On 10/19/18, 4:04 AM, "xxxxxx@simplelists.com on behalf of Jeff Zeitlin" <xxxxxx@simplelists.com on behalf of xxxxxx@freelancetraveller.com> wrote:

So how would that work? Most PIs in literature are former police.

Yes, many are, and some who weren't actual municipal cops had similar jobs

in e.g., the military - but not all of them; one of the most famous,

Sherlock Holmes, was not, for example; neither was Jessica Fletcher, of

_Murder, She Wrote_ fame. Nor, to the best of my knowledge, were the Harts

of _Hart to Hart_, or Remington Steele. So, while it's quite common, it's

not universal.

Jim Rockford, most notably, was an ex-coN not ex-coP.

Also, consider agencies, Pinkerton’s, for example, who is now a division of a Swedish multinational ‘security agency’. Or arguably, firms like Fusion GPS, or Black Cube.

And real-life PI’s have specialties , some, for example specialize in forensic accounting and such, tracking down hidden money, and rarely leave their office.

-- 
Bruce Johnson
University of Arizona
College of Pharmacy
Information Technology Group

Institutions do not have opinions, merely customs