Associations representing licensed private investigators are distancing themselves from the egregious behavior of Anthony Pellicano, wiretapper to the stars.

New York private investigator Jeff Smith expressed, in a press release issued by the national PI organization, NCISS, the disdain PIs have for Pellicano’s practices.

“We must make it clear that investigators as a whole do not support illegal or unethical activity or the release of personal information to the public for non-permissible purposes. If you are an investigator and you are guilty of a 100+ count indictment, you are no longer an investigator, you are a criminal!”

Pellicano’s recent indictment comes in the wake of public outrage over the indiscriminate sale of customer telephone account information, the main customers of which are purported to be PIs acting on behalf of their attorney clients. The fallout is leading state legislatures, Congress and federal regulators to overreach in their rush to legitimately protect consumer’s privacy, threatening to restrict information gathering approaches used in legal investigations.