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IPIU, known as the International Private Investigators Union, was founded in 1989 by two licensed private investigators in an effort to better aid and educate newcomers to the profession. Prior to 1989, most state private investigator associations required their applicants to be licensed prior to acceptance as a member, which generally precluded newcomers to seek out educational and training opportunities.
As IPIU grew in both membership, resources, and the use of the internet, their mission began to shift from solely aiding newcomers to academic training and licensing to also preparing newcomers and experience private investigators in areas of electronic surveillance equipment, advanced undercover pretexts, internet tracing skills, and 3rd party PI Union Licensing where a state license was not available.
In 2012, the membership of IPIU stands at over 42,000 members worldwide, although most are in the USA. Unique to IPIU is their method of providing online training courses which "keeps the student in the books for less than 3 days", with the remaining of training performing on-the-job paid assignments as undercover operatives.
IPIU offers their own unique PI Union License, which monitors the professional conduct of the agent, and assists all newcomers in obtaining their own state issued private investigator agency license in a matter of weeks through a sponsorship program of other willing licensed private investigators.
IPIU's 3-point focus is: Academic training, Licensing, and where to get paid assignments.
For business owners, IPIU extends its services into every possible resource a private investigator would need in the success of their profession, including incorporation, access to professional-only data bases, business services, banking, and other needs to maintain a successful agency.
For state licensing, some states require a clean criminal record at the application entry point. However, all states have a board of directors who will review an applicants appeal to determine whether the board can approve the application based on the elapsed amount of time since the last offence was recorded. In most situations, the board of appeal will approve an application based on good conduct within the last five to ten years. This, combined with modern business practices, has ensured that most private investigators are now professional in outlook, rather than seeing the PI world as a second career opportunity for retired policemen.
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