Private Investigators Must Seek State License Starting This Month

Until this year, anyone who wanted to call himself a private investigator in Missouri could do so under the law if no city license was required.

But starting this month, the state of Missouri has started accepting statewide applications for private investigators.

Under a Missouri law passed in 2007, all newly formed private investigators operating in Missouri must be licensed. Since the law went into effect, a Missouri Division of Professional Registration has created the State Board of Private Investigator Examiners, hired staff and has developed rules and regulations to implement the law.

On Feb. 1, applications for a private investigator license in Missouri were accepted for the first time.

"Until now, becoming a private investigator in Missouri required little more than a business license fee and a place to hang a shingle," says Dwight McNiel, chairman of the newly formed State board of Private Investigator Examiners and an investigator from Springfield.

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