Regular Session 2015-2016 House Bill 2055 P.N. 3318

PRINTER'S NO. 3318

THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA

HOUSE BILL

No.

2055

Session of

2015

INTRODUCED BY KAMPF, PHILLIPS-HILL, MILLARD AND WARD,

MAY 10, 2016

REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON JUDICIARY, MAY 10, 2016

AN ACT

Amending the act of August 21, 1953 (P.L.1273, No.361), entitled

"An act to regulate the business of private detectives,

investigators and watch, guard, or patrol agencies, and the

licensing thereof in each county; providing penalties,"

further providing for definitions and for application of act.

The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

hereby enacts as follows:

Section 1. Sections 2(b) and 15 of the act of August 21,

1953 (P.L.1273, No.361), known as The Private Detective Act of

1953, amended December 3, 1987 (P.L.405, No.83), are amended to

read:

Section 2. Definitions.--* * *

(b) "Private detective business" shall also mean and

include, separately or collectively, the making, for hire,

reward, or for any consideration whatsoever, of any

investigation or investigations for the purpose of obtaining

information with reference to any of the following matters,

notwithstanding the fact that other functions and services may

also be performed for fee, hire, or reward:

(1) Crime or wrongs done or threatened against the

government of the United States of America or any state or

territory of the United States of America.

(2) The identity, habits, conduct, movements, whereabouts,

affiliations, associations, transactions, reputation, or

character, of any person, group of persons, association,

organization, society, other groups of persons, partnership, or

corporation.

(3) The credibility of witnesses or other persons.

(4) The whereabouts of missing persons.

(5) The location or recovery of lost or stolen property.

(6) The causes and origin of, or responsibility for, fires,

or libels, or losses, or accidents, or damage, or injuries, to

real or personal property.

(7) The affiliation, connection, or relation, of any person,

partnership, or corporation, with any union, organization,

society, or association, or with any official member or

representative thereof.

(8) With reference to any person or persons seeking

employment in the place of any person or persons who have quit

work by reason of any strike.

(9) With reference to the conduct, honesty, efficiency,

loyalty, or activities, of employes, agents, contractors and

subcontractors.

(10) The securing of evidence to be used before any

authorized investigating committee, board of award, board of

arbitration, or in the trial of civil or criminal cases.

(11) The furnishing, for hire or reward, of watchmen, or

guards, or private patrolmen, or other persons, to protect

persons or property, or to prevent the theft or the unlawful

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taking of goods, wares and merchandise, or to prevent the

misappropriation or concealment of goods, wares or merchandise,

money, bonds, stocks, choses in action, notes, or other valuable

documents, papers, and articles of value, or to procure the

return thereof, or the performing of the service of such guard

or other person, or any of said purposes.

The foregoing shall not be deemed to include persons engaged

in the business of investigators for or adjusters for insurance

companies, nor persons in the exclusive employment of common

carriers subject to regulation by the interstate commerce

commission or the Public Utility Commission of the Commonwealth

of Pennsylvania, nor any telephone, telegraph or other

telecommunications company subject to regulation by the Federal

Communications Commission or the Public Utility Commission of

the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania or an employe of any such

company while performing any investigatory activities engaged in

by his employer, or investigators in the employment of credit

bureaus[.], nor persons engaged in providing computer or digital

forensic services, the acquisition, review or analysis of

computer-based or digital information or network or system

vulnerability testing.

* * *

Section 15. Application of Act.--(a) Nothing in this act

shall apply to any detective officer or man belonging to the

Pennsylvania State Police, or to the police force of any county,

city, borough, township, or incorporated town, or any employe of

such State Police, or such police force, appointed or elected by

due authority of law, while engaged in the performance of their

official duties, nor to any person, partnership, association, or

corporation, or any bureau or agency, whose business is

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exclusively the furnishing of information as to the business and

financial standing and credit responsibility of persons,

partnerships, associations, or corporations, or as to the

personal habits and financial responsibility of applicants for

insurance, indemnity bonds, or commercial credit, or of

claimants under insurance policies, and whose business does not

embrace other activities described in section 2 of this act, nor

to any corporation duly authorized by the Commonwealth to

operate a fire alarm protection business, nor to any person

while engaged in the business of adjuster for an insurance

company, nor to any person regularly employed as special agent,

detective or investigator exclusively by one employer in

connection with the affairs of that employer only, nor to any

charitable or philanthropic society or association duly

incorporated under the laws of the Commonwealth and which is

organized and maintained for the public good and not for private

profit, nor shall anything in this act contained be construed to

affect in any way attorneys or counselors at law in the regular

practice of their profession, but such exemption shall not enure

to the benefit of any employe or representative of such attorney

or counselor at law who is not employed solely, exclusively and

regularly by such attorney or counselor at law, nor to persons

in the exclusive employment of common carriers subject to

regulation by the interstate commerce commission or the Public

Utility Commission of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, nor to

investigators in the employment of credit bureaus. No person,

partnership, association, corporation, or any bureau or agency,

exempted hereunder from the application of this act, shall

perform any manner of detective service as described in section

2 hereof for any other person, partnership, association,

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corporation, bureau or agency, whether for fee, hire, reward,

other compensation, remuneration, or consideration, or as an

accommodation without fee, reward, or remuneration, or by a

reciprocal arrangement whereby such services are exchanged on

request of parties thereto. The commission of a single act

prohibited by this act shall constitute a violation thereof.

(b) Nothing in this act shall apply to any telephone,

telegraph or other telecommunications company subject to

regulation by the Federal Communications Commission or the

Public Utility Commission of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania or

to an employe of any such company while performing any

investigatory activities engaged in by his employer.

prohibit the right of any person to form, or become affiliated

with, or to continue as a member of, any union, association,

society, or organization of his own choosing.

(d) Nothing in this act shall apply to any person engaged in

providing any of the following:

(1) computer or digital forensic services, or the

acquisition, review or analysis of digital or computer-based

information, whether for the purposes of obtaining or furnishing

information for evidentiary or other purposes, or for providing

expert testimony before a court; or

(2) network or system vulnerability testing, including

network scans and risk assessment and analysis of computers

connected to a network.

Section 2. This act shall take effect in 60 days.

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