e-shadow.com » Law Enforcement

Interview with a private investigator

trave45 — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 16:32:39 +0000

What do you do for a living?

I’m a private Investigator.

How would you describe what you do?

Our slogan or motto is, “The right information for the right decision.” Basically, we try to discover and present truth in any situation that we deal with.

What does your work entail?

People have a tendency to think that the only thing a private investigator does is domestics, you know, who’s running around with who.

Quick Fact!
How to become a private investigator? Depending upon where you live you may need a license. Other than that it’s just determination and commitment to learning the trade. To hear this private investigator tell how he got started and what’s needed to become a private investigator Click Here and Here.

That’s maybe 10% of what we do. We do witness locates, witness interviews, gather information and talk to people in criminal defense cases. The state always has a prosecuting attorney out there to represent the state or the city. The accused doesn’t have anybody, they go out and hire an attorney and an attorney often needs an investigator, that’s where we come in.

You can’t just take one person and follow another person. It’s impossible. I was listening to a program the other night kind of like 48 Hours—it has to do with law enforcement investigations and so forth…this was an experienced law enforcement agency that said in this particular case, it took 8 people to follow one person. To do it right to, do it well, and be effective that’s probably about right.

We do work criminal defense cases, we work child custody, we locate people either for attorneys or for companies. We’ve looked for adoptive parents. An individual knows that they were adopted and would like to know a little know more information, or meet their adoptive parent. We’ll try to locate those people. We serve legal process, we do background checks, we may do surveillance for businesses in order to determine actual customer traffic compared to what a given business may be reporting. One I can think of is a business that was involved in automotive repair and the franchise—the franchisee or the franchisor—believed that the reported numbers on Saturday were below what they should have been, so we conducted two days worth of surveillance using video just to count the number of cars that went in and out of the bay doors that were being worked on and provided that to them and they worked their numbers from there. We help with what we call “due diligence,” which is if someone is getting ready to enter into a business arrangement with a party. One may have questions about the other as far as their reputation, their history, things of that nature—have they ever been involved in any bad dealings in the past—so we help them with that. We’re getting more and more calls that have to do with “My sister or someone I know has met somebody online” and they’re wanting to know more about that person before the sister takes off with the guy. We also do trademark infringement and patent infringement cases. It’s pretty broad.

How did you get started?

I know this probably sounds mundane, but I’ve always had an interest in law enforcement and always had an interest in knowing what’s going on. You can’t always accept and believe what you see and hear. Even as a kid I wanted to know what is going on there. What really happened? And so, I spent a period of time in law enforcement, but then I spent a number of years with Wal-Mart as Director of Loss Prevention and that runs a whole wide range of things that you have to deal with. So, my involvement comes from just wanting to know the truth and wanting to know what’s going on, and that’s true with me; that’s true of almost anything.

What do you like about what you do?

Helping people. People come because they don’t know or they need to know, and in the majority, not all, but in the majority of cases, you can help them discover what the truth is, and once they know what the truth is then they can take action or make decisions that they can somewhat predict the outcome because what they’re doing is based on facts.

What do you dislike?

The first thing I dislike is the perception that the general public has of private investigators. You know, I went to college, I’ve got seven kids, I was successful in business, I teach a Sunday school class and proud of it…and there is a general perception, I think, that if you do this kind of work, you’re a little underhanded, a little seedy and that sort of thing, and that’s not the case at all. Also I dislike the inconsistencies as far as case load, and sometimes the hours. It’s either feast or famine. You work your butt off or you wish the phone would ring.

How do you make money/or how are you compensated?

You only make money when you work, and it’s on a (need) or flat-fee basis per job or based on an hourly rate.

How much money do you make as a private investigator?

Our firm, last year, grossed just short of half a million dollars and the bottom line runs about 17 to 18 ½% of that.

What skills or requirements are needed to become a private investigator?

First would be some kind of successful investigative background. There are just certain things you’ve got to know about investigations in order to do it. You can’t just go, “Gee, that sounds exciting,” and head out. And some people think so because we get inquiries about if we’re hiring or what does it take, one of the things I ask is, “Why do you want to do this and what’s your experience?” The two responses I typically get are, “It seems like it would be exciting,” and “I don’t have any experience.” That person then is going to follow the stereotypical image and that doesn’t work. You’re a business person. So, number one, you have to have some experience. Number two, you’ve got to be patient. Number three, you’ve got to have a lot of resources, and by resources, I mean people that you know; people who work for companies where you can get information because that’s all we are is information brokers. And so, the more resources we have, the more effective we’re going to be.

