Ross Investigators PC, Inc.

​Veteran Denver private investigator Rick Johnson, 68, says “be grateful for what you have” after a stroke almost killed him. Paralyzed on his left side and confined to a wheelchair, Johnson says with extensive physical therapy he’ll be walking again and plans to get back to work, albeit with a reduced schedule, writes Simon Crittle.
 
How are you?
 
I’ve been in a facility since the middle of January. I’m paralyzed on the left side. I cannot walk. Other than that, I feel OK. PT is pretty tough, learning to walk again. I’m lucky to be alive. I almost died. When I got to the hospital they were going to call a priest. This was a brain bleeding (hemorrhagic) stroke. They’re the kind that kill people. It almost killed me. 
 
What happened?
 
I was at home talking to my wife. I’d had a stroke before so she knew what was happening. She called 911 before I hit the ground.
 
What’s the prognosis?
 
I am continuing to work. I will get back to work. I will walk again. I may be in physical therapy the rest of my life. That’s how bad this was. My last stroke was about five years ago. That was a clot stroke. This was a brain bleed. There is a huge difference.
 
What do you think of the bill to renew licensing for private investigators currently before the State House?
 
My view is that we should get rid of licensing. We should have never had it in the first place. There was no reason to introduce it five years ago and there is no reason to renew it now. Let me tell you who benefits from this. It benefits the investigator who has no experience. They can say “I have a license.” A license is recognition, as bad as you might be. Big deal. If that’s all you have to offer, you shouldn’t be a private eye. It is a fraud on the public. Seriously. 
 
What’s going to happen with your private investigator academy?
 
I’m going to continue it. We had the academy before licensing. We had it after. But because of the virus, the spring academy has been canceled. The next one will be in the fall. Ryan (Ross) was one of my first academy students. Sean Meade, the former LA cop who works for Ryan, has been through. I’ve had a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter run through that academy, Dan Luzadder. He’s probably one of the best reporters in the world. 
 
Has the experience of having a stroke changed your priorities?
 
You’d be a fool if you didn’t learn something from almost dying. What did I learn? Be grateful for what you have. I’ve also thought about what I am going to change. I own an office building. I’m going to sell that. A lot of people already know that. I am going to cut back tremendously. But I’ll be back.

​A bill that aims to continue requiring private investigators in Colorado be licensed is likely to become law despite a possible funding shortfall and a state government agency recommending it be scrapped.
 
On Monday the state’s General Assembly Finance Committee kept the bill alive and voted to send it to the Appropriations Committee. But lawmakers expressed concern the $75,000 annual cost to regulate the industry might not be covered by licensing fees. 
 
At the same time, a report released by the Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA) said the Assembly should phase out the existing law because “disciplinary actions against licensed individuals are virtually nonexistent.”
 
“Prior to passage of the Act, it was believed that there may have been a slight chance that the public could be financially harmed by not regulating PIs (private investigators),” says the DORA report. “However, the data now verify that this harm does not occur.”
 
DORA says the argument often used to justify licensing private investigators is they gain access to sensitive personal information. However, DORA said most sensitive data are regulated and are accessible only to individuals who’ve been vetted by database operators.
 
The bill sponsor, Democratic Rep. Jovan Melton told Ross Investigators the reasoning for getting rid of the existing law was that there weren’t enough complaints.
 
“I think that’s actually a good thing,” Melton said, “It shows the right people are passing the test and projecting themselves as private investigators instead of this being the Wild West.”
 
During the committee hearing, Rep.Tracy Kraft-Tharp questioned the cost implications of the bill, pointing out the current annual $25,000 shortfall between the cost of regulating the industry and fees raised by granting licenses to private investigators.
 
“Is nobody else disturbed by this?” asked Representative Kraft-Tharp, a Democrat. “This is a program DORA is not recommending continuing. Let’s remember that. That’s the backdrop. But we have to make up the $25,000 some place. Is it going to be an increase in fees?”
 
The bill’s sponsors responded to the Rep. Kraft-Tharp’s concerns, saying they would look into the funding shortfall and determine if fees raised from previous years were held in reserve. 
 
The bill (HB20-1207) – Sunset Regulation Of Private Investigators – continues the regulatory regime of private investigators for five years. It enjoys bipartisan support from sponsors Rep. James Wilson (Republican) and senators Mike Foote (Democrat) and John Cooke (Republican.)
 
