Can a private investigator run a license plate?

Private investigators come in all shapes and sizes. There are famous men and women who are private investigators and private detectives who have often been portrayed in movies as swashbuckling renegades who get in shootouts with bad guys and drink too much. The reality is a private investigator’s life is dull in comparison but exciting in other ways.

Private detectives have to be licensed in almost every state in the USA. The licenses are issued by either the Secretary of State or the State Police for that particular state. Because they are licensed they get to subscribe, for a substantial fee in some cases, to databases that provide all kinds of information about people, places, and things.

The information a private detective can find out about people is quite extensive. They can determine your date of birth, your social security number, your previous address, and even what kind of vehicles you drive and used to drive. They can determine who the members of your family are, and in many cases who you hang around with on regular basis. And yes, they can run your license plate using these databases.

Why would a private investigator run a license plate?

The most obvious reasons are as follows:

1. Stalking – if you are being stalked by a harassing individual and you are able to get the license plate of the vehicle they’re driving, the private investigator can then identify the owner of that vehicle. You can then take this information to the police to obtain a restraining order against your stalker. Being stalked is a frightening situation and being able to put a name to your stalker is very liberating and will help keep you safer in the future. Because a private detective can run a license plate you will be able to gather facts you previously didn’t have.
2. Know your date – catfishing is a real problem in online dating. When the online date turns into a real-life date how can you know the person you met online is really the person they say they are? Is the person you met online really the person that’s sitting in front of you? Well, there’s one easy way to know. Get the license plate of the car they drove to meet you and call a private investigator. They can run the license plate and tell you the registered owner of the vehicle. Then you will know whether you are dating a real person or someone who might actually out to cause you harm.
3. Cheating – you drive by your lover’s house and see a strange car in the driveway. It doesn’t look like a service vehicle for air conditioning or plumbing services. It looks like a regular car driven by a regular person. You ask your lover about it then next time you meet and they say they have no idea what you’re talking about. You feel like they might be lying to you. If you were able to get the license plate from the vehicle in the driveway you could call a private investigator to run that license plate for you and you’d have facts to confront your lover. All because the detective could run a license plate.
4. Leads  – when working in the investigative arena you generally are always dealing with “leads” – pieces of information you have to either discount, verify or refute. When a private detective is searching for someone or something and ends up at a business or a residence that has vehicles parked outside, they will usually document all the license plates and then determine who owns the vehicles by running those license plates. This way they can build up a database of leads of people who might know about the investigation that’s being conducted all because they can run a license plate.
5. Accidents – fender benders occur all the time. Sometimes the damage isn’t worth talking about but sometimes there is serious damage and the offender (the causer of the accident) flees and leaves the scene! This happens frequently. If you’re lucky enough to have a dash camera or are quick enough to get the license plate of the offending vehicle, you’ll be able to provide that to the police when you report a hit-and-run. But, because the police are overworked, they may not get to your case as quickly as you’d like. If this is the case, you can call a competent private investigator and ask them to run a license plate for you. When you get the information back you can then take that to the police to encourage them to work more quickly on your case.

So there’s a number of ways a private investigator can run a license plate that will not only help you but might actually keep you safer. Being able to run a license plate can get you answers you might not previously have been able to get. It’s a great service offered by professional private investigators. Most people are unable to run a license plate because they don’t have the proper licensing or credentials to run a license plate.

If you are looking for an affordable licensed private investigator, with 20 years of experience assisting individuals, attorneys and corporations feel free to contact us here. You can also view a portion of our extensive client list here, and see what actual clients say about Eagle Investigative Services a private investigator in Atlanta, Georgia.