Archive for the 'How to Become a Professional Private Investigator' Category

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Internet Detective School 101

Published on November 4, 2009 in How to Become a Professional Private Investigator, Methods, Private Investigator, Search Engines, Search Strategies and Sources. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

Google Alerts

We all know know and love Google, but how many people use its best investigative features? Investigations aren’t done in one day so why search Google on only one day?

Google Alert service is free and it allows you to create custom RSS feeds using Google search results, or you can receive the alerts by email.  Thus, if you create focused searches using phrases, site qualifiers, etc. in Google, you now can have those results as a RSS Feed.

Login to you Google account, then use the advanced query options to construct your search.  Select the Feed setting in the “Deliver to” column to activate your RSS feed.  It’s that simple; there is no need to program a Google API. Alternatively, select email to have the results sent to you by email.

Your search can be set-up to notify you as the new data appears if you select email notification. You may select as-it-happens, daily, or weekly. Simply make the selection in the “How often” column. Of course the RSS feed option doesn’t need to be told when to send you the results, it captures new data as it appears and publishes it in the feed.

To receive the feed you will have to wait until it is populated with some results. Once there are results in the feed, you may then click on the feed link for the Alert and copy the URL into your newsreader.  This takes about one day to occur in my experience.

Internet Detective School

Published on November 2, 2009 in How to Become a Professional Private Investigator, Methods, Private Investigator, Search Engines, Search Strategies and Sources. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

Internet Tracking

Mantracker hunts people by following their spoor for a popular TV show.

On the Internet, Investigators have to do the same thing. However, the digital spoor may be on a computer in Singapore while your prey is in Corner Brook Newfoundland.

For this series of articles, the terms tracking, monitoring, and alerts  all mean the same thing. These terms are applied to methods of collecting new information as it appears in a variety of searches of many sources throughout the Internet.  This is a systematic way of locating information about a subject as it becomes available. These are sources and methods that monitor news reports, social media, blogs, or other open sources of information relevant to your investigation. I will illustrate how to construct the search statement and get the results in your hands on an ongoing basis.

I will start with the large search engines and move onto the lesser know sources and methods.

Quantity Over Quality

Published on August 4, 2009 in How to Become a Professional Private Investigator, News and Report Writing. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

In the past US security clearance investigations were falsified. Now we learn that they have too many background checks to do, and not enough time to do them and the solution is to produce factually correct but incomplete reports. We also see that this job is a “shredder, and agents are grist for the mill,”.

 “This job is a shredder, and agents are grist for the mill,” said K.C. Smith, an OPM investigator in Austin, Texas, with 23 years of experience. “There are people who are getting sick, under a lot of stress, their family life is suffering. They are just beat down.”

Investigators say it is common practice to spend nights, weekends and holidays writing up reports, and some don’t report the overtime they work for fear it will be held against them in their performance evaluations.

 Investigators say it is common practice to spend nights, weekends and holidays writing up reports, and some don’t report the overtime they work for fear it will be held against them in their performance evaluations.

Some say their superiors have made it clear that the priority is to close cases, and they say they have felt pressure to turn in even incomplete cases that lack crucial interviews or records if it will help them keep their numbers up. A recent Government Accountability Office report found that the Defense Department’s security clearance process is plagued by such incomplete cases: 87 percent of the 3,500 initial top-secret security clearance cases Defense approved last year were missing at least one interview or important record.

Investigators are rewarded for investigation reports, not for doing proper investigations.

The Autodidact Private Investigator

Published on April 3, 2009 in How to Become a Professional Private Investigator, Private Investigator and Training & Education. 1 Comment Tags: , , .

Autodidact (au·to·di·dact , ȯ-tō-ˈdī-ˌdakt, noun) is a person who has learned a subject without the benefit of a teacher or formal education; a self-taught person.A private investigator, is a person who can be hired by individuals or groups to undertake investigations.

