PRINTER'S NO. 635
No. 567 Session of 1983
INTRODUCED BY MILLER, MICOZZIE, CIVERA, DeLUCA, McCALL, RIEGER,
DUFFY, VAN HORNE, LESCOVITZ, MAYERNIK, DAWIDA, GAMBLE, BURD
AND McVERRY, MARCH 23, 1983
REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON JUDICIARY, MARCH 23, 1983
AN ACT
1 Amending the act of August 21, 1953 (P.L.1273, No.361), entitled
2 "An act to regulate the business of private detectives,
3 investigators and watch, guard, or patrol agencies, and the
4 licensing thereof in each county; providing penalties,"
5 further excluding certain persons from the provisions of the
6 act.
7 The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
8 hereby enacts as follows:
9 Section 1. Section 15 of the act of August 21, 1953
10 (P.L.1273, No.361), known as The Private Detective Act of 1953,
11 is amended to read:
12 Section 15. Application of Act.--Nothing in this act shall
13 apply to any detective officer or man belonging to the
14 Pennsylvania State Police, or to the police force of any county,
15 city, borough, township, or incorporated town, or any employe of
16 such State Police, or such police force, appointed or elected by
17 due authority of law, while engaged in the performance of their
18 official duties or, if the bonding requirements of section 6 are
19 fulfilled, while engaged off-duty in the performance of duties
1 as set forth in clause 11 of subsection (b) of section 2, nor to
2 any person, partnership, association, or corporation, or any
3 bureau or agency, whose business is exclusively the furnishing
4 of information as to the business and financial standing and
5 credit responsibility of persons, partnerships, associations, or
6 corporations, or as to the personal habits and financial
7 responsibility of applicants for insurance, indemnity bonds, or
8 commercial credit, or of claimants under insurance policies, and
9 whose business does not embrace other activities described in
10 section 2 of this act, nor to any corporation duly authorized by
11 the Commonwealth to operate a fire alarm protection business,
12 nor to any person while engaged in the business of adjuster for
13 an insurance company, nor to any person regularly employed as
14 special agent, detective or investigator exclusively by one
15 employer in connection with the affairs of that employer only,
16 nor to any charitable or philanthropic society or association
17 duly incorporated under the laws of the Commonwealth and which
18 is organized and maintained for the public good and not for
19 private profit, nor shall anything in this act contained be
20 construed to affect in any way attorneys or counselors at law in
21 the regular practice of their profession, but such exemption
22 shall not enure to the benefit of any employe or representative
23 of such attorney or counselor at law who is not employed solely,
24 exclusively and regularly by such attorney or counselor at law,
25 nor to persons in the exclusive employment of common carriers
26 subject to regulation by the interstate commerce commission or
27 the Public Utility Commission of the Commonwealth of
28 Pennsylvania, nor to investigators in the employment of credit
29 bureaus. [No] Except for the duties set forth in clause (11) of
30 subsection (b) of section 2, which may be performed by any
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1 detective officer or a member of the Pennsylvania State Police,
2 or the police force of any county, city, borough, township, or
3 incorporated town, or any employe of such State Police, or such
4 police force, appointed or elected by due authority of law, no
5 person, partnership, association, corporation, or any bureau or
6 agency, exempted hereunder from the application of this act,
7 shall perform any manner of detective service as described in
8 section 2 hereof for any other person, partnership, association,
9 corporation, bureau or agency, whether for fee, hire, reward,
10 other compensation, remuneration, or consideration, or as an
11 accommodation without fee, reward, or remuneration, or by a
12 reciprocal arrangement whereby such services are exchanged on
13 request of parties thereto. The commission of a single act
14 prohibited by this act shall constitute a violation thereof.
15 Nothing in this act shall be construed to affect or prohibit
16 the right of any person to form, or become affiliated with, or
17 to continue as a member of, any union, association, society, or
18 organization of his own choosing.
19 Section 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
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