Colorado Private Investigations Industry Regulator Has Major Military Background

By Susanna Speier

Denver Private Investigator Blogger

DENVER – The regulator in charge of Colorado’s private investigators has a small background in investigations and a major background with the military, his resume indicates.

Mark Browne – named earlier this year to implement the legislation requiring that all Colorado private investigators get licenses from the state by July 1, 2015 – has been an intern with a big city police department and the consumer protection division of a state Attorney General’s department, but those stints are so far in his background he doesn’t even list them on his resume.

Instead, the resume focuses on his military experience, which began a decade ago when he was a troop fire support officer with the US Army, stationed at Fort Carson in Colorado Springs.  He writes in his cover letter to state officials that his job was to advise the troop commander on all technical and tactical aspects of lethal fires and non-lethal effects and to supervise the training, welfare, combat readiness, safety and morale of a three-member fire support team.

The Denver Private Investigator Blogger submitted a records request for Browne’s resume after a department spokeswoman refused to respond to a question about Browne’s professional background.

— More—

Revised Private Investigator Licensing Bill Sets License Categories Based on Experience

By Paul Simon

Denver Private Investigator Blogger

DENVER, Colorado  ─ Legislation making licensing for private investigators in Colorado mandatory has already been revised, to create two different types of licensees for investigators with different levels of experience.

The latest tweaks to the bill were informally adopted during a stakeholders meeting of bill proponents on Jan. 8 chaired by state Sen. Linda Newell of Littleton, the strongest legislative supporter of the bill. Sen. Newell said the tiered license requirement addresses concerns about an earlier draft mandating one license for all private investigators regardless of experience, with no experience requirement to obtain a license.

Newell said she views licensing private investigators as “protecting the industry and honoring the profession.” Colorado is one of six states that don’t mandate licensing and Newell said she “has heard stories of private investigators coming here who can’t practice elsewhere.”

The revised proposal prepared for introduction into the legislative session that began Wednesday creates one level for inexperienced investigators and a second level requiring a minimum amount of experience. A third category of licenses would enable firms that hire several investigators to obtain one license for all the investigators who work for it and who meet the experience requirement of the second level.

— More—

First Complaints Lodged Against Colorado Private Investigators

DENVER, Colorado – Now that Colorado regulators are in charge of watching over some of the state’s private investigators,  consumers have taken advantage to lodge formal complaints seeking to have investigators punished.

Two investigators were accused last year of failing  to perform as promised, another was  accused of stalking and committing criminal trespass by entering a private gated community,  and another was charged with falsely represented himself as licensed.

The charge about falsely representing oneself as licensed posed the most significant threat, because under the state’s voluntary licensing law even investigators who do not obtain licenses can be prosecuted if they claim they are licensed. That was one of the major selling points designed to encourage investigators to obtain licenses: they could call themselves licensed investigators.

Many Colorado private investigators have licenses form other states, so it’s unlikely the provision of the law would have survived a court challenge if regulators had gone after an investigator who wasn’t licensed in Colorado for saying they were “licensed,” if they had a license from another state.

— More—