Outside the state house, the bill is supported by the County Sheriffs of Colorado and the Professional Private Investigators Association of Colorado.
 
Since 2015, 77 complaint files were opened and only eight disciplinary actions taken. Of those, six were conditional licenses, issued to individuals because of behavior prior to being licensed, not after. Of the remaining actions, two were dispensed to one individual who was issued a letter of admonition as well as a practice stipulation for harassment against another private investigator.
 
No private investigator licenses have been revoked under the current law. 
 
Private investigators have been regulated by DORA since 2011. Requirements to obtain a private investigator’s license include being at least 21 years old, submitting an application, passing a background check, passing a jurisprudence exam, posting a surety bond and paying fees.

The below is a message from PPIAC about its planned development institute, which was scheduled for April 3 and 4. 

Esteemed colleagues:
Due to the Coronavirus concerns, and as a measure of caution, we have postponed our Spring CIDI 2020. We apologize for the inconvenience, but feel that we can better serve our presenters, attendees, and our community after the concerns of COVID-19 are past. Please check back on this page for updates as to where and when we will be holding this event. We look forward to seeing you soon! In the meantime, stay safe and well.

​The original story ran by Ross Investigators is below:

The Professional Private Investigators Association of Colorado (PPIAC) will hold a two-day development institute for people considering a career as a private investigator.
 
The Colorado Investigative Development Institute (CIDI), being held on April 3 and 4, at the Hilton Inverness, Englewood, will provide instruction, networking opportunities, resources and valuable tips for a career as a professional investigator.
 
“Are you considering the field of private investigators?” asks the flier. “Are you a PI and looking to enhance your skill set? PPIAC’s CIDI is here to provide amazing education for incredible value.

Sessions will be presented by Colorado’s top investigators and will include “The law and the PI,” “Public Records,” “Backgrounds,” “Surveillance,” “Financial Investigations” and “Report Writing.” 
 
The cost for PPIAC members is $325 and for guests is $375. Lunch, parking, certificates, resources and handbooks will be provided. 
 
The PPIAC is a nonprofit organization that provides education, training and legislative advocacy for professional private investigators.

Register for the institute at this link. 

By Susanna Speier
Denver Private Investigator Blog

For my very last Denver Private Investigator Blog post, I've compiled a 'best of' roundup, featuring the top five posts of my half-decade tenure working as Chief Content Officer and Blogger for Ross Investigators. Google analytics rankings, personal favorites, reader feedback and timely industry issues also went into making these selections. I've listed according to topics starting with the post I felt to be the most important. 

Telling Tom Mills' story was my most important blog post. The civil suit against Bret Carbone ended up getting settled out-of-court and the details of that settlement were never disclosed to me, however the series resonated profoundly with private investigators who understood that what  happened to Tom Mills could have happened to any of them.

The take home?  There were several actually. The first being the most obvious: ever ever go on a serve without some video format-- but it also touched upon the larger issue of  private investigator safety and brought to light concerns about long term health ramifications like Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and it's impact
on health and business. 

One of the benefits of the licensing program was it made private investigators accountable in ways they hadn't been previously.  Violations, if reported, were available to the public through open records requests and part of my job was to obtain those records, review them and write about what went on. 

It didn't happen frequently but when it did happen I told the story so people in the community would know how the licensing program was serving consumer and the industry. 

Go here to read about license violations reported against Grand Junction Private Investigator, Jessica Erin Lane.

Stories ranged from the ski resort bear caught on camera when it banged out a few cords on a piano to the pit bull dog reunited with it's Colorado Springs guardian thanks to a supportive PI. The Spies in the Wild review was also wildly popular. As was the story about Operation Acoustic Kitty. 

Thanks to supportive communications team and data, data, data, I was able to hone in on salary disparities between men and women in the private investigator industry. I also used census and Bureau of Labor Statistics to look at and report on how salary trends varied in different regions of the country and in different demographics. 

Perhaps most complicated were Rule 8.4 (c) and Formal Opinion 137. We addressed the negative ramifications for private investigators in several blog posts, one of which garnered statewide recognition when it was cited in Law Week Colorado. 

Thanks again for all your likes and shares. Your support and your readership. I enjoyed spending the last five years telling your stories. 

