How to Become a Private Investigator
Updated September 30, 2026
Becoming a private investigator means meeting your state’s licensing requirements, which vary substantially and can include investigative experience or training, an examination, background screening, insurance or bonding, and separate firearm credentials for armed work. There’s no single national process, so check the licensing authority for the state where you plan to practice.
Forget the trench coat. Most private investigators spend more time on a laptop pulling public records and court filings than they do parked outside a motel with a camera. The job is part paperwork, part patience, and part knowing exactly what’s legal to record and what isn’t, because a PI who crosses that line loses the case and the license. If you’re weighing this as a career, here’s what the work actually involves, what it pays, and how states license you to do it.
Here’s what this guide covers:
What Does a Private Investigator Do?
A private investigator conducts investigations on behalf of private clients to obtain the information the client needs. The specific work varies by case, but almost every investigation includes some combination of these basic tasks:
Types of Investigations
The field breaks down into two broad categories: criminal investigations, where a PI gathers evidence to help solve a crime, and civil investigations, where the evidence supports a civil trial. Some investigators specialize in one type of case, while others take whatever comes in the door. Here’s a rundown of the most common types and the techniques that go with each.
Background Check: A look into a person’s personal or professional history to confirm character or identity, often done before hiring an employee, closing a financial transaction, or electing a public official. These come up in both civil and criminal work.
Techniques used:
- Internet research
- Social media surveillance
- Interviews
- Physical records searches
Workman’s Compensation: An investigation into whether a worker’s injury claim is legitimate, or whether an employer is wrongly denying one. Can involve civil or criminal action.
Techniques used:
- Reviewing employee, witness, and supervisor statements
- Reviewing medical reports and employment history
- Interviews and depositions
- Social media surveillance
- Evidence gathering
Personal Injury: Identifying and collecting evidence about physical injuries caused by an intentional or negligent act.
Techniques used:
- Interviewing injured parties and witnesses
- Reviewing police reports and medical records
- Checking for previous claims
- Reviewing social media
Accident Reconstruction: Rebuilding the sequence of an accident to establish cause, location, and fault.
Techniques used:
- Inspecting the accident site and vehicles
- Interviewing witnesses
- Reviewing photographs and documentation
- Using software to analyze or recreate the scene
- Collecting evidence for court
Missing Persons: Examining the circumstances around someone who has disappeared.
Techniques used:
- Reviewing school and work information
- Interviewing whoever reported the person missing
- Establishing when, where, and with whom they were last seen
- Circulating descriptions and photographs
- Interviewing family, friends, and associates
- Checking social media and obtaining DNA-bearing items when needed
Child Custody and Abuse: Objective observation of a child’s well-being and treatment by their parents, often as part of a divorce, separation, or custody case.
Techniques used:
- Background checks on custodial parties
- Interviewing family, neighbors, and other relevant parties
- In-person, audio, or video surveillance
- Reviewing social media, documents, and public records
- Examining living conditions
Marital (Infidelity or Spousal Abuse): Infidelity cases investigate an unfaithful spouse or partner through client interviews, surveillance, and photo or video evidence. Spousal abuse cases document abuse between partners through photographs, police reports, witness interviews, and, when necessary, help obtaining a protective order.
Corporate: Investigating a business to uncover wrongdoing by management, employees, or third parties, covering finance, R&D, electronics, or corruption.
Techniques used:
- Surveillance and security penetration checks
- Accounting and other forensic methods
- Investigating legal, financial, commercial, technology, and personnel angles
Identity Theft: Identifying fraudulent use of a person’s private information, including financial, criminal, medical, and child identity theft.
Techniques used:
- Reporting to banks, credit card companies, law enforcement, and the FTC
- Placing fraud alerts and closing fraudulent accounts
- Removing bogus charges and obtaining confirmation
- Getting official copies of the fraudulent application
Crime Scene: Investigating a location tied to a crime. This overlaps with the work of a sworn crime scene investigator, though a PI typically supports a civil case rather than the criminal one.
Techniques used:
- Helping secure a scene to prevent contaminating evidence
- Collecting, preserving, and packaging physical evidence
- Maintaining detailed reports
- Testifying in court about crime scene evidence
Specific Crimes: Investigating a named offense such as theft, homicide, sexual assault, kidnapping, or assault through interviews, document review, evidence gathering, and surveillance.
