Private detectives to need licence in England and Wales

[WernherVonTrapp]

Originally Posted by CaptainHaplo

Many moons ago I did bail enforcement for a while with one agency. He was totally professional, we ALWAYS stopped downtown before we went out to see if we could round up his skips. Never had a bit of a problem with local LEO's. Had a decent enough rep that we got asked by the feds to help track/recapture a guy wanted up and down the east coast. We didn't get him - almost did 2x though.

The first he rode by us on a bicycle - in a dress. I blame the miss on it being so dark. The second he holed up in an abandon church. He came flying out a back entrance. The idea was one would flush him, the other would slow him down enough for both of us to subdue him. First of many times my shoulder got dislocated and I ended up with broken ribs trying to hang onto him. In hindsight its a damned good thing he wasn't armed since he had already killed 2 people and had sworn he wasn't going back to jail. Woulda been nice to know that before we made the mistake of trying to make the grab ourselves.

Anyway - I have no problem with them requiring licenses for PI work, or skip tracing/apprehension even. Lots of "fly by nighters" out there with no clue of what is legal and isn't.

Bail Enforcement is a dangerous, no nonsense job. Since you're dealing with bail-jumpers, you're always dealing with the more desperate of the criminal element. Hats off to you. Similar to our "Outstanding Warrant Task Force". I worked it a couple of times to break up the monotony of the everyday watch cycle. Since I originally was from Paterson, NJ, the detectives would always give me first dibs at the TF because I usually knew all the streets and what to expect in specific neighborhoods. Got pretty hairy sometimes.
As I got older, I stopped doing them altogether. Takes alot of physical effort. I once missed apprehending an armed robbery suspect, wanted halfway across the state, by a mere few seconds. Would've made some big headlines had I been more situationally aware. I blew that one.