By Susanna Speier
Denver Private Investigator Blogger  

After covering the private investigator community of Denver and the Rocky Mountain Region for half a decade, I will be moving on. February 29th will be my last day as the Denver Private Investigator Blogger. It has been an inspiration and an honor to serve the Colorado private detective community and legal investigator industry for over five years.  

Whether your niche is defense Law and/or defense law investigations or process service you are a vital part of Colorado's legal industry and before I head into the wide blue yonder (more of an overcast snow grey yonder given the last week's Denver metro weather, I wanted my penultimate post to provide a list of training and legal investigation enrichment opportunities to get you through spring and summer 2020. 

For starters, Mayor Michael Hancock will host three of the Central Park Five this Saturday, February 22nd at the Colorado Convention Center. Watching Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, and Raymond Santana interviewed by Denver's Mayor Hancock is a can't miss opportunity for anyone working in legal investigation and legal  defense industry with an interest in systemic bias and social injustice. Especially if you watched and were moved by the award winning Netflix series, When They See Us.  

See also: Reid Technique defamation controversy 

See also: why innocent people make false confessions 

See also: the Colorado connection to When They See Us 

On Wednesday, March 4th 2020 at 6:00 PM, MST the Hilton Inverness at 200 Inverness Drive W, Englewood the Professional Private Investigator Association of Colorado (PPIAC) will host a training event titled, "Virtual Machines for PIs in OSINT Investigations" for Linux pros as well as Linux newbies wanting to learn more about open source intelligence. The instructors are from Digital Silence and you can learn more about the event as well as the PPIAC on their website. There will also be training and professional development events in early April. 

Finally, if you're looking to sharpen you Crime Scene Investigation (CSI) smarts, the State of Colorado will be hosting free workshops through the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) this summer and fall in the Denver, Pueblo and Grand Junction. Workshops will include crime scene photographing, crime scene diagramming, mechanics of injury (sharp force, blunt force), impression evidence (footwear, tire) and more. The training time will span a total of 24 hours. Visit the CBI website for more information. 

By Susanna Speier
Denver Private Investigator Blog

"Junior had gotten out while I was at the store and I went around calling his name and calling it out for three hours" explains Colorado Springs resident, Brandy Trejo once she and her pit bull, Junior were reunited. She's been walking around the neighborhood calling the name of her missing dog for a few hours when a neighbor approached her, reporting that "she was driving right past my house and these two men said 'hey that’s my neighbor’s dog' and she didn’t know any better and handed the dog over."

See also: the Lost Llama of Loveland 

Pit bull theft, unfortunately, is a problem in Colorado. Breeds with reputations as fighters get stolen and sold to dog fighting rings. "There are some bad people who want dogs for breeding purposes maybe they thought they could make money off of dog fighting. There’s a whole big thing going on in Colorado right now where people are stealing dogs for dog fighting and those are all pit bulls. I kept thinking you’d see him on TV and find out they’d busted a dog ring or something. That was my biggest fear," explains Trejo who thought the security camera footage and license place number would be sufficient for the police. 
 
​Fortunately, Brandy's across the street neighbor agreed to let Brandy and her husband view the security footage for the stretch of time Junior had gone missing. Sure enough, video evidence revealed what had happened along with the vehicle and the license plate that took Junior away. 

Claiming it was out of their jurisdiction, "the police couldn’t do anything Trejo explains, and I decided to call a private investigator." Although Drivers Privacy Protection Act (DPPA) law precludes Colorado PIs from providing the residential addresses, Trailfinders wanted to help. They told Brandy,  " it was the El Paso County Sheriff’s jurisdiction."

Unable to "just sit back and wait" Brandy headed over with the intention of driving around all the trailer parks in the jurisdiction to see if she could spot the car in the video footage. Without missing a beat, Trejo called the police and putting an officer on speaker phone,  knocked on the door, confident that Junior was inside because the surveillance footage that matched the car outside. "It was very distinctive because I saw the license place on the footage and it has huge black rims on it so that’s something you can’t miss" she said. 
 
“The private investigator pretty much told me what jurisdiction and a friend told me to call the police in the jurisdiction to see if they could help me but I wanted to find my dog and so I just went there and drove around I couldn’t sit back and wait," she explained when asked why she didn't take more precautions. She wanted Junior back. “The private investigator pretty much told me what jurisdiction and a friend told me to call the police in the jurisdiction to see if they could help me but I wanted to find my dog and so I just went there and drover around I couldn’t sit back and wait." 

