Texas Private Investigator

Training Requirements

Governing Agency
Texas Private Investigators are regulated by the Texas Department of Public Safety. For additional information about state regulations, procedures, and training requirements, click here.

Licensing Laws
In Texas, Private Investigator Companies must be licensed under Private Security Act, Chapter 1702 Texas Occupations Code and the company or the prospective manager must meet one of the requirements below:

• 3 consecutive years of investigative related experience or Bachelor's degree in criminal justice/related course of study or Bachelor's degree with 12 months of investigative experience or Associates degree in criminal justice with 2 years of investigative related experience
• Must pass state-administered exam
• Level III and IV training required

State Exam
The Texas Private Investigator exam consists of 100 questions and takes roughly two hours to complete and is open book.

Individual PI's -Upon qualifying as the manager/owner of the agency, the manager can hire other individuals that can operate as private investigators under their agency after they meet the manager’s requirements. To be licensed and employed by a licensed company as a private investigator, a person must meet all the requirements set forth in Texas Occupations Code 1702.113,

Continuing Education
Licensed Investigators in Texas are required to take 8 hours of Continuing Education every two years if you're an agency owner.  For individual licenses with more than 15 years of experience, you need 12 hours and for individual licenses with less that 15 years of experience, you need 18 hours of continuing education.

NITA holds a Texas School License #Y00191.