Help us to Help you

Most people or businesses hire a Professional Investigator to help them through a tough situation. When you’re asking for help, it may seem a bit backwards that you have a duty to help your P.I. However, the direction your case will take is often determined by the steps you take on your own. You need to know that there is a lot you can do to positively (or negatively) influence the outcome in your case. Here are the best ways to help us to help you:

Don’t say a word to ANYONE else except your attorney:

Just as you don’t want to confess to the police your crimes or your pastor your sins, you don’t want to tell your spouse or employees that you hired a P.I. “so look out”. It amazes me the number of cases where someone that hires us, says something to a mutual friend of the person we are doing surveillance on. Now that they know, they feel a duty to tell the other person and it makes our job that much tougher.

What’s the first thing someone does when you tell them don’t turn around? They turn around. Same thing here. If you tell someone they are being watched, they start looking. DON’T do this.

Be Respectful, but Normal to the other party.

When a person feels respected they tend to be less suspecting of potentially negative intent. They just feel better about things in general. Wether that be their relationship with you, their ability to outsmart you and continue to manipulate you or just a quick ego boost. It helps us and your case in the long run. However, you can’t begin to emit behavior that is not near the norm. You can’t just go from I hate you to you’re the man of my dreams in one day. Make sense?

Be Honest With Us

It’s an old adage but honesty is the best policy. As with your attorney, it is also with us; an absolute must. If you are disingenuous with your P.I. it seriously hampers the ability to solve a case or get proper evidence. As my client, whatever you discuss with me, short of murder and child molestation, I do not repeat it to anyone. Being honest allows us to avoid any surprises that could be ugly in court. As an example, we once had a client who gave us information about his spouse and her schedule and her whereabouts. Little did we know until down the road, when we quit, that he obtained the information by hacking her computer and putting a tracker on her car. Needless to say that is not the optimal situation. Tell the truth.

Give your P.I. any Information As Early As Possible

This one is the duh moment: if you know anything like the car color, license plate or model, let us know..Don’t just say car. It saves us time. Before you even get with your P.I. begin to write out anything that would be helpful to work the case. The car type (sedan, SUV, truck), color, distinguishing marks, who gave the loan, where it’s usually parked (in a garage or on street), etc.

When I meet with my optimal clients, they have a stack of paperwork to present, with photos, proof of insurance, personal info, family tree’s, work locations, name of friends and favorite hangouts, etc. If you work on this ahead of time, it takes pressure off you and saves us both time.

Don’t Rely On the WEB Alone

We prefer to do a background check on every case. Sometimes it yields good, new and helpful information. Sometimes it only yields information we have already through other means. However, in all cases, information obtained from the web needs to be checked out and validated with other sources.

We were hired by a church to do background on volunteers. In at least 8 cases of the 20 volunteers, the basic web search available to the general public was wrong, outdated and misleading. I had a client say she had been with her husband 20 years, in the same town and she knew everything about him. She didn’t know he had a criminal history that was just not reported locally, or hidden property or a gun license.


In practice, some web site’s do the job requested in providing very basic information. However, in real life, a person’s addresses, employment information, the most recent vehicle owned and criminal history are things that are regularly false. This could be a large waste of time for a P.I. going off your information. That’s why we prefer to do our own work. To confirm information to be factual which in turn helps us work the case in the most efficient and economical way for you.

Be prepared to pay

We have donated time and money in the past to clients or good causes. However, as a rule we have to make a living. You would not work for free at your job if it meant taking food or shelter from your family. You should not ask us to either. Our rates are in the state average, but well worth our experience and dedication to each case. We are willing to work with people in need on payments as well. However, there are simply some things that we are called to do that require us to pay other people for services or information. That requires funding. Plain and simple. In the long run your business, your marriage, your peace of mind is always worth it.