Perhaps the single most important motivation to the private investigatiors in Florida was the creation of the Florida Board of Certified Investigators program to encourage education in the profession. The profession leaders were cognizant that many, if not all of the private investigators in Florida, have an original investigative knowledge base, either from an earlier career in law enforcement, college education or on the job training. However, in today's world of public awareness, of private investigator actions, and the current political and societal alarm over invasion of privacy issues and errant investigative practices, the entire profession now loses when an investigator's actions make the courtroom or the newspapers. Therefore, constant education is necessary to protect ourselves, our agencies and our profession. If our clients, attorneys, corporations, human resource departments, insurance adjusters and so forth, all deem continuing education important for them and their industries, should we not have equal pride and concern for own profession.

The Requirements:

To maintain the FCI certification, the Florida Board of Certified Investigators requires twenty (20) hours of continuing education training every two (2) years. The FBCI board recommends that training should fall among these four major continuing education categories: Professional Conduct and Ethics, Statutory Compliance, Investigative Legal Issues, and Investigative Techniques.

It is important to the Florida Board of Certified Investigators to keep the cost of satisfying the requirements to a minimum. The Florida Board of Certified Investigators also recognizes that many FCI's will also have other certifications with CEU requirements. The FCI program recognizes the CEU credits of any of the other certifying entities. Additionally, the requirements can be attained through sponsored speakers at association monthly meetings as well by attendance at the annual conference.