South Dakota
South Dakota has no state private investigator license; the Attorney General’s office says only a sales tax license is required. Laws affecting investigators have changed: 2024 and 2026 laws restrict drone use, and 2026 laws made publishing an officer’s home address with intent to cause fear a felony, rewrote the invasion-of-privacy recording crime, and raised the driving record fee to $7.
At a glance
- Authority
- None statewide. The Attorney General’s Law Enforcement Training FAQ says no license is required and only a sales tax license is needed, and advises checking city and county ordinances.
- Statute
- None; SDCL Title 36 has no investigator chapter
- Local licensing
- Sioux Falls has no investigator license (Code 110.032). Rapid City could not be checked.
- Continuing education
- None
- Firearms
- No investigator permit; South Dakota has permitless concealed carry (SL 2019, ch 113), and concealed pistol permits under SDCL chapter 23-7 matter for school and campus carry.
Changes, 2023 to 2026
Felony to publish an officer’s home address with intent to cause fear
Makes it a Class 6 felony to publish electronically the home address, date of birth, or Social Security number of a judicial or law enforcement officer without the officer’s consent and with intent to place the officer or family in reasonable fear of death or great bodily injury (new section in SDCL chapter 22-11).
For licensees: Both elements are required, but posting officer identifiers online carries high risk.
Invasion-of-privacy recording crime rewritten
Amends SDCL 22-21-4, which already made it a crime to photograph or record a person nude, under or through clothing, or in a sexual act. The act removes the element that the victim be in circumstances with a reasonable expectation of privacy, broadens the intent element to include intent to alarm, annoy, or cause harm, and makes creating digitally fabricated sexual images of an identifiable person a Class 5 felony.
For licensees: Location no longer matters; never record or keep such images.
Judges’ and officers’ contact details withheld from voter files
Makes the home address, personal phone, and personal email of current or retired judges and law enforcement officers non-public in voter registration files (SDCL 12-4-9.3); previously only judges’ home addresses were withheld.
For licensees: Voter file pulls will not show these details.
Statewide voter file posted weekly; commercial use still barred
Requires the Secretary of State to post the complete statewide voter registration file every week, with a free five-year archive (SDCL 12-4-37, 12-4-37.1). Voter-file information still may not be used for any commercial purpose, a Class 1 misdemeanor (12-4-41).
For licensees: Using the voter file for paid investigative work may be a commercial purpose.
Driving record abstract fee rises to $7
Raises the fee for a certified three-year driving record abstract from $5 to $7 (SDCL 32-35-101).
For licensees: Federal Driver’s Privacy Protection Act limits on personal information still apply.
Genetic data privacy
Requires direct-to-consumer genetic testing companies to obtain separate express consent, naming the recipient, for each transfer of a consumer’s genetic data to anyone other than vendors and service providers, and to honor deletion requests (SDCL chapter 37-24).
For licensees: The exemption for forensic laboratories covers law enforcement work, not private investigations.
Drone over a prison, jail, or military facility becomes a felony
Raises operating a drone over correctional or military grounds without authorization from a Class 1 misdemeanor to a Class 6 felony (SDCL 50-15-3).
For licensees: Plan drone routes away from those grounds.
Sheriff’s service fee charged whether or not service is completed
Lets the sheriff charge up to $50 for process submitted for service whether or not service is completed (SDCL 7-12-18(2)).
For licensees: Private service may compete better on hard-to-serve defendants.
Drone voyeurism and harassment made a crime
Makes it a Class 1 misdemeanor to operate a drone for voyeuristic or harassment purposes or carelessly so as to endanger people or property, and provides that a drone may be the instrument of a privacy or trespass tort (SDCL chapter 50-15). Landing on another’s personal property without consent is added to the existing ban on landing on private property.
For licensees: Drone footage can support privacy or trespass claims.
Checked and unchanged
- No investigator licensing bill was filed from 2023 through 2026.
- The stalking statute (SDCL 22-19A-1) and the one-party consent eavesdropping law (23A-35A-20) were not amended, and no tracking device or data broker law was enacted.
Last updated October 18, 2026Source: United States Council for Law & InvestigationCite as: United States Council for Law & Investigation, “South Dakota private investigators: Licensing Law Tracker,” uscli.org/licensing-tracker/south-dakota (last updated October 18, 2026). Text licensed CC BY 4.0.