Becoming a Private Investigator in Florida

So, you think that you want to become a private investigator in Florida and you are wondering what you need to do. The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Division of Licensing handles the oversight and licensing of Investigators in Florida. If you are wanting to work as a private investigator, you must be licensed. The process also involves being fingerprinted, agreeing to a background investigation as well as providing proof that you have the verifiable investigation experience to be licensed. Don't panic if you don't, you can still become licensed but the road is longer. Let's start with the inexperienced future investigator.

The state offers a CC license or internship license to those that are not experienced. An agency can employ you as a CC licensee. You must carry this license for 2 years before you can get a C license. You will need the proof from your hiring agency that you have the two years of verifiable experience before you can get a class C license which is the regular private investigator license. You also must take a test and pass it before they issue the C license. The test is given in 8 different locations across the state and the locations can be found on the departments website.
http://www.mylicensesite.com. The fees associated with the test and the licensing, fingerprinting and all the other costs can be found on their site also.

If you have two years of verifiable investigation experience, you can apply for the C license. It should be noted here that by requiring two years of verifiable investigative experience, it doesn't mean two years of law enforcement experience. For instance, if you worked 5 years as an officer, one year of patrol where investigators handled the major incidents and then you were on a traffic unit for the 4 years, you would not qualify for the two years of investigative experience, and would have to go with the CC license. The state will want to see 2 years of investigations and trust me, when they do their backgrounds they are very in depth and will verify what you put down on your application. Do not lie because if they catch you in a lie, you are done. One of the requirements is moral character. You then have to go through the process as well as take and pass the state test.

Once you got through you end of the the process it can take the state a while to verify everything and issue your license. Months is not uncommon. While they do a great job there and have always been friendly and helpful when we have had to contact them, they are short staffed and so understandably, there can be a wait that sometimes seems like forever when you are anxious to get started.

Being an investigator can be fun and interested as well as dull and boring and even heartbreaking at times but in my opinion it beats the heck out of a desk job. If you really want to get into the field, we wish you all the luck in the world and hope that overall, you will enjoy it as much as we do. Check out the state website and go for it!

Until next time!

Florida Private Investigator Services