A private investigator’s work will often at the least breach the subject’s right to privacy; at the most, it could lead to worse. Actions have consequences. We should care what our client intends to do with our work product. Ethical and moral considerations dictate that result.

Cheyenne – In the usual course of business, private investigators are called upon to uncover information in a variety of matters, including those in both the civil and criminal arenas. At the conclusion of an investigation, we present our findings to our clients in the form of a report. Much of the information we gather is personal to the subject of the investigation. Some or all of it may breach the subject’s right to privacy. What the client does with that information raises further questions. In the past, these issues have not always been something with which we concerned ourselves.

But “The Times They Are a-Changin’, as the title of Bob Dylan’s third album suggested in 1964. Back then those words meant changes were in the offing. Today, for private investigators, it means that Ethics – bodies of rules having a certain moral significance, or that dictate standards for right actions, have made their way into our profession. Those ethical rules reflect the fact that actions have consequences and suggest that a private investigator, whether in a state that licenses the profession or not, is responsible for the consequences of his or her actions and he or she must adhere to the highest ethical standards as responsible professionals.

As private investigators examined that idea over the last few years, we’ve begun to understand that it’s  no longer okay to just perform the task the client has given us, hand him or her a report, and wash our hands of the matter. Ethics dictates, and morality affirms that it’s necessary to do our work in a way that does no harm to anyone.

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So the question arises: is there any harm in providing a subject’s personal data to a client when he does not know to what use the data will be put? Stating it another way; should a private investigator perform his work with an eye on the consequences that work might bring about, good and/or bad?

It’s probably safe to say that because so few people have had occasion to hire a private investigator, the public perception of us and what we do has been gathered mostly from the literature written about amateur detectives; Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer, Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe, Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple, Dashiell Hammett’s Sam Spade, Robert B. Parker’s Spencer, and many, many others. These larger-than-life protagonists of the genre − the fictional detectives − sometimes thumbed their noses at the Constitution; they occasionally trespassed on private and public property, broke and entered the homes or offices of their suspects, conducted searches without warrants, and arranged scenarios to entrap the villains at their leisure. Of all the fictional super sleuths, perhaps only G.K. Chesterton’s Father Brown and Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple, could be said to have always acted with morality, ethics, and the law clearly in mind.