"If you get nothing for them then call me back. But don’t spend your money on me until you’ve exhausted your lead over there," Trailfinders told her. “The fact he didn’t take my money just told me what I needed to do – that was really great." Trejo reflects, "he said ‘try getting a hold of the local police department there and see what you can do. If they can’t help he would have gone to the house himself. But it turned out she was able to do that on her own.

"When (Junior's suspected captors) opened the door I showed the lady the flier and told them one of their neighbors called and said they had a puppy that looked like mine. That’s what I told them and when the opened the door I saw my puppy right there. She said she saw the dog on the road and was going to give him back. I know for a fact they were not planning on giving him back because he was wearing a $45 collar," she said, still reverberating from the shock of being let down by her local police. 
 
“I had put all of my trust and hope into the police department I felt like the police are there to help you. Whenever they told me they couldn’t help me and I had put all my energy into getting information in the police and I’d lost all my hope and faith that my dog was coming back and then I found Trailfinders." Trejo says she cried the whole way home and the day after.

According to The Denver Channel, Denver City Council just voted to repeal it's 30 year pit bull ban. The repeal will take 90 days to go into effect so if you're a Denver resident considering pit bull guardianship you may also want to invest in security cameras and/or surveillance systems. 

Castle Rock's town council repealed the ban in 2018 and if you reside in Lone Tree, Louisville or Commerce City the ban is still on so you're out of luck. The City of Aurora is still discussing whether or not to repeal it's pit bull ban. 
 

By Susanna Speier
Denver Private Investigator Blogger 

While exchanging emails with British Columbia Private Investigator, James Craig about what role private investigator ethics and legal regulations may have played in his decision to turn down an assignment offered him by an eager New York based publication --they wanted him to do drone surveillance on the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, I also reached out to the Private Investigator Association of British Columbia (PIABC) to get the regulatory rundown. PIABC President/ Membership, Greg Tweed emailed a response that I am publishing in its entirety: 

See also: Canadian private investigator refuses to investigate Meghan and Harry's retreat  
Harry and Meghan ​

"With the speculated belief that Prince Harry and Duchess Megan Windsor may move to British Columbia at some point, the question about their privacy in terms of someone hiring a private investigator to follow or gather information about them arises.
 
In British Columbia, Private Investigators are licensed under the Security Services Act which outlines that private investigation work may be done in furtherance of an “Investigation”. The British Columbia Privacy legislation (Protection of Information Protection Act)  sets out circumstances when a person’s privacy may be violated. In simple terms, if there is a breach of an agreement, contravention of an enactment of Canada or a province, a remedy or relief available under an enactment, prevention of fraud or securities trading matters, an “investigation” may be done without a person’s consent. Person’s gathering information in such circumstances are required to be licensed and further bound by requirements to protect the information they acquire and to whom they may disclose it.
 
So it is unlikely that a private investigation company in BC would undertake an investigation on someone’s behalf without all of the intended privacy safeguards being clearly understood and followed. They would risk not only their license to investigate, but whatever else follows from civil action or other enactments (such as trespassing). In addition, the Criminal Code of Canada sets out numerous offences in relation to harassment, watching and besetting, trespass by night, intimidation, mischief (obstructing, interrupting or interfering with the use of property or any person in the lawful use, enjoyment or operation of property) and video voyeurism, to name a few.   
 
While the above outlines legal matters in Canada, it may be more important to understand the culture of how Canadians view celebrities and interactions with them. Canadians may be interested at a distance in celebrities, but generally it is not an obsession. Canadians are usually respectful. Many celebrities feel comfortable in Canada and are either ignored or viewed from a distance. Someone may try for an autograph, selfie or photo from a distance, but the context of the encounter seems to determine how people will behave. Vancouver is a hub of film making. Actors and actresses are commonly seen on the streets and in restaurants. By and large they are simply a curiosity."

By Susanna Speier
Denver Private Investigator Blog

There are private investigators who would jump at the opportunity. An ongoing drone surveillance gig for a major media outlet could mean a stable, long-term assignment for a client with deep pockets. Moreover, "will travel" is prominently featured on British Columbia Private Investigator, James Craig's, homepage.