What is most challenging about what you do?

Communicating with clients in the beginning that this may not turn out the way they want it to turn out. We even have a clause in our contract that says, “We don’t make any promises or guarantees about the outcome.” Because some people come to us absolutely convinced that they know what’s going on and they want us to prove what they think is going on. The second most difficult thing is the perception that people have based on television and movies about how easy it is to do this kind of work. It’s not, you know. You can’t just take one person and follow another person. It’s impossible. I was listening to a program the other night kind of like 48 Hours—it has to do with law enforcement investigations and so forth—and they commented on air. This was an experienced law enforcement agency that said in this particular case, it took 8 people to follow one person. To do it right to, do it well, and be effective that’s probably about right.

What is most rewarding?

It goes back to the helping people. When you have a parent who’s concerned about the way their child is being cared for in, say, a divorce situation and you discovered that the child is at risk and the court sees that and makes the decision in favor that’s really a benefit to the child. That’s real rewarding. When you get good solid answers—and I guess that would be the broad answer to the question— good, solid answers and factual information to present to your client, that is real rewarding. For somebody who’d come and say, “I need help,” and you do your work and go back to them and say, “Here it is.” I just love that.

What advice would you offer someone considering this career?

Get a lot of counsel from people who either are doing it or have done it. Ask a lot of questions, know how to run a business, and be patient.

How much time off do you get/take?

You’re as busy as you want to be. You could get all the time off you want, but you’re probably not going to get paid while you are.

What is a common misconception people have about what you do?

Well, I guess it would deal with ethics and integrity. There’s kind of a common misconception that PI’s have a lack of character or have a lack of integrity. There’s also the misconception that you can find out anything, even if you’re willing to break the rules, you can find out anything.

What are your goals/dreams for the future?

I’d like to grow a bigger business and earn a reputation of respect and professionalism.

Interview with a bail bondsman

trave45 — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 12:51:39 +0000

What do you do for a living?

I’m a bondsman, bail bond agent, to be correct.

How would you describe what you do?

I bond people out and I put them back in jail.

What does your work entail?

I deal with criminals on a daily basis. I deal with their families. I deal with their troubles. I deal with everything. I make sure they go to court. If they don’t show up to court, I have to go find them and either make a new court date or put them back in jail.

Quick Fact!
How to become a bail bondsman? For starters you have to have a squeaky clean record. Then you have to take a test and get sponsored by a bonding company to get started. See what else this bondsman said about how to get started and what requirements there are to become a bondsman. Click Here and Here.

We have rotating schedules where we have several agents in this office and we rotate on a 24-hour shift. I’m on every three days. I come in to skip trace(aka bounty hunting) in between. In this state, we can’t refer to it as bounty hunting. It’s called skip tracing.

How did you get started?

I used to do this a long time ago and I actually did it part-time because I was going to school full-time with my master’s degree in nursing and decided I wanted a real job and went to nursing and worked for 11 years, hated it and then went back to bonding.

What do you like about being a bondsmen?

The rewards would be if you get some of these people that are messing up in their lives and all of a sudden you see them turn around. You’ve got to build a kind of a rapport with your clients, because if you’re a hard-ass to them, chances are they’re not going to want to go to court. They’re not going to step up for you as well. So when you reach out and help one person and it makes a difference in their life, then it’s kind of rewarding.

What do you dislike?

People lying straight to my face. The repeat offenders, we call frequent flyers, that you just keep going out on a limb for and they keep letting you down. There’s also the fear of forfeitures. You have to go in front of a judge because our client didn’t go to court and we’ve got to pay the bond. So we beg for mercy from the judge to get an extension to locate this individual.

How do you make money/or how are you compensated?

It’s commission. I make money on every bond that I write. For example, on a $1500 bond the bail is $150 plus other fees. My commission split is 50/50 so I will make $75.

How much money do you make as a bail bondsmen?

About $55,000.

What education or skills are needed to be a bondsmen?

You have to take a beginners education class. It’s an eight-hour class and then you go and take the test, 100-question test and you have to have a 70 in order to pass it. It’s a very confusing test.

You try not to get personal with the clients, but sometimes it helps. You know, if they need a hand to get to court, if they need a ride, they know they can call our office. And most offices are sort of like that. And I think it needs to be like that. But, by all means, we’re not Momma either, they dug the hole, they can get their self right on out of it.

