The relationship between police detectives and PIs can be complicated. On the one hand, for very good reasons, the police don’t want civilians, even PIs, handling evidence or otherwise impeding their investigations. On the other hand, PIs often have useful information that moves a police case forward. For instance, some people may be more willing to talk to a PI than to a police detective. PIs also sometimes have access to people and places that the police don’t have. So, there are also good reasons for the police and PIs to co-operate. We see that complex relationship in real life, of course, and we also see it in crime fiction.
In Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories, the police are sometimes portrayed as unimaginative and lacking in the brilliance it takes to be a detective. It isn’t so much that they’re stupid as it is that they jump to conclusions without really considering the evidence. Holmes does think well of Tobiah Gregson, who is a young, up-and-coming police detective when we first meet him. Gregson sometimes does think outside the proverbial box, and it helps his case that he respects Holmes’ brilliance. For the most apart though, the police involve Holmes not so much because they consider him an ally, but because they can’t deny that he solves cases. They co-operate, but somewhat reluctantly.
Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot often works with Chief Inspector Japp on cases (for instance, in One, Two, Buckle My Shoe). He works with other police detectives, too (e.g. in Dead Man’s Folly). For the most part, he has a solid relationship with the police; he respects them and actually encourages clients more than once to go to the police. For their part, the police know that he was ‘one of them’ during his years in Belgium, and they respect the fact that he doesn’t impede their investigations. Of course, fans of The Murder on the Links will know that Poirot sometimes has a less than cordial relationship with some members of the force. But overall, he and the police co-operate.
The relationship between Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe and Inspector Cramer is, to put it mildly, rocky. Wolfe is a brilliant detective, but he is not exactly shy and retiring. He doesn’t have much respect for Cramer and he makes that clear. He has an ego, too, which doesn’t always endear people to him. For his part, Cramer doesn’t like what he sees as interference from Wolfe, and he isn’t fond of Archie Goodwin’s unwillingness to pay him the respect he thinks he deserves. Cramer and Wolfe do not get along and certainly don’t willingly share information. Every once in a while, Cramer does reluctantly ask for Wolfe’s input. But it’s not usually a friendly sharing of evidence and leads in a case.
On the other hand, Cat Connor’s Veronica ‘Ronnie’ Tracey does work well with the police. She is an Upper Hutt (New Zealand)-based PI who owns a company called Wherefore Art Thou. She’s a former New Zealand Intelligence operative, so she isn’t lacking in skills. She and her fellow detectives and staff are good at what they do. But that doesn’t mean they never need help from the police. More than once in the series, Ronnie seeks out police assistance for arrests and for some criminal investigations. For their part, the police benefit from what Ronnie and her team find out, and, when it’s possible, Ronnie’s happy to co-operate. Both she and the police have found that they’re all better off if they work together.
Anthony Bidulka’s Russell Quant is a Saskatoon-based PI. He used to be a police detective, but he chafed under what he saw as the rigidness of the police structure. As a PI, he has more flexibility, and he doesn’t have the top brass dictating what he does. His independence has cost him friends on the force. But there are still a few active-duty police who take his calls and provide him with some information. For his part, Russell gives the police information, too. He and the police don’t have an acrimonious relationship, but you couldn’t call it exactly warm and friendly, either. In that way, this series shows how police and PIs can sometimes work on the same or related cases, even if they don’t actively seek each other out. And in some cases, Russell is glad the police are there.
There’s also Jeramy Gates’ He said, she said, “murder.’” Tanja and Joe Shephard have recently opened their own detective agency in fictional Sequoia County, California. They’re struggling a bit, since it’s a new business, and it’s not helping matters that Tanja is due to give birth soon, so they’re about to have heavy family obligations. Joe’s mentor, Sheriff Bill Diekmann, offers the couple an appealing proposition. His staff is stretched as it is, and there aren’t the resources to follow up on every case that’s gone cold. So, he suggests that the Shephards look into those cases, beginning with the five-year-old murder of Becky Sweet, whose body was found in creamery. The couple will be paid for each case they solve, so they’re only too happy to accept the offer. The case turns out to be more complicated than it seems on the surface, but it shows that sometimes, police and PI can work closely together and get good results. And it lays the groundwork for the series.
Sometimes the relationship between police and PIs is complicated, even acrimonious. But each can help the other, and sometimes that co-operation makes a big difference. It makes for interesting layers in a crime novel, too.
*NOTE: The title of this post is a line from Bachman-Turner Overdrive’s Takin’ Care of Business.
Crime Writer Margot Kinberg 