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The New Zealand Industry Body for Professional Investigators

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Private workplace investigators may be required to have a licence

Source: www.employment.govt.nz

 

A recent case of the Private Security Personnel Licensing Authority has determined that workplace investigators fall within the definition of a ‘Private Investigator’.

The definition is contained in the Private Security Personnel and Private Investigators Act 2010.

This has a couple of implications for individuals or firms that are in the business of conducting workplace investigations, and firms looking to engage the service of an independent investigator in their workplace.

An employer may decide to involve an external workplace investigator where the allegation or issue is sensitive, complex, or raises questions of credibility and requires a level of independence and impartiality that may be difficult to attain internally.

Investigations 

Individuals or firms that are in the business of conducting workplace investigations should either be licensed in accordance with the Private Security Personnel and Private Investigators Act 2010 or be regulated under another Act.

There are exceptions to this. Those conducting in-house workplace investigations do not need a license. And the licensing requirements do not apply to occupations that are already regulated through a practising certificate, licence, permit or Authority, for example, lawyers or those seeking information for the Crown.

Businesses that are seeking the service of independent investigators should make sure that they are engaging suitably qualified, and licensed individuals. Ensuring the workplace investigator has the appropriate licence or accreditation provides business assurance that they have appropriate skills and access to formal channels for making complaints.

For a person to be granted a licence by the Licensing Authority, they need to show they have the relevant training or skills to do the role. There are also formal channels to file a complaint against a private investigator, which gives the business that engaged the investigator an additional layer of protection.

For more information about the requirements for a Private Investigator to become licensed and to apply for a licence, visit the Private Security Personnel Licensing Authority website (external link)

If you are a business and want to check whether a workplace investigator has a Private Investigator licence, you can check the Public Register (external link)

Or if the workplace investigator is a lawyer, you can check if they have a practicing certificate on the New Zealand Law Society website

Obtaining the correct PI Licence

 

Private Investigators are required to be licensed pursuant to the PSPLA Act.

It is important that when considering applying that operators or contractors obtain the correct licence for the manner in which they wish to operate. This sounds easy but NZIPI field calls from various persons enquiring if a licence holder is appropriately licensed. To assist we have prepared the attached chart that sets out the process and forms.

In effect there are three streams;

  1. Obtaining an individual PI licence – meaning the licence holder can seek clients and employ other licensed investigators or contractors. (if you are going be using a trading name other than your own name, you must first obtain approval to use that name – but you cannot operate using a limited liability company)
  2. Obtaining a company licence if business is being conducted using a Limited liability company as a vessel. (Every director must complete the necessary forms and every director performing PI work must also obtain a COA)
  3. Obtaining a Certificate of Approval if a person is only ever going to work for a licence holder as a contractor or staff member. (you cannot seek clients or do work other than for a licence holder)

Each has it’s merits and each has some hooks.

PSPLA Licence chart for Private Investigators

Here is a link to the PSPLA website https://www.justice.govt.nz/tribunals/licences-certificates/pspla/

First NZIPI Life member Elected – Michael Campbell

NZIPI is proud to announce the appointment of our first ever elected Life Member, Mr Michael Campbell.

Mike is a foundation member. He has served on our Executive for many years, is a former Detective Senior Sergeant with the NZ Police and a highly respected investigator.

To be elected a Life Member requires over 60% vote from the members, such is the esteem held for Mike.

Why are we called “Private Eyes”? The answer lies in Glasgow

Here’s a curious Glasgow tale, one which takes us from the Gorbals all the way to the White House. Allan Pinkerton (1819-1884), founder of the famous US private detective agency which still bears his name, was born in this house, at the corner of Muirhead Street and Rutherglen Road. His father was a police sergeant who was maimed in a riot in 1829. Young Allan trained as a cooper but became a member of the Chartist Movement, which defended workers’ rights, and was involved in a strike by spinners in Glasgow. He then tried to help a leader of the movement to break out of prison in 1839 and, in 1842, had to leave Scotland to avoid being arrested. He sailed for the States the day after getting married. Once on US soil, he set up home in Chicago where, after helping break up a forgery ring, he was appointed deputy-sheriff and then sheriff. He started the Pinkerton Detective Agency in Chicago in 1850. The company solved a number of train robberies. He even went after Frank and Jessie James, although he failed to catch them. He also foiled an attempted assassination of President-elect Abraham Lincoln in 1861. That’s Allan, on the left of Lincoln, no doubt with his hand on the grip of a concealed revolver. Pinkerton, an avowed anti-slavery campaigner, led the Unionist Secret Service during the American Civil War but afterwards returned to his agency. Despite his progressive views, Pinkerton, an odd character, also used his men as strike-breakers, helping to undermine the ‘Molly Maguires’ an underground union movement who had been operating in the coalfields of Pennsylvania for over twenty years. Fellow Scot, Sean Connery, later starred in a film of the same name, outlining the brutal battles between workers and management. Pinkerton’s open eye logo, with the legend ‘we never sleep’ is the reason that all private investigators are called ‘private eyes’. The Pinkerton Agency is still in business today.