Private detective firms get plenty of work looking for wayward teenagers, spouses, and business partners, despite operating in legal limbo.
When a teenage boy left home without telling his mother where he went, she turned to a private detective to find him. Two months later, Oleksandr Turyan, head of the Kyiv detective agency Iskra (Spark), found the teenager in an Orthodox monastery in western Ukraine. The boy, gay and a drug addict, sought refuge there.
Private detectives in Ukraine say surveillance of missing and wayward teenagers is one of the most sought-after services. Another popular service is investigation of business partners or employees who steal, said Oleksiy Bushakov, head of Ukrainian Search Group private detective agency. Some want investigations of spouses suspected of infidelity, although such requests are not as popular among Ukrainians as in the West, Bushakov said. Yet another endeavor keeping private investigators busy is looking for missing or stolen cars.
Just as their investigative methods sometimes take them into society’s shadows, their legal standing in Ukraine is also questionable. Some official law-enforcement agencies resent their existence. But private eyes counter by saying that if police were doing their jobs effectively, people wouldn’t be turning to them for help.
Absent specific laws to regulate private detectives in the nation, many among law enforcement bodies and legal experts say such activities are illegal. “We don’t have a law on private detectives, so their activities are illegal,” said Mykhaylo Holobin, deputy head of one an Interior Ministry police division. “To look for a person or a stolen car, special investigation activities must be used, which are forbidden for private organizations.”
Furthermore, Holobin said, many private investigative agencies services violate human rights by collecting and spreading confidential information about people without their agreement. This is forbidden by law. “Investigating spouses suspected of infidelity by private investigators is a violation of the Constitution. It is collecting and spreading confidential information,” Holobin said.
Others say that such businesses are perfectly legal, but face restrictions and limits on what they can do. “Private detectives can’t make video and photos or listen to telephone conversations of the marriage partner suspected in adultery, but he can ask his neighbors or friends,” said Vitaliy Tarasyuk, deputy head of criminal cases investigation department at General Prosecutor’s Office.
Whatever their legal status, people turn to private agencies because they are unhappy with the performance of official investigative agencies. According to some estimates, there could be around two of three dozen such agencies attempting to work legally in Kyiv alone.
Private detectives say they’ve defined the “dos” and “don’ts” of their profession.
“There are three articles in Ukraine’s Criminal Code – illegal surveillance, including audio interception, invasion of private life and doing illegal business [which private detective shouldn’t violate],” said Iskra’s Turyan. His detective agency was the first to open in Ukraine and has provided services for about 20 years.
Iskra’s Turyan never looks for missing or stolen cars by stopping and checking automobiles, since those powers are reserved for police. Turyan also said he never provides opposition research for politicians, because he regards it as an invasion of privacy. He said he received such a proposition in 1998 from one of the then-influential politicians for a large salary, but refused. He also doesn’t investigate spouses suspected of infidelity, because he also considers it a violation of privacy laws. But Bushakov from Ukrainian Research Group says such investigations are legal if a detective doesn’t make photos or video of lovers in their private homes and doesn’t tap into their phone conversations. It’s legal, he says, to watch lovers in public and interview witnesses.
Private investigators see nothing illegal about providing services for business, such as checking the reputations of new workers in companies and the reliability of information they include in resumes. “If a person provides information in a resume, he agrees it could be checked,” Iskra’s Turyan said.
Surveillance of teenagers by parental demand is also legal, private detectives say.
The prices for private detective services vary greatly, depending on the complexity of the case. Surveillance of a teenager after school will cost parents from $50, for example. Services for businesses, such as finding someone who owes a company money would cost from $500. The price can go up, depending on many factors.
Private detectives, who want their business to appear legal and to pay taxes, officially register as firms providing legal or security services. Some register as print media involved in independent investigative journalism. Other firms don’t bother with formalities – or with following the law, and are more than willing to investigate.
In this unregulated cloak-and-dagger world, some people have been swindled by disreputable private eye firms. These victims, Turyan said, turn to other private detectives for help. He’s got advice for those who want to avoid getting taken.
“So as not to become a victim, people should pay attention to the websites of private detective agencies. It should have paid hosting and contain information on the agency’s registration, its office telephone numbers and banking details,” Bushakov said. People also should pay attention to the services proposed, he said. Private detectives have no legal right to bug telephone conversations.
Clearly, many see the need for stricter laws. A draft version has been developed by Volodymyr Moisyk, parliamentarian from the Our Ukraine faction.
Moisyk’s law draft has been criticized by private detectives, as it bans them using special investigative measures used by law enforcement bodies. “If private detectives are forbidden to use special investigative measures, such as examining place of the accident, asking witnesses, receiving data needed to find a person, how should they work?” Ukrainian Search Group’s Bushakov asked.
Tarasyuk of the General Prosecutor’s Office said police consider private investigators to be competitors and don’t want to give them legal powers now reserved for officials.
While the legal debate continues, private detectives expect the fall will be a booming time, thanks to betrayed lovers. Often, Iskra’s Turyan said, summer romances end badly – especially for women. “September is a period of holiday romances, and then women will ask to find their lovers [who ended relations with them],” he said.
