The PIA was originally formed, by the government, as an agency dedicated to the study of humanity's emerging paranormality.
Founded in 1972 as the Department of Metahuman Research, the agency received both private funding and government funding for it's experiments. Their subjects were metahumans who volunteered to be studied. Through their extensive research, the DMR was able to develop the technology that enabled them to detect and track the next generation of metahumans.
By the mid-80's, the DMR was using its resources more for detecting, tracking, and cataloguing the steadily increasing population of metahumans around the world.
In 1987, it is officially changed to the Parahuman Intelligence Agency.
In 1992, they begin to recruit metahumans and training them in the use of their abilities in order to extend their field agent program to include metahumans along with non-metahumans.
In 1997, it's methods become questionable. There a few forced recruitments during the next few years. The senate considers cutting the PIA's funding but the founder of the agency persuades them to continue funding the agency.
The year is now 2000. Most of the metahuman population has been catalogued and filed away at the PIA headquarters. The field agent program has expanded to the point where the agents are posted all over the United States and all over the world, watching, observing, and reporting it's findings back to their superiors.