Texas Association of Licensed Investigators

Texas Association Of Licensed Investigators

The Texas Association of Licensed Investigators (TALI)] was founded in 1971 and later resuscitated on its death bed in 1975 to become the thriving association it is today. There was a tremendous amount of groundwork accomplished by a handful of private investigators prior to the revivification and subsequent maturing of TALI.

Prior to State of Texas licensing, a governing board and a specific state law, the licensing and regulation of the profession was a mixed bag of local licensing by a few municipal and county governments. Because of the lack of consistent regulation from county to county and city to city a group of five investigators met to discuss their ideas, needs, desires and hopes for their future. Their teamwork led to growth in the membership and resulted in the Texas Legislature passing Article 4413(29bb) V.A.C.S. in 1969. This Act established the Texas Board of Private Investigators, Private Security Agencies and the accompanying state regulatory agency.

Unfortunately, all of the members were not dedicated to the good of the whole. One, in particular, basically decided to highjack the association for his purposes and started doing things his way instead of working with the others towards a common goal. The effect was to sew dissent instead of camaraderie and to stall the forward momentum of the group. In fact, the budding association wound up going to court to preserve its name. That person’s influence withered and he left the association and dropped out of sight.

In 1973, David Sallee, Ernest Humberson, Don Redding, and Ron Kelly decided to try to revive the nearly lifeless association. These men knew that a statewide organization working for the good of all investigators could help all Texas investigators improve their professional image with the public. They knew that, as an organization, they could begin to make changes that none of them could make alone. They looked for members who would work as a team to keep the goals of the association in view and put them above their own personal desires. The wisdom, loyalty, dedication, and teamwork of this small group of professional investigators led to the formation of the beginnings of the Association as it has become to be known today.

These professional investigators turned the goals of the young statewide to the promotion and professionalization of the investigative profession in Texas. The founding members set forth the following declaration:

THE TEXAS ASSOCIATION OF LICENSED INVESTIGATORS is hereby formed in 1971 to promote and maintain the highest ethical practices in the profession of private investigation industry and to select for membership only those individuals whose personal and professional background and business affiliations have strictly observed the precepts of truth, accuracy, and prudence and to endeavor to eliminate unreliable, incompetent and irresponsible persons from the investigation profession.

The founding investigators developed the first Code of Ethics and a set of By-Laws for the association. The By-Laws established a board of directors consisting of five positions: Chairman, President, Vice-President, Secretary and Treasurer.

In the early 1970s TALI. held its first annual meeting in Longview, Texas. By then, there were twenty-five members but only six attended the meeting and each paid his share of the meeting expenses. From this meeting of six dedicated investigators, TALI.’s annual conventions have grown in attendance to 650 investigators and other legal professionals. These meetings now offer investigative education, training, vendor product displays and an excellent opportunity for Texas to network with each other. In recent years, investigators from other states have begun to travel to the Texas conventions in order to take advantage of the training and networking opportunities.