See also: What role does Canadian drone surveillance regulatory culture play in making Canada an attractive place for A list celebrities to avoid surveillance drones 

Craig's firm, which has served Vancouver Island since 1986, certainly has the needed expertise. It was also just fifteen miles from the surveillance site. No wonder the prominent New York media outlet contacted him multiple times by phone and by email. But the seaside, hiking trails, farmers markets, wild osprey and river otters weren't what made the private investigator apprehensive. It was the assignment.

Victoria Times editor and publisher, Dave Obee, who Craig finally notified to explain what was going on, agreed. "They wanted to hire me to investigate Meghan and Prince Harry’s retreat" explained Craig by email. Evidently the media outlet, whose name was not disclosed also wanted the legal investigator to unearth into on the alleged Russian owner of the Sussex's new Canadian residence. "To search for any “dirt” I might be able to uncover," as Craig put it. 

In an editorial that posted the morning of Sunday, January, 19th titled, "When royals visit here let them be, let them be" Obee formalized the Victoria newsroom's position: "the separation of Harry and Meghan from the Royal Family is big news around the world. Their connection to our Island is worthy of note, but their day-to-day existence here is not."

Obee went on to explain that the local British Columbia paper wanted no part in disrupting the life of the couple who was driven by tabloid harassment to relinquish their royal titles and retreat from public life. "My decision, not to investigate the matter concerning Harry and Meghan, was based purely on my own personal ethics," Craig explained when I asked whether licensing codes or potential legal repercussions factored into his decision.

"Ethical cods and legal repercussions are always professionally respected, but had nothing to do with my decision," he told me when he forwarded the letter he wrote to the Victoria Times Colonist, expressing his disgust over the media outlets' job offer woven into their ruthless and irreverence for Meghan and Harry's privacy. 

The private investigator's "words certainly reinforced what we were thinking in the newsroom," Obee explained when I asked if his own article was prompted by the unusual occurrence. Private investigators rarely contact newspaper editors outside of trade industry publications. Obee said that a newsroom conversation was already underway when the private investigator's email arrived.
"in the end the column was motivated by the insanity of the British press here, chasing Meghan down as she goes about everyday things," Obee told me.

Finding peace, respite and most importantly, privacy in a town whose population is roughly the size of Glenwood Springs, Colorado will not be easy for the well known couple. But having the support of local Vancouver surveillance operatives and newspaper editors might make thing a little easier for them.

By Susanna Speier
Denver Private Investigator Blogger 

Last night's Critics Choice Award for Limited Series went to Ava DuVernay for Netflix's "When They See Us" and Jharrel Jerome won for best actor in a limited series. The four episode, nonfiction drama chronicling the story of the five, innocent, young men who were falsely accused and imprisoned for a crime they didn't commit. Now the producers might be entering a different courtroom. One that is not being used as a film set. 

See also:  Why Innocent People Make False Confessions 

The John E. Reid & Associates' pending litigation accuses Netflix and DuVernay of misrepresenting the Reid Technique. The Reid Technique is a sequence of interviews designed to elicit truth telling and factual analysis. "This procedure, termed a Behavior Analysis Interview, has become a standard investigative technique, especially since the passage of the Federal Employee Polygraph Act of 1988, which greatly restricts a private employer's use of polygraph," explains the firm's website. 

The legal complaint document, ​which can be viewed here, claims defamation on grounds that the Reid technique does "not involve and prohibits striking or assaulting a subject, making any promises of leniency, denying a subject any rights, conducting excessively long interrogations and denying a subject any physical needs." 

After learning of the firm's pending litigation against Netflix, long-time Colorado private investigator and former police detective and defense investigator, Ellis Armistead said that the Reid Technique is something that starts, "very benign and they (the investigators) say ‘you can go anytime you want.'” 

As the interview progresses, things change. "If you look at some of these innocence cases and exoneration cases these people have been interviewed 11 hours with no sleep and no bathroom breaks. Plain rooms, no pictures no calendars no clocks."

Armistead was taught the Reid Technique in the 1970s. "It was then "the gold standard" of interview and interrogation methods." I show Armistead clips for the film set of the 1980s interrogation scenes which resonate with what he remembers. "We had rooms like that. We probably still do. It’s just dealing with this person one on one. If they were stone walling then you don’t get them food but the basic is you try and keep them on edge and uncertain" he recalls adding that he considers it to be potent yet dangerous tool used often by law enforcement.

