Licensing, Registration, and Employment Requirements
What the exam tests
This domain focuses on the administrative mechanics: individual licensing, business licensing, employee registration, identification, renewal, and supervisory responsibility. Questions often turn on timing-when an employee may begin work and what must be filed before that date.
Core rules
- Business and individual licensing: The Act regulates the private detective business and the persons who perform investigative work. A business license does not automatically cover every person who works for the business.
- Employee registration: Employees who will perform private detective duties must be registered with the clerk of courts as required by the Act. Registration typically includes identifying information, photographs, fingerprints, and background screening. The employee should not perform regulated duties until registration is complete.
- Identification: Registered employees must carry the identification required by the Act and produce it on proper request. Identification should not be altered, borrowed, or displayed in a way that suggests official police status.
- Records and notices: The licensee must maintain required records, notify the court of changes in personnel or address as required, and pay applicable fees. Renewal must be timely; operating on an expired license is a violation.
- Supervision: The licensee is responsible for ensuring that employees are registered, trained, and working within the scope of the license.
Worked example
A licensee hires an investigator on Friday and plans to send the investigator on an interview assignment Monday. The employee registration has not been filed. The correct sequence is to file the registration and complete the required screening before the employee performs investigative work. Sending the employee into the field first exposes both the employee and the licensee to administrative or criminal exposure.
Traps that cost marks
- Treating an independent contractor as automatically exempt from registration.
- Assuming a business license covers newly hired investigators immediately.
- Failing to update the court when personnel or business information changes.
- Letting an employee use a badge or identification that implies police authority.