funky station

Is there a reasonably acceptable way to play undercover detective without powergaming ?

For context, I wanted to RP a detective that goes undercover as a tider and ends up being very obvious about it, based on the SOP line which states :
"The detective is permitted to wear non-Security clothing with permission from the Head of Security for the purpose of undercover investigations. They are, however, expected to carry their Security ID on their person at all times".

This is how the round went :
In I go, I ask for HoS approval at start shift, I get it. I dress up as a tider, get my assistant job title and icon and start talking to random people about shitsec and how awful nanotrasen is.
I ask one person : Hey is there anywhere I can buy anything illegal ? Person says maints bar. I write down and report the informants statement up the chain.
Cosmic rifts appear a little later.
I head to the bar for something to eat - talk about how much I hate nanotrasen and security to bait anyone (does not work). Then anounce on sec radio I will follow my lead into maints bar. In I go, question a random psychologist about possible drug sales - she runs away obvously not trusting me. And then a random assistant comes by me and instantly stuns me. Warden sees it, all of security pours in and coscult is officially outed very early into the round.

On the one hand, undercover is way too valid hunty, on the other hand I enjoyed the (too short lived) RP interactions about being a random guy showing up being the most obvious undercover agent I can be. Given that I do show up on the manifest in security, I guess there can be a meta where cultists end up having to think before they convert but the playstyle of undercover agent would still need limitations. Maybe staying out of maints no matter what is enough ? The standing ruling about needing a specific cause to go undercover makes going undercover not very plausible IC or OOC because actual investigations don't really happen in round. If it stands, I'll think of a new bit (and the SOP could use clarification I guess).

So is there an acceptable middle ground where I can try out my idiot goes undercover among crew RP and cultitst don't get blindsided by a mindshielded assistant ?

oh shit, i think i was the HOS that round? (Clark Smith, went into sci maints coscult base alone and died?)
anyways if this was the round i'm thinking of, my pov as HOS was "eh if det's asking it's probably allowed" (i haven't played det much and don't know the SOP well) but rereading the SOP there are two ways i think you can do it without being super valid hunter-ey:

1. Stay out of maints per normal sec rules (at least i think they're default rules?)
2. wait until you have reasonable suspicion of a crime (something illegal, rumors of crimes, etc) before going undercover to meet the "part of an investigation" line.

also i felt so bad about that round, i remember i tried my hardest to just call it a drugging and nothing more but then cap told me i had to brief sec on it so i did. (also iirc the coscult won partially because i hesitated on attacking a suspicious tider in the coscult base so i got stunned and killed so no one was there to organize sec)

iirc it is not a rule that you have to stay out of maints, its often just something thats smart and an order from HoS during brief.

I think this is an issue that would be easily resolved if cults could see mindshields, which would make sense given how they interact with their powers.

I feel like restricting the ability to go undercover is only necessary because of the unhealthy way it interacts with cults. And something about having undercover corporate agents rooting out dissent makes sense thematically imo.