Delaware licenses private investigators through the State Police, Professional Licensing Section, under 24 Del. C. Chapter 13. The defining rule: you can't be licensed on your own — your individual license requires sponsorship by a licensed agency. There's no experience or exam for the individual card; the five-year bar sits on the agency.
Delaware's individual card is meaningless without a sponsoring agency — the experience bar lives on the agency owner.
Get hired by (or hold a firm offer from) a licensed Class A or C private investigative agency, which sponsors your application. No experience and no exam — but "your application will be denied if you are not employed by a licensed agency."
Open a Class A agency: 5 years' investigative experience (or qualifying law-enforcement service), a surety bond, and $1,000,000 liability insurance.
The State Police set these baseline criteria (24 Del. C. Chapter 13).
The individual card needs no experience or exam — agency sponsorship substitutes for individual gatekeeping. The five years is the agency owner's bar.
The individual PI license requires no formal education, no minimum experience, and no exam — the sponsoring agency does the gatekeeping.
The agency (Class A) owner needs five years of investigative experience, or prior service as a sworn officer who graduated a certified law-enforcement academy (24 Del. C. § 1319).
Delaware's individual fee is $105, and the license term is five years.
| Item | Amount | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Individual application/renewal | $105 | Non-refundable; paid through IdentoGO at your fingerprint/photo appointment. |
| ID card issuance | Set by the Delaware State Police | Confirm any card fee with DSP Professional Licensing. |
| Agency bond | $5,000–$10,000 | $10,000 for in-state and out-of-state agencies; $5,000 for a sole proprietor. |
| Agency liability insurance | $1,000,000 | Per occurrence (agency level). |
Figures from the official DSP FAQ and Class A agency instructions. The individual ID card term is five years, expiring on your birthdate. Per the DSP FAQ, no outside training is required to obtain the license; confirm any renewal requirements with DSP Professional Licensing.
Secure employment or a firm offer from a Class A or C private investigative agency.
Complete the IdentoGO state and FBI background check.
File the application through your sponsoring agency and pay the $105 fee at your IdentoGO appointment.
On approval, your card runs five years.
Accrue the experience (or qualifying LE service) for a Class A license.
Add the bond and $1,000,000 liability insurance to run your own firm.
A license lets you work — it does not lift the privacy laws that bind every investigator. These are the lines that get people in trouble, license or not.
The federal Driver's Privacy Protection Act (DPPA) restricts motor-vehicle records, and recording laws govern when you can capture a conversation. Before you record anyone or pull personal data, read our recording-consent guide — it applies to a licensed investigator exactly as written.
Delaware's entry is structural: get sponsored by a licensed agency — no experience or exam needed for the card.
Get sponsored. The individual card can't be issued without a licensed agency behind it, so your first move is to get hired — and the card needs no experience or exam.
Plan five years for your own agency. Going independent means the experience bar, a bond, and $1M insurance — so think of agency employment as the apprenticeship.
Market reality. Pay varies widely by specialty and client base — consult the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics for current figures rather than any single number.
The rule we never bend: no state requires an LLC to be a private investigator — not Delaware, not anywhere. An LLC is liability protection, not a licensing requirement.
To operate independently you need Delaware's agency license — and you can hold it as a sole proprietor: the statute defines a private investigator as an individual employed by a private investigative agency "(even as a sole proprietor)," and the State Police list a separate Class A fee and a $5,000 bond for sole proprietors. An LLC or corporation is optional.
As a sponsored individual under an agency you need no entity of your own. Choose an LLC for liability protection when you open your own agency, if it fits — recommended, not required.
For the honest version of when forming one actually helps a solo operator, see our breakdown of when an LLC is worth it.
This guide is general information, not legal advice. Fees and some eligibility specifics aren't all on the official individual page — confirm current requirements with the State Police, and consult a Delaware attorney for advice specific to your situation. Smoothquill points you to the real authorities; it doesn't replace them.
Delaware requires an agency sponsor for the individual card. Start with what the work actually looks like.
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