Backgrounds and Traits of Private Investigators
Private detectives work in a variety of settings. According to PInow.com, a network of private investigators, the breakdown of places of work is as follows:
| Private Investigator Workplaces | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Law Firms/Attorneys | 78% | ||
| Individuals | 55% | ||
| Private Companies | 41% | ||
| Corporations | 35% | ||
| Other | 11% | ||
Source: PInow.com
Private investigators come from all walks of life, but a few backgrounds and traits show up again and again. More than half come from law enforcement, so it’s worth understanding what it takes to become a police officer in the first place. That law-firm and attorney work also comes from both sides of a case, from defense attorneys building a defense to prosecutors preparing charges.
| Private Investigator Backgrounds | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Former Law Enforcement | 51% | ||
| Have a Bachelor’s Degree | 22% | ||
| Former Military | 21% | ||
| Legal Experience | 13% | ||
Source: Pinow.com
Skills and Traits of a Private Investigator
Good private detectives notice what others miss, both up close (near vision) and from a distance (far vision). They also reason two ways at once: inductively, combining scattered pieces of information into a conclusion, and deductively, applying a general rule to a specific problem. Add strong written and verbal communication, careful listening, comfort reading body language, and solid research and computer skills, since online tools often crack a case. Patience and persistence round it out — most of this job is waiting for the detail that matters.
Career Outlook and Salary Information for Private Investigators
The Bureau of Labor Statistics does track this occupation under its own code, 33-9021 Private Detectives and Investigators. That code isn’t part of the wage and growth dataset this site draws its salary figures from, so it doesn’t include a specific national wage or growth number.
What the PInow.com data above does tell you is where the work comes from: law firms and individual clients drive most of the demand, not corporations. Pay varies enormously and mostly tracks business structure rather than tenure. A PI running an established agency in a major metro can out-earn a salaried investigator at a small firm by a wide margin, and the reverse is just as common in a slow month. If you want a number that applies to you, ask a working investigator in your target market and state, since a national average tells you little about a job this fragmented by client type, geography, and whether you work for yourself or for a firm.
Steps to Becoming a Private Investigator
The steps to becoming a private investigator vary by state, so check with your state’s licensing authority to confirm what’s required. The basic path typically includes:
On-the-job training and a mentor matter here as much as the degree does, before you’re licensed and long after.
Private Investigator Schools
People drawn to this work tend to already have an interest in criminal justice, so an associate or bachelor’s degree in the field is a reasonable starting point. When you’re comparing schools, focus on the strength of their criminal justice program, not just the school’s overall reputation.
Associate Degree
An associate degree in criminal justice can provide foundational study in the justice system, law, and investigative methods, but it is not a universal requirement for PI licensure. If you go this route, plan on two years full-time, and the credits usually transfer toward a bachelor’s later if a job or promotion calls for one. Along the way you’ll cover criminology, psychology, the justice system, law and procedure, and the basics of running a good investigation.
Bachelor’s Degree
A bachelor’s degree opens more doors, particularly at corporations and federal agencies that prefer or require one, ideally in criminal justice. Plan on roughly 120 credit hours: four years full-time, or about two more if you’re building on an associate degree.
Online Programs
There are a number of online criminal justice degree programs. Some build in internship placements. Others expect you to line up your own, such as a summer internship with a law enforcement or government agency. A few things to weigh before choosing one:
Pros
Cons
Getting a Private Investigator License
Most states require private investigators to be licensed through professional boards, state police departments, or other state agencies. Requirements vary by state, and in some places licensing happens only at the city or county level. Common requirements include:
Once you’re licensed, running your own practice also means following the ordinary business laws that apply to any small business in your state.
For a working investigator’s perspective, read our Q&A with a private investigator.
While you’re here, check out related fields like police detective and animal cruelty investigator.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does a private investigator do day to day?
Day-to-day work leans heavily on research and documentation: pulling public records, verifying information, and writing reports, with surveillance and interviews mixed in depending on the case. Movies overstate the stakeouts and understate the paperwork.
Do you need a college degree to become a private investigator?
Not always. Some states have no education requirement, and many working PIs come up through law enforcement or the military instead of a degree program. That said, a criminal justice degree can open doors at corporations and larger firms that prefer one, and it gives you a head start on the exam material where a state requires one.
How long does it take to get licensed as a private investigator?
Prior law enforcement, military, or investigative experience may satisfy some jurisdictions’ experience requirements, but required experience, examinations, background screening, bonding or insurance, and application procedures all vary by jurisdiction. In states that impose an experience requirement, starting from scratch may take a year or more before you’re eligible to apply.
How much do private investigators make?
The Bureau of Labor Statistics tracks this occupation under its own code (33-9021), but that data isn’t part of the wage figures this site cites elsewhere, so there isn’t a sourced national number to give you here. Pay depends heavily on whether you’re salaried at a firm or running your own agency, plus your location, client mix, and years of experience.
Key Takeaways
- Experience requirements vary by state – prior investigative or related experience can be important, and some licensing jurisdictions require it directly. Degree requirements vary too.
- Licensing requirements vary by state – check your state board before assuming what’s required, since age, education, exam, and bond rules all differ.
- Pay isn’t standardized – it depends on whether you’re salaried or self-employed, your market, and your client base, more than on tenure alone.
- The work is mostly research and documentation – surveillance is real, but it’s a smaller share of the job than fiction suggests.
If a criminal justice background is your way in, the associate and bachelor’s paths above are the most common routes. Either way, check your state’s licensing board early, before you invest time or tuition based on requirements you haven’t confirmed.