Nevada
Nevada licenses private investigators through the Private Investigators Licensing Board under NRS 648. Since 2023 it has become a crime to put a tracking device on another person’s vehicle without the owner’s knowledge and consent, with no investigator exception. A Board overhaul of its regulations, R127-24, was deferred by the Legislative Commission in June 2026 and is not in effect.
At a glance
- Authority
- Private Investigators Licensing Board, which also licenses private patrol officers, process servers, repossessors, polygraph examiners, and others
- Statute
- NRS chapter 648
- Rules
- NAC chapter 648
- Who is licensed
- Individuals, firms, or corporations (corporations through a qualifying agent); employees must be registered and are issued work cards (NRS 648.060, 648.1493).
- Qualifications
- At least 21, including each director and officer of a corporate applicant. Five years of experience as an investigator, or the equivalent as the Board determines, with a year counted as 2,000 hours (NRS 648.110). A written exam ($100) and a Board background investigation; a felony relating to the practice, a crime of moral turpitude, or illegal use or possession of a dangerous weapon is disqualifying.
- Renewal
- Every year; licenses expire June 30 (NRS 648.144). The annual fee is set by the Board, up to $500 per category (NRS 648.120). A lapsed license may be reinstated within 30 days for $100 (NRS 648.146).
- Continuing education
- None
- Bond or insurance
- Liability insurance of at least $200,000, or sufficient means to self-insure (NRS 648.135).
- Firearms
- Carrying a firearm on duty requires Board firearms certification: 8 hours of training with a written exam and at least 5 hours on a range (NAC 648.346), with requalification every 6 months (NAC 648.350).
Changes, 2023 to 2026
Executive order regulatory review; Board stakeholder meeting
The order requires every executive branch board to hold a public stakeholder hearing by October 29, 2026, review its regulations, and report to the Governor by December 31, 2026 with 5 to 10 regulations recommended to be streamlined, clarified, reduced, or otherwise improved. The Board held a stakeholder meeting on September 23, 2026, which it said was not formal rulemaking.
For licensees: No regulation changes without separate rulemaking.
Board cancels armed-security verification workshop and pauses work card appeals
Citing recent legislative inquiries about its policies and operations, the Board cancelled its July 28, 2026 workshop on the Verification of Employment for Armed Security form and said it would not consider work card appeals at its September 2026 meeting.
For licensees: No rule on the verification form has been proposed.
Stalking law expanded to dating relationships and electronic conduct
Expands NRS 200.575 to cover conduct causing fear for the safety of someone in a dating relationship with the victim, and provides that stalking includes acts committed in person and by electronic means. The existing exclusion of activities carried out in the normal course of lawful employment was relettered without change.
For licensees: The lawful-employment exclusion was not changed.
Consumer health data law and geofence ban
Adds NRS 603A.400 to 603A.550 on consumer health data. NRS 603A.540 bars any person from setting a geofence within 1,750 feet of a medical facility or other in-person health care provider to identify or track people seeking care, collect their health data, or send them related messages.
For licensees: The geofence ban applies to any person, including investigators.
Prisoner transport businesses exempted
Adds NRS 648.018(17), exempting businesses engaged exclusively in transporting people for custody transfers or extradition. It is the only amendment to NRS 648 from 2023 through October 2026.
For licensees: Investigator licensing is unchanged.
Crime of placing a tracking device on another person’s vehicle
NRS 200.930 makes it a crime to knowingly install, conceal, or place a mobile tracking device in or on another person’s motor vehicle without the knowledge and consent of an owner or lessor. The only exception is for a law enforcement agency acting under the U.S. and Nevada Constitutions and state law. A first offense is a misdemeanor, a second a gross misdemeanor, and a third or later a category C felony.
For licensees: The law has no exception for licensed investigators.
Pending: regulation R127-24
The Board approved R127-24, an overhaul of NAC 648, on June 30, 2025. It would, among other things, raise the minimum range instruction in the firearms course from 5 to 8 hours, require a licensee or employee to be 21 to carry a firearm on duty, and require licensees to notify the Board within 3 business days of terminating a registered employee. On June 30, 2026 the Legislative Commission deferred it, and it was not on the Commission’s September or October 2026 agendas. None of it is in effect (adopted text; Commission minutes).
Checked and unchanged
- No NAC 648 regulation took effect from 2023 through October 2026.
- No 2025 session law amended NRS 648.
Last updated October 18, 2026Source: United States Council for Law & InvestigationCite as: United States Council for Law & Investigation, “Nevada private investigator licensing: Licensing Law Tracker,” uscli.org/licensing-tracker/nevada (last updated October 18, 2026). Text licensed CC BY 4.0.