About Art Kassel - Founder

Art Kassel, DTI's founder, was one of the top private investigator trainers in the industry.

He started his career in law enforcement at the age of 16 when the Los Angeles Police Department accepted him into their Explorer Scout program.

After attending college and majoring in Criminal Justice (police science at that time) with a minor in Business Administration, he became a sworn, full-time police officer in Orange County Ca. During his distinguished career in law enforcement, he attended and successfully completed numerous law enforcement continuing education courses where he received his certificates and diplomas from the Commission on Peace Officer's Standards and Training, Department of Justice, State of California.

In 1980, Mr. Art Kassel began private practice as a Licensed Private Investigator, and started "Art Kassel Investigations," a multi-service detective agency. He realized that this unique profession dealt with complicated, ambiguous ethical issues that were an inescapable part of being a private investigator. Responding to the need for in-depth training of his own investigators, he developed his first private investigator training program.

Mr. Kassel received full accreditation from the National Home Study Council in Washington D.C. (now known as Distance Education and Training Council [DETC]) for his school and training program. The Council selected him to serve on its Business Standard Committee. Through further training and after attending a special conference at the University of Notre Dame, Mr. Kassel became qualified to serve as a distinguished member of the Accrediting Commission Examining Committee appointed to examine and evaluate home study schools. Mr. Kassel was trained in how to evaluate all areas of school operations, including how schools monitor new development and technologies, curriculum design and testing procedures, effective lesson construction, and transfer of training methods for adult distance education programs.

Through many years as a police officer, private investigator, and educator, Mr. Kassel has developed one of the finest private investigator distance education courses in the country, the Detective Training Institute.

Mr. Kassel was a member in good standing of the California Association of Licensed Investigators. He also was a member of the American Society of Law Enforcement Trainers.

DTI places special emphasis on professional development and ethics training to ensure students maintain high standards and conform to specific conduct set in the profession. Today, top private investigators recognize DTI as one of the most professional training schools in the country.