Private Detective Agencies vs the Police Department

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Private Detective Agencies vs the Police Department

Most of us might have played a detective at some point of time in life, knowingly or unknowingly, to get the identity of a person or that person’s activities, or any other matter, or as a parent who keeps an eye on their child’s activities. A Private Detective is just an extension of the same in a professional manner. Many people have this wrong belief that a Private Detective is an alternative to the Police for investigation of a crime. This thought has been reinforced by movies and TV serials. In fact, one Private Detective serial shows the local police seeking help from the private detective to solve all cases. It further shows that the people directly go to the private detective for solving crimes and the local Police play second fiddle to him. Nothing can be farther from the truth.

Private Detective Agencies play a very different role and in no way intrudes upon Police functions. In the same manner, Police Departments have a very different role which is in no way connected to Private Detective Agencies in any manner. Let me elaborate further on this difference.

Private Detective Agencies: They are not into investigation of crimes. Their role is limited to :

(i) Background verification for the purpose of :

Employment - Engaged by the employer to check the veracity of the documents submitted by the employee, relating to both his past employment and educational credentials, to check the residence of the employee, and report the type of structure of the employee’s house and its locality to gain an insight into his financial condition, lifestyle, and neighborhood.

Marriage – Engaged by the family of the prospective spouse to check the authenticity of the claims made about employment, salary, qualification, past or present affairs, vices like smoking, alcoholism, drugs, casual or multiple relationships, etc.

(ii) Shadowing: Generally employed by spouses who suspect their partners of infidelity, or just to know where the other person is going and whom that person is meeting. Sometimes, Private Detectives are hired by parents to keep an eye on the activities of their grown-up children and report any suspicious activity. Gathering evidence for Marital disputes is also undertaken by them. Though this is called “shadowing” in the Private Detective world, in Police parlance, it is called “watch duty” and in Social Media circles it is called “stalking / online stalking”.

(iii) Business Intelligence: Often hired by Corporates to know the business secrets of their rivals, their financial secrets, proposed product launches, estimates, and tender secrets, etc.

(iv) Political Intelligence: Employed by Politicians to check the activities of their Political rivals, to know the contents of their secret discussions and meetings, etc. The Political rivals always need not be from rival Political parties, but their own cronies who can possibly pull the rug from under their boss’ feet either for their own benefit or for rivals.

Police Department: Their main functions are maintaining law & order, criminal investigation, and maintaining traffic. They are not into any of the functions of the Private Detective Agencies as mentioned above.

Law & Order:

is done by the local Police stations through patrolling (beat duty), crowd control whenever there are processions or a large gathering of people in their jurisdiction, and registration & investigation of crimes. They also collect Intelligence through reliable sources about potential crimes and law & order problems. In an effort to make the Police Department more people-friendly, efforts are on for more Police - Public interactions at the grassroots level where they befriend social influencers, community leaders, housing society committee members, etc. who can help them during a crisis or communal clashes.

Criminal Investigation:

The local Police Station is the first forum in which the Public approaches to register a criminal complaint. The SHO (Station House Officer) or the DO (Duty Officer) listens to the complainant, classifies the offense as Cognizable or Non-Cognizable (NC), and accordingly registers an FIR or an NC as the case may be. In the case of an FIR, the investigation starts from this point and after investigation, a chargesheet is filed and it goes for trial.

Traffic:

There is a separate Police Department for Traffic, having its chowkies at every few kilometers, depending on the traffic congestion in that city or town. Their main function is to control and regulate traffic, book traffic offenders, and collect fines. Most of the traffic offenses are closed with a fine unless there is damage to life or property by rash driving. However, the Traffic Police has powers to file FIR related to Traffic offenses and send the offender to jail. Very recently, the Mumbai Traffic Police came down heavily on racing, rash, and wrong side driving, on the basis of CCTV footage, and filed FIRs under section 279 IPC which can attract a jail term of upto six months and/or a fine of Rs.1000. The Officers visited the residence of offenders and booked them. At the given instance of the offense, the offender may feel that he has escaped the law because no one caught him. However, Big Brother (CCTV Cameras) is always watching. The offender then receives a rude shock when the cops arrive at his/her doorstep to arrest him/her with solid proof. Unfortunately, the offender cannot even bribe the cops and get away scotfree as usual, because the cops are supposed to submit a report of the criminal action taken in each case.

The legal status of Private Detective Agencies vs The Police Department :

Private Detective Agencies: They are governed by “The Private Detective Agencies (Regulation) Bill, 2007”. It provides for the regulation and licensing of the Detective Agencies operating in India. Every Agency should have a license issued by the State or Central Private Detective Agency Regulatory Board. If the agency operates only in one state, the State Board can issue the license and if it operates in more than one state, then the license has to be issued by the Central Board. According to the Board Regulations, the agency should maintain records of all their clients and the services rendered to them and also details about the Detective Agents including their background, criminal antecedents if any, and their salary. They don’t have any legal powers to carry out any criminal investigation, summon anyone, interrogate, call for documents, detain or arrest anyone. They also don’t have legal powers to collect Business or Political intelligence or to shadow anyone. If anyone feels that they are intruding or invading their privacy, a Police complaint can be lodged against the concerned person and he or she will be booked for the same. Some time ago, there was a case where the first lady detective of India Rajani Pandit was booked for clandestinely collecting CDR (Call Data Records) from Telecom companies, as no one else apart from Government investigating agencies are authorized for the same, that too only through a letter signed by an officer, not lower than the rank of an Under Secretary (Supdt. Of Police or Deputy Commissioner of Police) and the case number for which the data is sought should also be mentioned in the letter. CDR shows data relating to the calls made and received by a person and also the location of a person (or rather the cell phone) based on the signals captured by cell phone towers.

Police Department: The Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) empowers them to investigate a crime (Chapter XII of the CrPC), send notice to the suspected individual to appear before the Investigating Officer under section 41 CrPC, summon witness u/s 160 CrPC, ask for documents u/s 91 CrPC, etc. They are empowered to interrogate or arrest a person after following due process of law.

We will discuss about "Hiring and Hierarchy in the Police Department" in my next blog.