The life of a private investigator often involves combing through paperwork, poring over surveillance video or spending hours cooped up in a car parked at a distance from the investigator’s target, waiting for something to happen while trying not to be noticed.

But while describing what the job is, Gary Tinker also takes great pains to talk about what it isn’t.

“This isn’t like ‘CSI’ - I think a lot of the public expects us to have answers for them in a few hours,” said Tinker, one of three licensed private investigators in Bowling Green. “Our work stretches over several days and months.”

Tinker, who spent a career in the Army as a military policeman and in military intelligence, was appointed last year to the state licensing board for private investigators. The seven-member board was created in 2002 to provide oversight for investigators across the state.

Becoming a licensed investigator in Kentucky requires passing a state exam - the study guide for the exam is more than 180 pages, and is available online at the state government’s official Web site.

Investigators trying for a license had better be well-versed on state and federal privacy laws, the freedom of information and fair credit reporting acts, confidentiality and responsibilities to clients and how to conduct investigations and surveillance within the law.

Even with a high score on the exam, would-be investigators must also pass a criminal background check conducted by the state licensing board, submit three sets of fingerprints and pay for liability insurance. Licenses must then be renewed every two years.

“It’s a personal priority for me - and I hope it is for the board - to go after people who are not licensed,” said Tinker, who is incorporated as Actionops.

Tinker said he has often encountered retired policemen who are now unlicensed private investigators, asserting that their prior experience in law enforcement enables them to bypass the licensing requirement.

The law, however, is clear.

“Being a current or former law enforcement officer isn’t an exemption that can keep a person from getting a license,” Tinker said.

The road to becoming a private investigator does not necessarily start with a tenure at the local police department.

William Ellis, a native of New Jersey, graduated from Western Kentucky University with a degree in journalism and founded Machined Ceramics here.

In 2000, he founded Tactical Investigations, taking on a caseload that includes worker’s compensation and insurance fraud investigations, serving subpoenas and other legal documents and domestic cases.

Worker’s comp cases involve Ellis conducting video surveillance of a person who has filed a work-related disability claim. Ellis’ video and his written observations comprise the backbone of the company’s determination of whether an employee merits compensation.

“Cases like that involve me spending hours in a very hot or very cold vehicle, waiting for you to do something,” Ellis said.

Ellis has also taken on domestic investigations, which often involve him following one half of a married couple when the other suspects infidelity.

Confidentiality laws prevent private investigators from divulging most details of specific cases, but Ellis did say that many of the domestic investigations he has conducted involve emotionally charged clients, who will ask him to do work that he is unable legally to perform.

“It’s really unfortunate,” Ellis said. “I like the idea of being able to help people, and sometimes what people need in that situation is just an attorney or a therapist.”

Ellis also takes pains to distance his work from popular TV portrayals of investigative work or the caught-in-the-act. emotional free-for-all found on the reality show “Cheaters.”

“Unfortunately, thanks to TV. a lot of clients get a misrepresented view of what we do,” Ellis said. “Under our state licensing law, the people on ‘Cheaters’ would be in jail.”

Licensed private investigators in the state all belong to the Kentucky Professional Investigators Association. KPIA members have formed a network with one another and with investigators in other states. The organization is also affiliated with the Alliance of Investigative and Security Specialists, which helps provide resources for private investigators.

The cooperative aspect of the KPIA and other groups has the effect of placing more investigative eyes on some cases, particularly in missing persons investigations, Ellis said.

Bernie Cox, the third licensed private investigator in Bowling Green, is a retired Bowling Green Police Department officer and now works for Houchens Industries as its director of security and investigations.

Against one wall of his office lays a thick stack of papers nearly a foot tall - on those papers are lists of cash register errors recorded at several grocery and convenience stores owned by Houchens. Dozens of errors in a short amount of time at a particular register could be a sign of an employee stealing money from the store, Cox said.

Cox’s desk contains a number of CDs of what he says is surveillance footage at different stores, video he uses in his investigations of employee theft and other cases.

His experience in the police department, interacting with the community and getting to know its citizens, has proved invaluable in Cox’s current job.

“It is very rare that you can go out on your very own and solve something,” Cox said. “I’m a big believer in communicating with people from all walks of life, not just those with professional standing.”

Cox’s work frequently takes him out of the office; he recently visited a Houchens store in Alabama to investigate a robbery there.

He also takes part in continuing education, having attended seminars conducted by the American Society for Industrial Security.

Cox said his work is enhanced by being part of a network of industrial security employees, who often alert one another to incidences of criminal activity.

If a store in Georgia has encountered a rash of customers trying to pass counterfeit traveler’s checks, for instance, that news will get back to Cox in Bowling Green and he can alert local merchants about the scam.

“I hope someday that I can do more proactive work in this job rather than just responding to calls,” Cox said.

Private investigators have a lot of tools at their disposal to help locate people and conduct background checks. Video cameras have gotten smaller (to the point of being nearly invisible), and an investigator can keep an eye on a moving target through GPS technology.

In some cases, investigators can even improvise technology - Ellis said that years before cell phone cameras became widespread, he knew an investigator who dismantled his cell phone and placed a camera in it.

Though private investigators operate separately from police officers, they are not really in competition. Cox is a supporter of the local Crimestoppers program and Ellis participates in Neighborhood Watch programs.

“We cooperate with the police in any way we can,” Ellis said. “If I’m on the road and I see something that I think is a meth lab, the drug task force will be getting a call. If I find that somebody has a warrant out on him and could potentially harm a client, the police will know.

“The only advantage we have (over police officers) is we have nothing but time. The police do good work, but they can’t dedicate the man-hours. As long as a client can afford it, I could stay in front of a house for a month.”