They say the test in this state is one of the hardest in the nation. You’ve got a lot of homers that come in here wanting to be Billy-bad-ass for the day and carry a concealed handgun so you have to weed them out. You can’t just say ‘hey’, I want to be a bondsman, and go take the class and test and be a bondsman. You have to have somebody actually sponsor your license. You’ve got to get hired onto a company before you can actually enter into the bail bonding world. You don’t necessarily have to have been with this company for a period of time. You just got to be hired through the company. You have a FBI background check done too. And it’s very thorough…I mean, they flip over rocks. They’ll call your references, they don’t screw around. It took four months for mine. The longer it takes, the better off you are. Because they’re actually trying to find something wrong. You can’t have any felonies on your record and a few misdemeanors such as theft and domestic battery.

What is most challenging about what you do?

Skip tracing. Trying to locate the hard ones that are hiding under a rock. From the time they miss court, we have 120 days on a misdemeanor and 90 days on a felony to find them.

What is most rewarding?

Putting the deadbeats back in jail. I mean, if they don’t want to go to court and they don’t want to step up and take care of their crap, the best thing for them is be right back where they need to be. Or at the other end, you’ve got a client that’s been a drug user and you’ll see them six months down the road, they’re clean, they went through rehab, that could be rewarding as well. But…today it would be putting them back in jail, tomorrow it could be different.

What advice would you offer someone considering this career?

There’s more to it than everybody thinks. We’re not Dog the Bounty Hunter. We’re far from it. It’s not just getting them out of jail and forgetting about them. It’s also about being their friend, not just their bondsman. You try not to get personal with the clients, but sometimes it helps.

You’ve got a lot of homers that come in here wanting to be Billy-bad-ass for the day and carry a concealed handgun so you have to weed them out.

You know, if they need a hand to get to court, if they need a ride, they know they can call our office. And most offices are sort of like that. And I think it needs to be like that. But, by all means, we’re not Momma either, they dug the hole, they can get their self right on out of it.

How much time off do you get/take?

If I want to be off a couple days next week I can. We don’t have a set schedule. We don’t have the-you get one or two weeks off a year deal.

What is a common misconception people have about what you do?

We are not Dog. We don’t just go and bust down doors on an everyday basis and we’re not all just hard-asses and mean and hard to deal with.

What are your goals/dreams for the future?

My own TV show(laughs). I don’t really want to be the owner and I like what I’m doing. This is about as good as it gets.

What else would you like people to know about what you do?

It’s all based on trust. We go out on the limb to bond you out and we get a feeling that you’re not going to, we’re not going to write it. There’s two people in the world that you really don’t want to piss off when it comes to you sitting in jail. One is the judge and the other is a bondsman. The judge will rake your bond up and if you piss off a bondsman and —- you’re what we call a ’screwed pooch’.

Interview with a Police detective

trave45 — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 12:00:22 +0000

What do you do for a living?

Police Detective

How would you describe what you do?

Investigate crimes against people and/or property (Burglary, Homocide, Forgery, Rape, Criminal Mischief)

What does your work entail?

Typing reports in office/speaking to victim’s via phone/attempt to locate/arrest suspects

What do you like about what you do?

Arresting suspects and bringing them to justice. Defending people that need help. Great feeling when you get a confession about a crime that you did not have a lot of evidence on, and you ended up arresting suspect.

What do you dislike?

I don’t like when the suspect/perp/thug gets away. Whether that is winning in court or slipping away during a chase…Or knowing that suspect/perp/thug committed a crime, but can not prove it.

What skills and education would someone need to follow this career path?

Highschool education and passion for defending people and catching criminals. Action packed job at times.

How do you make money? I don’t make any money…that is for the government and people that commit crimes. People from the city pay taxes and it goes to the city. The city turns and makes a paycheck then I deposit it into my checking account.

How much money do you make? $60,000. That is with overtime.

How much time off do you get?

Max vacation is 240 hrs…also get 100 comp hours…and 240 sick time. You get so many hours per week.

What is most challenging about what you do?

Reports

What is most rewarding?

Helping somebody…(Whether that is arresting a rape suspect, solving a Theft) very rewarding

What is the biggest misconception people have about what you do?

Having quotas

What advice would you offer someone considering this career/job?

Be a good citizen.

What are your goals/dreams for the future?

Climbing the ranks in the department…Chief, Captain, or Sgt. etc…

Is there anything else you would like people to know about what you do?