Message from FALI President

A Message from FALI President Timothy O’Rourke

As 2012 approaches, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on our accomplishments of the last few years and talk about some of the future challenges we face. FALI has invested much time, money and energy into creating real improvements for the professional private investigation industry, while at the same time, protecting our interests with the Florida DOACS’ Division of Licensing and the Florida Legislature.

FALI, with the Florida Association of Security Companies (FASCO), the Florida Alliance of Certified Asset Recovery Specialists (FLACARS), and the National Rifle Association (NRA), for example, was able to help prevent the regional DOL offices from being closed during the legislative budget battles.

This same alliance of associations was also successful at blocking the DOL Trust Fund from being raided by the cash strapped Legislature, for six million dollars of your license fees. 2012 will again bring another Legislative session and you can be assured they will again be looking at our Trust Fund. The Council of Presidents of 493 will again be standing guard.

In our efforts to ensure that our collective voices receive the attention of the DOL and the Legislature, FALI, FASCO, and FLACARS formed an official alliance called the Council of Presidents of 493 (COP). This alliance has been extremely successful at coordinating mutual interests and addressing issues that affect all three industries regulated under Florida Chapter 493.

Under the Council of Presidents of 493, industry representatives, including myself, met with Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam and the new Director of the DOL, Grea Bevis, in early October, 2011 to discuss the future of our industry and his administration of it. Commissioner Putnam was very encouraging in his views and openly committed to partner with us as we enter into a new relationship with his administration. We were encouraged by his commitment to help evolve our standards, to modernize the DOL and to enhance the enforcement of FS 493.

One area of concern expressed by Commissioner Putnam dealt with the current training standards and the lack of assurances that schools are actually providing the security, investigative, and asset recovery training required by law. The DOL, has begun undercover enforcement operations to make certain the various school are presenting the proper curriculum in the proper time frames. Several schools have been found deficient and administrative sanctions and possible revocation actions are pending.

As many of you know, in January, 2012, the training requirements will change to a mandatory 40 hours prior to licensing being issued. The DOL sees this as a time to make further changes as to how training and licensing works. As a result, effective January 1, 2012, an individual submitting an application for a Class "CC” Private Investigator Intern License will need to provide documentation with the application indicating that all 40 hours of training required by law have been completed. The DOL will no longer issue a license to an applicant who has completed only the 24 hours of initial training.

As the DOL moves forward with their plans to make other fundamental changes and modernize their operations, be assured that FALI, along with our partners in the Council of Presidents of 493, will be involved to make certain the changes are effective and realistic.

The upcoming legislative session for 2012 will certainly be searching for dollars to solve the continuing cash shortage problems. FALI promises to keep a sharp eye on the Trust Fund.

Another major legislative effort will focus on unlicensed activity. As we all know, there is a lot of unlicensed activity in all three of the industries regulated by the DOL. If you don’t believe me, take a look at Craig’s List. Currently the DOL has authority only to take administrative action against those who operate illegally—or at best, to charge someone with a misdemeanor. The Council of Presidents of 493 has submitted a bill that will make providing unlicensed services a 3^rd degree felony on the second offense, and will carry a $10,000 fine and a possible five year prison term.

Unlicensed activity affects all of us and many times victimizes the citizens of Florida; therefore, stronger enforcement must be addressed and I think this new law will go a long way in doing that.

Be assured that your FALI and the Board of Directors will be attentive, involved, and prudent with FALI funds—as we seek to protect and to better our industry’s future.

If you are not yet a member of FALI—or if you have associates who are not members—please give serious consideration to joining with us as a FALI member. And if you are trying to decide whether to renew your membership, I encourage you to review some of our accomplishments listed below. Shouldn’t you be an active member in Florida’s largest, professional private investigator organization ?

Remember that there is strength in numbers. When we speak as a united group through the Council of Presidents of 493, we speak clearly and distinctly--in a very loud voice. I encourage you to make certain your voice is heard.

Sincerely,

Timothy O’Rourke

FALI President
T:     888-845-3254
F:    863-687-7403
E:    president@fali.org

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

• Helped to defeat bills that would have restricted access to Social Security numbers to licensed Florida Private Investigators.

• Assisted the Florida Department of Revenue in crafting a refund procedure for insurance companies requesting sales tax refunds that made sense for private investigators.

• Worked on extending the Class A agency license from a 2 year to a 3 year term license with no additional cost increase.

• Defeated the attempts to move our licensing from the DOL (with only 3 professions regulated under FS 493) to the DBPR (where we would have been lost and possibly minimized among the 34 + services and industries they regulate).

• Defeated bills to reduce fees that would be charged to do abandoned property work in Florida.

• Assisted in working out reciprocal agreements with other states that permitted licensed Florida private investigators to work in other states, on a temporary basis

• Prevented the passage of 137 of the 138 bills that restricted and were designed to close public records access for Florida licensed private investigators.

• Worked with the DOL on budget reductions that proposed the closing of 6 DOL offices statewide. The offices remain open.

• Presented and spoke before the Governor’s Study Committee on Public Records, emphasizing the need for public records to remain available for professional private investigators.

• Assisted in repealing the DOL insurance requirement for private investigators of non-essential coverage.

• Proposed and led the way on the window tint restriction exemption bill for private investigators.

• Assisted in turning back several attempts by Legislators to raid the DOL trust fund monies.