Dear greyshed-ga;
Thank you for allowing me an opportunity to answer your interesting
question. I'm not going to get on an ethics kick here because I assume
"Joe" is grown and make his own choices - and besides, that isn't what
you came here for. However, it is important to establish a few facts
concerning the issues (some “Joe” may know and some he may not - for
his sake please bear with me):
In the state of California, manufacturing marijuana, a controlled
substance, is a crime.
Private Investigators in California are licensed by the state and are
bound by the law. If they violate the law they risk a lengthy license
suspension or revocation, hefty fine and/or imprisonment.
In order to get a PI to assume your case, you will first be required
to have a consultation, at which point you will have to divulge the
reason why you need an investigation.
Theft of contraband IS a crime in California, but only if someone
comes forward to file a complaint and publicly prosecute the offender.
In order to do so you must come forward and sign a sworn affidavit
that the marijuana was yours and you were illegally deprived of your
property. By doing so you will be admitting your guilt of
manufacturing a controlled substance (or at least the illegal
possession of it) and you will likely be charged as well.
Therefore, I suspect that no reasonable, responsible, licensed PI
would likely assume your case for fear of being associated with
criminal activity. There again, it is doubtful that a PI would assume
your case even to help you find out the NAME of the person responsible
(whether you want to prosecute him or not) for fear of being an
accomplice to potential retribution.
==================================================================
In California, Private Investigators are governed by “THE PRIVATE
INVESTIGATOR’S ACT”, better known as:
CALIFORNIA BUSINESS AND PROFESSIONS CODE
CHAPTER 11.3. PRIVATE INVESTIGATORS
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/calawquery?codesection=bpc&codebody=&hits=20
Nowhere in this Business and Profession Code is confidentiality
between and investigator and a client specifically addressed. An
Investigator is merely a contract employee who acts under the
authority given him by the State of California but otherwise is free
to report illegal activity as he sees fit. In fact, under Article 6 -
Disciplinary Proceedings, Sections 7561-7567, Private Investigators
are repeatedly warned against violation a variety of laws, some listed
and some that are just plain common sense:
“7561.4. The director may suspend or revoke a license issued under
this chapter if he or she determines that the licensee or his or her
manager, if an individual, or if the licensee is a person other than
an individual, that any of its officers, directors, partners, or its
manager, has committed any act in the course of the licensee's
business constituting dishonesty or fraud. "Dishonesty or fraud" as
used in this section, includes, in addition to other acts not
specifically enumerated herein…”
Clearly then you can see that the law was intentionally left vague so
the Review Board, at it’s discretion, can penalize a Private
Investigator for violating just about any law. Using his state granted
license to aiding in the recovery of stolen marijuana or divulging the
name of such a thief to the illegal manufacturer and thereby
jeopardizing the thief’s life would logically fall in this category.
Confidentiality clauses with contract employees are not the same as
with an attorney. If a contract employee sees something illegal taking
place he can decline the job or stop work he has already begun and
become obligated to report the illegal activity to the authorities.
There is no reasonable expectation of privacy or confidentiality
afforded to someone who is violating the law, outside his attorney
(and in some instances occasionally a clergyman, doctor or spouse –
but that’s another matter entirely). On the off chance that a Private
Investigator did accept your case and take payment from you and THEN
turn you in, this too would be considered an ethics violation and
would subject him to license suspension or revocation. But, as you
might have guessed, this adminstrative disciplinary action isn't
nearly as harsh as going to prison, which is probably what would
happen to "Joe".
Having said that, some agencies may have a non-disclosure agreement in
which an Investigator might bind himself to a contract of silence
about your personal affairs, but one would have to wonder about the
legality of such a document if it were broken for the sake of
reporting criminal activity and then tested in a court of law.
As for your assumption that PI’s are often former police officers with
some close connections to the authorities, this is probably true (it
has been MY experience as well). Keep in mind that while these
companies are in business, their livelihood is dictated by the state,
to whom they are bound for their license and by whom they can be
disciplined. You should ask yourself, even if you were convinced that
there was a confidentiality agreement between you, that the PI
wouldn’t revert to his long-time professional instincts and alert the
authorities to your activities in such a way that you’d never suspect
that he did it. I’m not suggesting that ALL PI’s might do this, but to
cover all the bases you should at least consider it as a possibility.
As a side let me say that I have been in law enforcement myself for
more than 20 years and believe it or not, this type of thing does
happen on occasion. A few years ago an angry young fellow walked in to
my department and demanded that charges be brought against his
roommate (who also happened to be his brother) for stealing his “pound
of weed”. The officers wrote up the report and the “complainant”
agreed to lead them to his brother – the thief. Upon arrival at the
house the two brothers shared, consent to search was obtained and the
officers found the pound of marijuana hidden under the greedy
brother’s bed. The complainant positively identified his stolen
property and both of these geniuses were promptly taken to jail in the
backseat of same police car.
I’m sure you didn’t come here for advice but if you want some I’d
suggest you encourage “Joe” to chalk this one up to a bad experience
and forget about it (and maybe think twice about what he’s growing out
there in the old grey shed). Oh, and while you’re at it you might even
suggest that he reimburse you for the $9.50 you were generous enough
to spent here in his behalf since it was really a very small price to
pay for getting the valuable information he needed to keep himself out
of prison.
Below you will find that I have carefully defined my search strategy
for you in the event that you need to search for more information. By
following the same type of searches that I did you may be able to
enhance the research I have provided even further. I hope you find
that that my research exceeds your expectations. If you have any
questions about my research please post a clarification request prior
to rating the answer. Otherwise, I welcome your rating and your final
comments and I look forward to working with you again in the near
future. Thank you for bringing your question to us.
Best regards;
Tutuzdad-ga
INFORMATION SOURCES
CALIFORNIA BUSINESS AND PROFESSIONS CODE
CHAPTER 11.3. PRIVATE INVESTIGATORS
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/calawquery?codesection=bpc&codebody=&hits=20
SEARCH STRATEGY
SEARCH ENGINE USED:
Google ://www.google.com
SEARCH TERMS USED:
“BUSINESS AND PROFESSIONS CODE” CALIFORNIA (A known document)
“PRIVATE INVESTIGATORS” CONFIDENTIALITY
“PRIVATE INVESTIGATORS” ETHICS |
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