Licensing and Training of Detectives in Frankfurt and Germany

Significant Media Interest in Detective Agencies

The profession of detective attracts particular media interest in film, television and literature. Newspapers, magazines and websites also frequently and gladly cover the detective trade, regularly interviewing private detectives from Frankfurt or other parts of the country. Considering the relatively modest revenue of the profession and the limited number of permanently active investigators, media interest in detectives is clearly disproportionate. This special attention also carries risks for the profession, as it is not regulated by licensing, and unqualified investigative work can quickly damage the reputation of the entire profession. For this reason, the Aaden Commercial Detective Agency Frankfurt would like to take a closer look here at the licensing and training of detectives in Hesse and Germany.

Pseudo-Courses Undermine Serious Detective Training

Since the founding of the first professional associations for detectives in Germany around 1900, there has been an effort to distinguish qualified and ethically operating detectives from the dubious "corner detectives." This was intended, among other things, to be achieved through licensing of the detective profession, which was never implemented nationwide, but above all through binding qualification opportunities via various distance learning courses.

Because, up until Hitler’s rise to power and even after the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany, countless private investigators in Frankfurt and elsewhere established detective schools or institutes offering distance learning detective training in order to issue worthless diplomas, the efforts of serious detectives to ensure high-quality, uniform training for detectives were intensified and implemented in a first step with the founding of the BDD Training Institute in 1957.

ZAD Distance Learning Course for Detectives

The Bund Deutscher Detektive (BDD), founded in 1950, made efforts to distinguish capable detectives from untrustworthy ones, as there continued to be, or again since the end of the war, too much negative press about the detective trade in Germany, including detectives in Frankfurt. The BDD Training Institute provided comprehensive materials for instruction in the detective profession and regularly organized events with lectures and seminars on current and general topics related to the work of detectives. However, the association’s policies did not always develop transparently or fairly, which led to increasing dissent within the industry and the founding of several rival associations. The most significant of these new associations is the BID, Bund Internationaler Detektive, based in Cologne. Thanks to it, we have the most important and probably best training for private detectives in Germany to this day: the Central Office for Training in the Detective Trade (ZAD). However, even the ZAD and the BID could not achieve state licensing.

Increased Requirements for Private Detectives

With regard to increasingly strict data protection regulations, the associated legal requirements for detective agencies such as Aaden Detective Agency Frankfurt, and the reduction in the number and qualification of police forces, thorough training and licensing of private detectives may be more important today than ever. Yet despite numerous efforts by the associations since the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany, no progress has been made to date. Politics remains indifferent.