One trend that is being watched carefully by quality and regulatory professionals is the development of standards for subjects not historically considered suitable for standardization. These standards cover non-technical subjects, including management standards, human resource standards, and now a code of practice for detectives! The recently released BS 102000, “Code of practice for the provision of investigative services,” was developed to support a change in British regulations. With the prospect of regulatory oversight possibly as soon as next year, the standard was developed to offer a framework for helping investigators define and meet professional criteria.
Whether you’re an investigator or thinking about using one, you can rely on this code to provide guidance on:
- Conducting investigations,
- Searching for information and preserving evidence,
- Surveillance techniques,
- Identifying and meeting applicable laws and standards,
- Managing the information gathered, and
- The analysis and review of your results.
This is not only an attempt to provide a baseline for determination of professionalism within the investigative community, but also a way for regulators to understand how the community feels it can best be evaluated. In this way, a niche industry is helping to formulate the best practices that can separate professionals from “wanna-be’s” or worse yet, outright fraudulent operators.
As society becomes more complex, it is not surprising to see these types of standards being developed. They are an attempt to get a handle on providing consumers with adequate information to make educated evaluations of professionals who we rely on for various services.
The standards community is watching as this new area of standardization is developing. Will these standards prove to be a valuable use of resources and provide real improvement in our quality of life? Will they provide enough guidance to impact the sectors for which they’re being developed?
These are open questions at the current time. But it is certainly interesting to see the energy with which these documents are being developed. Only time will provide us with the data needed to determine the success of these documents.
BS Standards can be purchased from Document Center Inc., an authorized dealer of BSI documents. You can go to our web store, www.document-center.com, or contact us by phone (650-591-7600), fax (650-591-7617) or email (info@document-center.com). We have both current and obsolete editions available and provide superior notification services for all the standards your purchase from us.
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