Florida has thousands of licensed private investigators and a legal framework — Chapter 493 of the Florida Statutes — that is stricter than most states about who may investigate and how. Choosing well means choosing a licensed agency whose evidence will survive a Florida courtroom. FSO Guard is a private investigator in Florida licensed as a Class A investigative agency (A 1000095), with Class C investigators based in South Florida, Orlando and Tampa Bay, working in English, Spanish and Russian.
Investigation services across Florida
Surveillance and infidelity
Covert surveillance with time-stamped video and activity logs for divorce, alimony, cohabitation and employer cases — anywhere in the state, with investigators who blend into the location.
Background checks
Background investigations on partners, tenants, caregivers, executives and vendors: criminal and civil records, litigation, assets, corporate ties, aliases and online footprint — legally sourced and documented.
Child custody and family matters
Custody investigations, cohabitation checks for alimony, elder-care and welfare concerns, structured for Florida family courts.
Skip tracing and process service
Locating debtors, witnesses and defendants across county lines and serving them properly — including subjects who have moved within Florida or out of state.
Corporate fraud and due diligence
Corporate investigations: embezzlement, vendor fraud, cargo and inventory theft, non-compete violations, pre-transaction due diligence and insurance fraud.
Litigation support and asset searches
Attorney support — witness location and interviews, records retrieval, scene documentation — and asset searches for judgment recovery and settlements.
Where we work
Investigators are based in three regions and cover the whole state between them:
- South Florida — Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, Boca Raton, the Keys and Naples.
- Central Florida — Orlando, Kissimmee, Winter Park, Lake Mary, Daytona Beach and Melbourne.
- Tampa Bay and the west coast — Tampa, St. Petersburg, Clearwater, Sarasota, Lakeland and Fort Myers.
- Southwest Florida — Naples, Fort Myers and Sarasota: surveillance, asset searches, elder and estate matters and contractor fraud on the Gulf coast.
- North Florida — Jacksonville, Gainesville and Tallahassee, with the same case manager and reporting.
What a private investigator can and cannot do in Florida
Clients often arrive with ideas from television. Here is what Florida law actually allows a licensed investigator to do — and what we refuse, because it would destroy your case and expose you to liability.
Legal and routine
- Observe, photograph and video-record a person in public places or from a public vantage point.
- Search public records — court files, property, corporate filings, liens, licenses — and professional databases available to licensed agencies.
- Interview witnesses and neighbors who agree to speak.
- Locate people, verify employment and identify assets.
- Conduct undercover work in a business with the owner’s consent.
- Serve legal process and testify in court.
Illegal in Florida
- Placing a GPS tracker on a vehicle or property you do not own without the owner’s consent — a crime under Florida Statute 934.425, even between spouses once a divorce is filed.
- Recording a private conversation without the consent of all parties (Florida Statute 934.03 — Florida is an all-party-consent state).
- Trespassing, entering a home or breaking into a phone, email or social media account.
- Obtaining phone, bank or medical records by pretext or impersonation.
- Impersonating police or a government official.
- Pulling a credit report without a permissible purpose under federal law.
How a statewide case works
- Confidential consultation — by phone or in person at our Hollywood, FL office. We tell you what is legally possible, what evidence would actually matter and a realistic cost range.
- Written estimate and retainer — scope, hours, rates, travel and reporting format on one page. The retainer is applied to hours worked; unused funds are returned.
- Assignment — a case manager assigns investigators from the region closest to the subject, so travel time is not billed to you unnecessarily.
- Fieldwork and updates — surveillance, records work and interviews with regular updates, so you can stop, extend or redirect the case.
- Report — a written report with time-stamped evidence, structured for your attorney or insurer, and investigators available to testify anywhere in Florida.
Why clients across Florida choose FSO Guard
- Licensed statewide — Class A agency A 1000095; every investigator holds a Florida Class C license.
- One team, three regions — surveillance hand-offs between Miami, Orlando and Tampa happen inside the agency, not between subcontractors.
- Court-ready work — chain of custody for video, reports written for admissibility, testimony when needed.
- Three languages — English, Spanish and Russian investigators for Florida’s international families and businesses.
- Investigations and security in one company — when a case reveals a threat, our protection agents and security officers are already on the team.
Call (786) 659-5011 or use the chat for a confidential consultation. Useful reading before you hire anyone: how to hire a private investigator in Florida, what a private investigator costs and what a private investigator actually does.
