R.I. Gen. Laws § 5-5-21

This is the official text of R.I. Gen. Laws § 5-5-21, part of Rhode Island’s Gen. Laws — part of the compiled statutory law of Rhode Island, published by the state as "Gen. Laws." Browse the sections below, each linked to its official government source.

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§ 5-5-21. Engaging in business without a license.

Official statutory text

Whoever without a license engages in the general business of a private detective, or holds him or herself out as a private detective, or pretends to be a detective police officer, shall be punished by a fine of not less than two hundred dollars ($200) nor more than five hundred dollars ($500), or imprisonment in the adult correctional institutions not exceeding six (6) months, or by both fine and imprisonment. Nothing contained in this section applies to a detective of another state coming within this state in the performance of his or her duties, for a temporary period and on a specific matter.

Status: in_force · Read it on the official government site

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About this page: Statute text is reproduced from official government publishers via the Open US Law dataset (Vaquill AI, snapshot v2026.08, CC BY 4.0). Primary legislative text like this is public domain under the government-edicts doctrine (Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). We link every section back to its official source so you can verify it independently.