The economic downturn has left a lot of Private Investigators moaning about a lack of work. That’s an economic hardship, if you haven’t planned for it, but it is also an opportunity. Now is the time to learn some new skills. Here are two great blog articles on how to go about it:

The Cheapskate’s Guide to Educating Yourself

How to Set Up Your Personal University

Orwell’s 5 Rules for Effective Writing

Published on March 20, 2009 in Communication, How to Become a Professional Private Investigator and Report Writing. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Poor writing is not a recent problem. In 1946, George Orwell wrote his essay, Politics and the English Language, about his five rules of writing effectively.  Orwell concluded that if you follow his five rules, then you would distinguish yourself by clearly communicating your ideas.

Orwell’s Rules

  1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech seen in print.
  2. Never use a long word where a short one will do.
  3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
  4. Never use the passive where you can use the active.
  5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.

Fact Checking

Published on February 13, 2009 in Communication, How to Become a Professional Private Investigator, Methods, Private Investigator and Report Writing. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Every writer, reporter, and investigator should read the article entitled Checkpoint by award-winning author John McPhee in the Feb. 9-16, 2009 issue of New Yorker Magazine . The abstract is available, but you must be a subscriber to read the full article online. Of course, you could go to the library and read the article, or just buy the magazine.

How to Become a Professional Private Investigator VIII

Published on January 14, 2009 in How to Become a Professional Private Investigator. 2 Comments

The professional Investigator of today has made the transition from the car, a pocketful of coins for the payphone, and the office cubical, to working from home using computers, the Internet, and sophisticated mobile telephones. When I started, video cameras, PCs, the Internet, and cell phones didn’t exist.

Yet with all these wonderful tools, I am amazed at the poor quality of work  produced by so many private investigation firms. It is easy to accept this as the norm. Unfortunately, I’ve done a lot of thinking about why this happens. I also have the laboratory in which test my theories. I use Investigators and researchers around the globe, and get to ask them a lot of questions about how they operate. I’ve come to some conclusions that might be useful to you.

Competence and Operating Procedures

I believe what distinguishes a good Investigator or Investigation Agency from the bad ones is how they accomplish the minutia of day-to-day interaction with clients and the day-to-day problems of maintaining and operating the technology they use to produce the deliverable. Accomplishing these small details involves planning, complex coordination, and skilled management, but it is also relies on the effectiveness of many people competently performing many small components of the job . The differences in quality arise from the variance in competence  between ordinary Investigators, Secretaries, and Managers, and to the efficacy of their respective standard operating procedures.

A high quality deliverable does not require a larger-than-life Investigator, but rather a well-designed system staffed by competent people.

How to Become a Professional Private Investigator VII

Published on December 22, 2008 in How to Become a Professional Private Investigator. 0 Comments Tags: .

Good detectives know how things work. That is what makes them effective. This applies to both the private and public sectors. The police detective has to know how the criminal justice system works. The Private Investigator has to know how the civil courts, business, and the economy works.

Functional Research

This knowledge of how things fit together and function  builds on previous knowledge and allows you discover how new things work. Researchers call this Functional Research. However, doing functional research requires broad knowledge in a wide variety of subjects to understand how things might fit together or complement each other.

Economics

An understanding of the economic forces that have shaped our world will serve you well in learning how government, courts, and businesses work. Our laws, customs, and institutions are built upon a foundation of economics.

Economics is not difficult to understand. It can be reduced to the interplay of four factors:

  • Wealth
  • Power
  • Distributive justice (a value judgement)
  • Impersonal efficiency

The following list of books should be read in order:

These books cover a lot of ground. They start with why a lack of natural resources prevented economic and technological growth in some areas of the world and move onto the political factors that shaped that growth. Then in Landes’s work, why some nations fail to live up to their economic potential. DeSoto’s book is absolutely necessary for an understanding of why property rights are so essential to economic growth and why established property registration systems have created a huge divide between the rich nations that have such systems and poor nations that don’t. Finally, Ferguson will explain the origins and evolution of our finance system and financial institutions.

