When you think of a private investigator or detective it might conjure up images of Humphrey Bogart as Sam Spade, or Jack Nicholson in Chinatown. Perhaps you prefer the settings of Victorian England and Sherlock Holmes.

Although all these detectives are famous they were nonetheless fictional. Even though Sherlock Holmes never really walked the earth he was based on a real person and today many people are plying their trade as private investigators.

Even though you may be vaguely aware that these investigators exist in real life, do you know what they do and how they do it? What cases do they work on and what are the modern gadgets, technology, and techniques they use today?

If you continue reading you will find out how these investigators work and what they might do for you. Or perhaps you would like to become a private investigator yourself? 

What is a private investigator?

A PI, for short, is someone who is employed either by an individual or a business to investigate a suspected crime, or to find someone, or to gather evidence.

They deal with a wide range of cases and not all of them involve crime. It might be that a child has run away from home and their parents want to locate them. There could be a person suspecting their partner is cheating on them. In some countries, it is becoming popular for pre-marital spying to occur to see what their partner is doing behind their backs. Who said romance is dead? 

What types of cases do they investigate?

Many private investigators work on insurance fraud and workers compensation claims. This will involve tailing a person suspected of faking an injury and trying to gain video evidence of them faking.

One real-life detective told of following one man who had put in a claim regarding a back injury. Not only was he witnessed and filmed walking, bending over, and generally acting like there was nothing wrong he gave the investigator one precious moment. The claimant got on a park bench and possibly deciding to show off to friends, performed a backflip. Needless to say, he withdrew his insurance claim.

An average-case may involve computerized and non-computerised searches, surveillance, gathering evidence, and interviewing people associated with the client. 

What can private investigators do?

PIs can use all legal means to investigate a crime, perform surveillance and track down missing or wanted people. In the UK it is illegal to act as a private investigator without a license and this is the same for many countries.

They have to adhere to the law and will not have the same powers as a police officer would. However, they will know how to access public records and will also be able to see private databases that most regular people cannot. These databases contain information about people that has been collected through websites and credit companies and collated.

A private investigator has the unique ability to legally use GPS tracking on individuals, which a regular person cannot do. Though placing a GPS device on someone else’s vehicle is generally illegal, in most states, a licensed private investigator can employ this method, along with the best spy app to read text messages, as long as they have a valid justification.

What can’t a private investigator do?

The first thing a PI must know is that they cannot imitate law enforcement. It is illegal for anyone to impersonate being a police officer and this is the same for a PI.

They also cannot breach privacy laws, trespass, or apprehend someone. They can conduct surveillance but they must not break stalking laws while doing so. This is an important area.

When a private investigator goes about surveillance they have to consider how to perform their job and remain inside the law at the same time. When you see movies and TV shows with private eyes they will often show photos of a cheating spouse with the shot taken through the window blinds of a seedy motel.

In fact, privacy laws prevent PIs from doing such a thing. Photographs and video footage can only be taken in public areas. A person has the right to expect privacy in certain locations and a bedroom would be one as would someone’s backyard quite often. 

Summary

Private investigators can sometimes find themselves in some interesting cases such as the time a PI was hired to follow a cat by its owner so they could find out what the moggy was doing in the daytime. Mostly though, investigators will be hired for divorce cases, missing people, corporate crimes, and debt recovery.

If you need a PI then look for a reputable, licensed investigator, or alternatively put on your trenchcoat and make like Sam Spade.