessors duly licensed in accordance with Chapter 11 (commencing with Section 7500), only to the extent that those persons are routinely and regularly engaged in the location of debtors or the location of personal property utilizing methods commonly known as “skip tracing.” For purposes of this section, only that experience acquired in that skip tracing shall be credited toward qualification to take the examination.
(6) Persons duly trained and certified as an arson investigator and employed by a public agency engaged in fire suppression.
(7) Persons trained as investigators and employed by a public defender to conduct investigations.
(8) (A) Persons trained as investigative reporters and employed by a media source, as defined in Section 1070 of the Evidence Code, whose investigative journalism experience is comprised of conducting primary investigations and producing investigative projects.
(B) For purposes of this paragraph “primary investigation” means original and in-depth research and analysis involving multiple sources, including, but not limited to, public records, databases, archives, published and unpublished documents, witnesses, informers, whistleblowers, public officials, and experts, to produce investigative projects.
(b) For purposes of Section 7541, persons possessing an associate of arts degree in police science, criminal law, or criminal justice from an accredited college shall be credited with 1,000 hours of experience in investigative activities.
(c) The following activities shall not be deemed to constitute acts of investigation for purposes of experience toward licensure:
(1) The serving of legal process or other documents.
(2) Activities relating to the search for heirs or similar searches which involve only a search of public records or other reference sources in the public domain.
(3) The transportation or custodial attendance of persons in the physical custody of a law enforcement agency.
(4) The provision of bailiff or other security services to a court of law.
(5) The collection or attempted collection of debts by telephone or written solicitation after the debtor has been located.
(6) The repossession or attempted repossession of personal property after that property has been located and identified.
(d) Where the activities of employment of an applicant include those which qualify as bona fide experience as stated in this section as well as those which do not qualify, the director may, by delegation to the bureau, determine and apportion that percentage of experience for which any applicant is entitled to credit.
Corrected 8-18-16 96