There is a controversy within the private investigative and security industry over whether CALI (California Association of Licensed Investigators, the world’s largest group of private detectives) should reduce funding of its longtime national partner, NCISS (National Council of Investigative and Security Services) and start funding ISPLA, an organization made up of former dissidents of NCISS. These moves are vigorously being pushed by CALI VP of Administration Ed Saucerman.
Seeing the Forest and the Trees
Undoubtedly you’ve all heard the old saying about not being able to “see the forest for the trees.” As private investigators, we all need to see things from various perspectives.
One way to view the situation of having rival professional organizations who both formulate their legislative agendas separately is to compare the situation of private investigators to other professions. One of them that clearly illustrates the problem is the legislative conundrum that chiropractors find themselves in.
In this debate it has been pointed out that in the evolution of the relationship between PICA and CALI to the point where it is today there have been positive developments. But will that evolution continue to be positive? Maybe. Some also might see storm clouds on the horizon. In biological evolutionary terms, some species are successful and some become extinct, but all species live in the inter-relationship with all other species of plants, animals, protists, as well as the natural environment they live in. The choices that “species” of professional organizations choose may also lead to success as well as to extinction or marginalization, at the risk of engaging in a Social Darwinistic analogy.
There are two prevalent schools of thought in chiropractic health care: Palmerists and non-Palmerists is the easiest way to characterize the situation. Palmerists, the smaller school of thought, have their own local, state and national associations as do the larger non-Palmerists. The Palmerists are opposed to the use of drugs, such as pain killers, while their non-Palmerist opponents think that they should be able to administer pain reducers in order to make some bone manipulations less painful, just as an MD or a DDS would in order to make a medical or dental procedure less painful. After all, the first two years of chiropractic school are virtually identical to the training of an MD in medical school.
Because the Palmerists object to this being allowed, every time the larger group attempts to legislate for their members’ interests, the legislative process balks since the smaller group won’t give a consensus opinion on the bill. In essence they wind up with veto power in the process.
As we know from the fight over our MCE legislation, there are some issues where the legislature isn’t swayed by the influence of the smaller organization. There may be some critical mass where the legislature takes a smaller group seriously in a profession and when it doesn’t, subjectively determined by the particular facts. Obviously, since not one single vote went against MCE in the legislature, the influence of PICA’s opposition was between negligible and nil on the issue.
However, that may not always be the case. PICA may lose or gain credibility in the future. If it both gains credibility AND simultaneously becomes obstreperous vis a vis CALI’s legislative agenda (doing the latter may be a strategy for growth of a professional organization, i.e., become parasitic towards the larger rival) that could bode ill for the ability of CALI to accomplish its legislative goals.
So, the same situation we now face in California could be faced nationally if ISPLA gains credibility and membership at the expense of NCISS. It is far better that the industry speak with one voice rather than two when dealing with congress and executive branch regulatory agencies. For that matter, should we ever have the occasion to deal with the judiciary in a lawsuit for declaratory relief against legislation, imagine the nightmare of an organization competing with NCISS filing an amicus brief or complaint in intervention against the NCISS position. Nobody can guarantee that this is a scenario that can’t occur, anymore than anybody can guarantee that ISPLA would not wind up lobbying with a position opposed to that of NCISS and CALI.
To me, the best wisdom on the subject was stated a long time ago by Chief Little Turtle of the Miami Indians: “If our people fight one tribe at a time, we will be cut off like the fingers from a hand; but if we join together, we will make a powerful fist.”
