The majority of people who come to me have never hired a Private Detective before and have misconceptions about the investigation industry and how we work.

What follows is an insight so that you can be better prepared before you hire a Private Detective and to give an insight of what we want from you and what you can (and can not) expect from us. .

The first area that I will cover is emotion. Many clients that come to me are dealing with a lot of emotion for one reason or another. My first job is to sympathetically but clearly, tunnel my way through any emotional influences to get to the case in hand. I have had many a client who thinks it is acceptable to phone me at all hours of the night and day just to talk (and talk and talk). We are not your counselor and we have private lives outside of work too! Emotion can also have an affect on the client in a way that could affect the case and it is my job to steer things appropriately. A good example would be a child custody case where alimony is being determined by the courts.

A lot of our work is alongside the legal sector and so an example could be when the level alimony is being determined by the courts. So my job could be to establish whether the extensive list of after school activities being sited by one party and therefore being listed as expenses that they wish the other party to contribute to, are actually being undertaken by the children in question, or whether one party is merely trying to increase the amount  financial outgoings in order to obtain more money from the other parent. Due to emotionally influential factors such as the former partner being involved in a “new” romantic relationship, sometimes living together in the household with the children, the client can lose focus on what we are trying to do and can veer off course, becoming concerned with insignificant details about their “replacement”.

While this is often portrayed as a concern for the children due to an unknown adult being in their environment, it quickly becomes obvious that the motivation for gaining this information is driven by jealously or inquisitiveness about their former spouses/partner’s relationship and does not have anything to do with the legal issues at hand.

While I accept that a parent will have concerns about who their children spend time with, if this concern has never been raised before now and the new relationship can be considered as well established, it is likely that the client is hoping to take the opportunity to gain (legally) irrelevant information about “their replacement”.  It is my job to make that judgement call and keep the client focused on what information the lawyers require and what is going to be of use in court and not spend time on what are in fact, inconsequential details. Additionally, I have a moral obligation to all parties involved and in a case like this, it is my job to be independent and stick to the facts, not judge, speculate and glean details to satisfy anyone’s ego. It is not professional or ethical (in my opinion) get involved with such details and they serve no positive purpose. Details like that can be touch paper to emotionally strung out people and people can be very reactive when in an emotional state. It’s best to do exactly what the case requires of us unless, it goes without saying, I see something that causes genuine concern.

When you are looking to hire a Private Detective be clear in your mind what the objective is and stick to it. Try to keep emotion out of things. Emotion can often change ones perception of things and can cloud the issue. Be aware that asking us to gain information about different things halfway through a surveillance can mean (not always) that some focus has been lost.

Not having a clear objective can result in making requests for this or that halfway through a surveillance and can mean that the surveillance needs to be extended in order to document this new requirement which will of course, cost you more. By the same token, giving us a mountain of objectives means the same thing i.e that your objective is not clear enough. Think about why you are hiring us and then be clear about what what it is you need. Sometimes things come up in the course of an investigation which changes things and that’s fine but the objective itself rarely changes.

Secondly, be honest with us!! I can not say this strongly enough. Let me be clear here: We know when you are lying to us! Those of us worth our salt have heard it all before and we can spot a cover story a mile away. We may not let on that we know to begin with but trust me, we do know and we know, pretty much, immediately. We’ll give you the benefit of the doubt but we’ll confirm it. That’s what we do! I am surprised that people come to a professional and do not consider that it is a fundamental part of our work to establish what is what and that those skills will only be applied out in the field. Let it be known, we apply those skills to our clients too! For example, I happen to work in a city with a huge sex industry. I am commonly asked to locate a female that the client, in truth, actually met in some nightclub or another but the client will tell me some story involving lost contact details and want me to find out the address/phone number etc so they can contact her. The first point here is that I have a moral and ethical duty to protect the privacy of, in this case, the sex worker and I am not about to be a paid stalker either. I assume that the reason for lying about how well the potential client knows the target is because the potential client thinks that I will not take their case if I knew the truth and they’d be right. Somewhat. However, they do not consider that there is another way of doing things. I am quite happy to go and find the lady in question but I will (with the clients understanding) only give her the client’s contact details and tell her that the client would like to be in touch with her and then leave it up to her as to whether she wishes to do that or not. I have never had a client, who’s intentions were genuine, have a problem with this. The ladies who work in the sex industry use fake names and tell fake back stories for a reason. I have an obligation to respect their privacy and above all, their safety. Any reasonable person understands this and I have never had a client with genuine intentions have a problem with doing things that way. Lying to me, I understand. Not admitting it means that I will probably not take your case.

This leads me onto what a client can and can not expect. We are professionals like any other. We have have an ethical and moral obligation to consider to anyone in or around the case. We will not break the law for you. We will not jeopardize our safety, or that of anyone else. People’s privacy is a consideration. It is not always appropriate to divulge where people live or work. We will not “stalk” someone for you (this is different from conducting surveillance). The Private Investigation industry has a reputation for being shady and this is misunderstood. We are professionals and conduct ourselves and our business as such.

Some clients do not understand that we can not always film or take photographs. Some locations do not allow for it due to lighting, distance or other conditions meaning that sometimes we just can’t. We would if we could but it is simply not possible for whatever reason. This is not a reflection on our professionalism or ability. It is just a reality. The same goes for losing a surveillance target. It happens for a million reasons. When the Police or a government agency undertakes a surveillance there are multiple cars and multiple people. The more people, the more bases are covered. That’s why they have teams. Conversely, we are often alone meaning that all it takes is for someone to jump in the only available taxi and shoot off or for another vehicle to block our way or too much traffic preventing us from safely getting out of a junction in time, for us to lose a target. This is the reality of surveillance and although I have had advanced driver training, I am often alone and yes, sometimes I lose the target. We all do on occasion. It happens. This is the reality.

I have had some really great clients over the years as well as some real nightmares. The one’s I like best are realistic, clear and let me get on and do my job. I like my clients to feel free to communicate with me and share their ideas. I am open to and welcome that but during surveillance I prefer communication to be kept to a minimum, primarily because I need to concentrate on what I am doing so unless there is something valuable I need to know immediately then I am best left to get on with it.

There is nothing worse than a client who is on the phone every five minutes wanting an update. These are often the same clients who then get upset when my phone battery gets used up quickly. This is not so bad when I am in the car but out all day on foot, they do not have charging points on the street! We have to make decisions about what equipment to carry. While a phone charger is essential just in case the opportunity to charge arises to plug in somewhere, multiple phones are not. Cameras and other equipment are essential and we can only carry (and run as we often must) with so much stuff and still blend in. I have had clients who are totally unrealistic in this aspect and the reason behind their frustration is a lack of understanding as to what is humanly possible to achieve under the circumstances. They do not consider small details such as in the car, my battery charges more slowly than it drains on an international call and during surveillance, I need that battery to be well charged at all times.

In conclusion, be clear about what you want to achieve. Tell us why you want to achieve that because sometimes we have a better way and because by knowing, we can identify an opportunity if it arises. Take advantage of our know-how and experience. Be honest and be realistic. We are here to help you. We have heard it all before so just tell us what your case is honestly and let us advise you as to the way forward then let us do our job for you. If you do this, you will help us to do the best we can for you and our working relationship should be smooth and successful for us both.