"Sure, it produced results, but if you look at the infamous wrongful conviction, false confession, and exoneration cases, the Reid Technique was probably used in eliciting a confession." Ultimately he feels there are better methods.

Governments, national and international military and security professionals use the Reid technique. The company also trains businesses in the behavioral psychology based technique that "Reid claims—correctly—to be the leading trainer of police interrogation techniques in the country," according to Nancy Gertner and Dean A Strang's story in Law.com a section of the New York Law Journal.

Their story also points outs that although John E. Reid & Associates still denies fault in, what is widely known as the "Central Park Jogger Case," lead to all five of the accused being exonerated due to DNA evidence. The falsely accused, widely known as the "Central Park Five" went on to win a settlement against New York City and a portion of that settlement ended up in Colorado thanks to Korey Wise's generation donation to the CU School of Law Innocence Project. 

Korey Wise, who barely survived the adult prison system and whose story is most gut wrenching of the series, was convicted on December 11, 1990. He wasn't exonerated until December 19, 2002.

Jharrel Jerome who portrayed Wise in the series took home a Best Actor in a Limited Series award from the Critics Choice. Director Ava DuVernay has also been nominated for a Directors Guild of America award. 

Ted Johnson's Deadline article quotes Netflix and Ava DuVernay as saying that defamation lawsuit filed over the series should be dismissed as it is an attempt to stifle speech in the debate over police interrogation techniques.

See also: The Colorado Connection to Ava DuVernay's When They See Us 

By Susanna Speier
Denver Private Investigator Blogger 

According to the US Bureau of Labor and Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook the private detective industry is expected to grow 8% between 2018 and 2028. The annual wage average was $50,090 in 2018 as "demand for private detectives and investigators will stem from security concerns and from the need to protect confidential information." The project that the field is expected to continue attracting qualified people, "including relatively young retirees from law enforcement and the military. Candidates with related work experience, as well as those with strong interviewing skills and familiarity with computers, may find more job opportunities than others," they add. But what happens to this playing field if the mandatory licensing law is taken away? 

In effort to obtain an answer by zooming in on Colorado specific-data, I punched in the address of the Ross Investigators, PC, Inc., 1665 Grant St. #304, Denver, CO. 80203 What do the earnings of Colorado private investigators working in or nearby the firm look like now under the current licensing program. 

Note that the local and regional salary growth projections do not take into account the late 2019 numbers which may have been impacted by the Department of Regulatory agencies' Sunset Report  and DORA's subsequent decision to end the Colorado licensing program by the end of 2020.
Colorado's mandatory licensing program has been in place for half a decade and projecting salaries based on these numbers is problematic but they are still worth looking at.

See also: Colorado Department of Regulatory Agency 2019 Sunset Review recommends the General Assembly sunset to Colorado Private Investigator Licensing Program 

Honing in on states without licensing programs --there are only five of them-- might shake things up a bit. Or at least make them more interesting. What happens in states where anyone can hang a shingle and proclaim themselves a private eye? Will the field become saturated or will the cream rise to the top anyway? If DORA's plan to sunset the private investigator licensing program goes through by the end of 2020 will the field become more or less competitive?  

The BLS provides a comprehensive  median salary range breakdown for most but not all of those states if you isolate the stats. Wyoming is the only relevant data that is missing. 

South Dakota, at $17,770 annually below the national average and $8.54 annually below the national average wins the Golden Raspberry or Razzie for worst salary in an unlicensed state. Boooo South Dakota!Of the five states in the country that don't have licensing programs, fifty percent have salaries that fall below the national average and fifty percent have salaries that exceed the national average. Colorado hovers around the average salary with Denver and the surrounding metro area (which includes Aurora, Lakewood, Englewood, Parker, Castle Rock, Glendale and Boulder).

Colorado's local salary averages do not take real estate, cost of living, unemployment rates or health insurance costs into account. What can we learn from them, regardless. More importantly, is Colorado at risk of becoming another South Dakota or Mississippi which hails at $9,920 annually below the national average?

Perhaps if DORA successfully sunsets the Colorado licensing law salaries will stay the same. Because sure, anyone can hang a shingle but consumers know how to disseminate between whose real-deal and whose not. Or do they? 

The Denver Private Investigator Blog will continue to report on this topic. If you are a stakeholder who wants to weigh in, please contact us via email, Twitter, Facebook or Instagram.