Page 23 - NCISS Your Advocate September 2020

Private Investigators and Records Access Under Attack

Catherine Smit-Torrez, TALI President
The big topic was the continuous efforts by many states like CA to thwart our capabilities to obtain driver license
records. There is a push across the states to withhold this information and DPPA access (Driver's Privacy Protection Act)
and of course, a continuous fight to keep that information.

Members need to meet their Legislators and let them know the benefits our profession provides to the citizens. If our
members will engage with those Legislators and their staff to help them to understand our professional use of that
information, they will be more likely to protect our profession from being barred from that information. We shouldn't
just say that our business would suffer from losing our access to that information but rather tell them that the citizens
would suffer if they had a case where that information was needed (and give them an example of such).

We should not use terms like Private Investigator when speaking to Representatives and others, but rather introduce
yourself as "Professional Investigator" [Professional Private Investigator, etc.]. There are all types of methods to help
our profession to be perceived as a professional business to include, what you call yourself, How you dress, How you
talk, How you comment in social media, etc. Protecting the image of the profession helps us ALL.

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