How to Become a Professional Private Investigator VI

Published on December 15, 2008 in How to Become a Professional Private Investigator. 0 Comments Tags: .

A Private Investigator often deals with business issues, but often the PI does not have a real understanding how the economy works or how companies function.

The best guide for understanding how companies work that I have come across is Charan’s [asa link]0609608398[/asa] where the author describes the universal principles that help all companies make money. This book is too simplistic for CEOs , but to readers on the lower and middle rungs it offers useful insights into how companies function and prosper or fail.

How to Become a Professional Private Investigator V

Published on December 1, 2008 in How to Become a Professional Private Investigator. 0 Comments Tags: .

Assholes, Bullies, and Psychopaths

Being a professional Investigator entails dealing with troublesome people.  To be successful, you must recognise the various sub-types of these annoying creatures and learn to deal with them. Beware, they might be co-workers or your boss. I suggest you read the books in the order presented.

Assholes

Sutton’s [asa link]0446526568[/asa] grew from a famous article in the Harvard Business Review and expounds upon an irrefutable fact: the workplace is plagued with assholes. Assholes deliberately belittle co-workers and focus their aggression on the less powerful. They decrease productivity, force qualified employees to quit, and harm a business’s prospects.

It is extremely important for PI’s to recognise the asshole in his native habitat. If the asshole is in your company, then you have to consider how he or she will affect your earnings. PI’s in Canada are generally paid a portion of the hourly billing plus mileage and expenses. An asshole in charge can really drag down your earnings.

Intimidation

Ringer’s [asa link]1590770358[/asa] was originally titled, Winning Through Intimidation. This has been a best seller for over 30 years for a reason. It details the methods the business people use to intimidate people with whom they conduct business. Don’t spend a red cent on any expensive courses at Screw U – get this book instead.

Psychopaths

Babiak and Hare’s [asa link]0061147893[/asa] is about the successful psychopath. The successful psychopath wants money, power, or just a fancy car, and he knows how to get it from you. This book isn’t about clones of Hannibal Lecter,  it’s about psychopaths being attracted to the high-risk high-profit areas of our capitalist economy. This is a must-read for the Investigator. It will help you recognise psychopathic behaviours in the environment where you will most often encounter these behaviours.

Hare’s previous book, [asa link]1572304510[/asa] explains that psychopaths are neither sociopaths nor psychotics. Psychopaths are people who are well aware of the difference between right and wrong, but choose to ignore the distinction. It is also important to understand that the “psychopath” and “antisocial personality disorder” (a psychiatric term defined by a cluster of criminal behaviors) are not the same thing. Not all psychopaths are criminals and not all criminals are psychopaths.

The final chapter, “A Survival Guide,” is especially important as psychopaths are found in every segment of society, and there is a good chance that you will encounter them regularly as an Investigator.

How to Become a Professional Private Investigator IV

Published on November 26, 2008 in How to Become a Professional Private Investigator. 1 Comment Tags: .

The Investigators that I prefer to work with have conquered the three P’s. They are organised in their approach to getting work done. They don’t procrastinate and they know when to stop banging their heads against the wall.

Productivity

The following books should be read and their content implemented in the order I present them here. Allen’s book is the generic topic overview, McGee’s book teaches the basics of using your email client software to manage your work flow, and Linenberger’s book will make you an expert at using Outlook as a organisational tool.

Allen’s [asa link]0142000280[/asa]  has become a necessary reference for any current writing on time and workflow management.

McGee’s [asa link]0735622159[/asa] is based on Outlook but you can translate her system to other mail clients such as Evolution, Thunderbird, Kontact, and others. This special edition includes a CD, some pull out charts, etc., which you may find useful.

Linenberger’s [asa link]0974930423[/asa] tends to assume mastery of core skills and then take its reader deeper into somewhat technical aspects of Outlook’s impressive capabilities. It teaches the reader how to exploit a powerful piece of software. You will need to implement Allen’s and McGee’s advise before you get into this.

