Interesting facts

Private detective - profession or reality

... It is not enough to know only the rules and have idea of the legal boundaries of the responsible area for successful work in the market of private detective services. This knowledge must be adapted to each client and then patient explanation in the process of communication what is allowed to every detective and what can lead to license withdrawal.
I think everyone already knows what is not allowed to do but we shall definitely touch upon this issue later. Now I would like to talk about what is allowed.

The informational boom which during the past decade is often discussed gave the humanity the whole ocean of information. In Russia, as always, it took rather non-standard forms. The fact is now known to everyone in our country that people need the most diverse and various information every hour and every day to lead normal and safe life. But the fact that only professionals can collect and analyse the most of this information is known not to everybody but at least to majority of people.

Despite of everything, heroic Russian citizens (both legal entities and private persons) still prefer to collect the information they need on their own in an amateur way by: talking to their acquaintances, carefully studying the press, buying in the underground some doubtful databases and even listening to own intuition. Once I heard a quote of a famous writer Arkady Weiner: "There is nothing easier than to cure diseases and solve crimes. Everyone who has read a couple of popular brochures thinks he is a great specialist".

It is easy to see what the result of such attitude is. There are way too many swindlers of all kinds and levels in today’s Russia. And repeatedly deceived people and owners of broke companies still seek advice from mediums and fortune tellers or humbly accept the damage caused. The result in both cases is, of course, non-existing.

Meanwhile, in the majority of civilized countries (by the way including our country), private detectives not only successfully and professionally solve but also prevent many problems that both individuals and commercial organizations face – from search of people gone missing to information check of the signed contracts or business history check of possible business partner.

The paradox is that almost nobody knows about that in our country. Even if somebody knows, they still prefer the services of some hypothetical aunt Aglaia with a hand-made master's degree in black art, white and sometime event green magic. As a result, short-sighted businessmen continue to lose contracts and go bankrupt due to unreliable, missing or untimely provided information.

It is possible that in the eyes of the absolute majority of our compatriots, a private detective is a sullen guy in black sunglasses and a wide-brimmed hat, crawling excitedly through the bushes trying to find out which of his clients and how exactly is being unfaithful. In a word - a sort of specialist in bad fate and matrimonial adultery.

Do you know what is the most funny in this situation? Average men are unaware that paragraph 3 of Article 7 of the Law "On private detective activity in the Russian Federation" prohibits "collecting information related to personal life, political and religious beliefs of individuals".

So what can private detectives do? They not only can but perform really well, sometimes even faster than many special state authorities and services. Let’s go through the basic propositions of the law, giving examples from real life and everything will immediately click into place.

An extract from the book "Private Detective - profession or diagnosis?".
Author S. Stepnov.