Private detective schools, primarily through on-line or mail courses, teach high school or college graduates the skills required to work as a non-governmental detective. Students learn about data bases, fingerprinting, internet research, surveillance technology, and legal issues, among other topics. Some private detective schools are state-licensed, and as a result, they issue certificates of completion that show the student has met the minimum requirements.
Many private detective schools provide instruction via the internet and/or mail. The school provides lesson plans, assignments, training, and feedback even though there is no physical campus. Instructors interact with students virtually rather than in person. For example, the instructor may grade papers via e-mail, hold phone conferences, and maintain a message board where students can ask questions and receive answers. As a result, courses are structured but with some flexibility to allow detectives-in-training to keep their current jobs.
The majority of these programs at private detective schools can be completed in 6-9 months, but with their flexible schedule, they can take up to two years. Their classes teach students how to conduct research that can help with property repossession, locating missing persons, tracing people using credit history and state records, confirming suspicious behavior like infidelity, and filing legal reports. As a result, private detective schools teach students about surveillance equipment, conducting undercover investigations, security, birth, death, marriage, taxes, and incarceration records, DNA samples, basic legal principles of privacy, and, occasionally, firearms safety.
Some graduates of private detective schools are also pursuing a degree in Criminal Justice or a related field at a university. Someone who has completed a reputable private detective course, on the other hand, is prepared to pass a state’s Private Investigator Exam and become a licensed private detective. This allows them to work as a bodyguard for a security company, a researcher for a law firm, various levels of law enforcement, or as a private eye for individual clients in their own small investigator business. Most private detective schools recommend that graduates take additional courses in firearms use and safety so that they can be licensed to carry and use a firearm for self-defense.