Whether for resolving actual crimes or settling legal disputes, ordinary citizens need assistance. And despite all the best efforts of legitimate police law enforcements organizations or public court offices, there are often simply not enough personnel and resources to address voluminous demands from large populations.
Private investigators exists to augment this limitations. As such they exist as alternatives to public institutions that provide social services in criminal and legal affairs. They generally function like typical police detectives or crime-scene investigators but they have limited police powers precisely because they are a still private as opposed to State sanctioned authorities.
Nature and Jobs of a Private Investigator
Instead private investigators are private individuals hired by private citizens or businesses to gather information that can help solve crimes or to gather evidences and materials for legal cases. However, they are not authorized to arrest or prosecute criminals like policemen and lawyers can.
In Singapore, private investigators can interview people for information, conduct online searches on public and court records to uncover clues, conduct surveillance, check for civil judgments and criminal history of individuals or groups involved in case, and collect other evidences for clients.
In many cases, they are also hired by lawyers to gather information on civil cases and very rarely on criminal ones. In more isolate instances, they are also hired by police in times when police units do not have enough personnel or resources to pursue a particular case further. Even higher courts can hire private investigators as process servers who serve legal documents, such as divorce documents, to petitioned individuals.
Private Investigator versus Detectives and Law Enforcers
As private citizens, they also have the same rights and limitations as any other citizen. Singapore, private investigators are also not allowed to carry guns on the basis of their jobs. Instead they have the right to bear arms just like any other citizen has the right to bear arm. In other words, they would have to file for the right to carry firearms in proper offices just like everyone else and will not be given any special exemption.
While police officers and public investigators can secure warrant to enter a property, house, or building, private investigators are not allowed to do so. In fact, if they do so, they are liable for trespassing or breaking and entering violations. Similarly, law enforcement authorities may be given temporary rights to wiretap or access private bank accounts based on special warrants or subpoena issued by higher authorities such as Supreme Court. Private investigators however are not given any such special powers.
Unlike police detectives or crime-scene investigators who need to be police officers before they can become detectives, a private investigator only needs a diploma which can be obtained through a 1-2 year certificate course or an associate's degree which also requires 1-2 years to finish.
Private investigators are also not paid for by government. As privately contracted services, they are paid by the hour usually through a private investigator company, by the individual who or business that hired them. In Singapore, private investigators usually charge at an hourly rate between $40 to over $100 per hour depending on location, complexity of the work, expertise of the private investigator, and the risk involved.
