Obligations

Article 25. General obligations.

Private detective offices and their branches must meet the following general obligations:

a) Formalize in writing a contract for each investigation service that is entrusted to them, communicating its conclusion to the Ministry of Interior or, where appropriate, to the competent autonomous body in the manner determined by regulation. This obligation will also subsist in cases of subcontracting between offices.

b) Keep a book-register, with the format determined by regulation, in which each research service contracted or subcontracted will be noted.

c) Inform its clients about the incidents related to the matters that have been entrusted to them, with delivery, where appropriate, of the investigation report prepared.

d) Provide immediately to the judicial authority or to the competent Security Forces and Corps the information on criminal acts that they had knowledge in relation to their work or the investigations that they are carrying out.

e) To attend, when required by the competent bodies of the Administration of Justice and the Security Forces and Bodies, as soon as possible, and to provide information that they had knowledge in relation to with the investigations that such organisms will be carrying out.

f) Attend the summons made by the courts and tribunals and the police units, to which their information has been communicated or their investigation reports have been provided, for the provision of testimony and ratification, where appropriate, of the content of the referred research reports.

g) Ensure the archiving and preservation of documentation related to their professional practice, especially of contracts, reports, books and image and sound material obtained.

h) Notify the Ministry of Interior or, where appropriate, the competent autonomous body of any change that affects its legal form, denomination, composition, domicile and branches in the manner determined by regulation.

i) Submit to the Ministry of Interior or, where appropriate, the competent regional body, an annual report of activities of the previous year, with the information determined by regulation, which may not contain personal data on contractors or investigated . The Ministry of Interior and the competent autonomous bodies shall report on the operation of the sector to the General Courts and the corresponding autonomous Parliaments respectively, annually.

j) Deposit, in case of closing the office for any reason, professional documentation on contracts, investigation reports and books-records in the offices of the National Police Corps or, where appropriate, the competent autonomous police force .

Article 37. Private detectives.

1. Private detectives will be responsible for the personal execution of the private investigation services referred to in article 48, by conducting inquiries regarding persons, facts and private conduct.

2. In the exercise of their functions, private detectives will be obliged to:

a) Prepare the investigation reports related to the matters in charge.

b) Ensure the necessary collaboration with the Security Forces and Bodies when their professional actions are related to criminal acts or that may affect citizen security.

c) Ratify the content of their investigation reports before the judicial or police authorities when required to do so.

3. The exercise of the functions corresponding to private detectives will not be compatible with the functions of the rest of the private security personnel, nor with the functions of the personnel at the service of any Public Administration.

4. Private detectives may not investigate crimes that can be prosecuted ex officio, and must immediately report to the competent authority any event of this nature that came to their knowledge, and making available to them all the information and instruments they could have obtained up to that time.