Procrastination

As a rule, I’m not a fan of self-help books. But for every rule there are exceptions.

Most other books on this topic tell you: “Force yourself to do it, even if you don’t want to.”  Well, if that worked, you wouldn’t need to read a book on this subject. Fiore’s [asa link]1585425524[/asa] is probably the most balanced and mature look at this problem and its solutions.

If you suffer from this problem, overcome it or you won’t be successful.

Perseverance

Godin’s [asa link]1591841666[/asa] advises that the old saying is wrong—winners do quit, and quitters do win.

This book is about strategies for developing a perspective that will allow you to walk away from truly insurmountable obstacles. According to Godin, what sets apart the high-achiever from everyone else is the ability to escape dead ends quickly, while staying focused and motivated when it really counts.

Winners quit fast, quit often, and quit without guilt—until they commit to beating the right “Dip” for the right reasons. Winners seek out the Dip. They realize that the bigger the barrier, the bigger the reward for getting past it. If you can become number one in your niche, you’ll get more than your fair share of profits, glory, and long-term security.

Losers, on the other hand, fall into two basic traps. Either they fail to stick out the Dip—they get to the moment of truth and then give up—or they never even find the right Dip to conquer.

Knowing when to stay and when to go is a key factor for success as a Private Investigator.

How to Become a Professional Private Investigator III

Published on November 21, 2008 in How to Become a Professional Private Investigator. 6 Comments Tags: .

Writing and Reporting

The paramount skill that a Private Investigator must have is the ability to write concisely. The client will be a lawyer or university educated professional. The client only sees the report. The client judges the Investigator by the quality of the report. Good reports mean more work in the future.

Writing good reports is not just a matter of putting words together. The ability to properly produce an uncluttered document using word processing software is an essential part of this skill. Understanding how to cite sources, create footnotes and end notes, and order appendices is necessary to create readable reports. If your report is not equal to those produced by the large consulting firms, then you are losing business.

For the junior Investigator, I always recommend a thorough study of  the following:

It will probably take you a year to get through these and have a good start in applying the lessons these books should be teaching you.

MS Word

If you do not know how to use MS Word effectively, then find a course on creating style sheets, templates, and using the features that create references. MS Word is your most basic tool. I will deal with MS Office in a future article, but in the meantime, you have homework. Learn how to create the following:

  • a template with hierarchical headings and
  • proper paragraphs that insert spaces before and after paragraphs and
  • also learn how to make a Table of Contents and footnotes.

How to Become a Professional Private Investigator II

Published on November 19, 2008 in How to Become a Professional Private Investigator. 0 Comments Tags: , .

In my first article on this topic, I complained that Canadian community colleges don’t properly prepare students to be good entry level Private Investigators. The problem facing students from these programmes is not unique to this field, but it seems magnified in this industry.

What the Colleges Don’t Teach

As in any human endeavor, the devil is in the details. The colleges do a fair job of teaching some useful skills, but they don’t teach about the industry. The colleges teach the skills associated with doing certain tasks within this industry. They don’t teach the skills associated with being successful in this industry.  The two skill sets have very little in common.

This series of articles is about how to come to grips with what they don’t teach in college and how to combine the task knowledge with the business knowledge in the right mix to be successful. Let’s start with definitions that  provide instruction on how one must proceed.

The Autodidact Private Investigator

Autodidact (au·to·di·dact , ȯ-tō-ˈdī-ˌdakt, noun) is a person who has learned a subject without the benefit of a teacher or formal education; a self-taught person.

A private investigator, is a person who can be hired by individuals or groups to undertake investigations.

The details that you must absorb in order to be successful are many. The sum of these details define your level of professionalism. No school will teach you these details. You must learn them through experimentation, experience, and self-directed study.

Self-directed Study

Gaining the task and business knowledge should be approached as a series of projects. Choose a topic, acquire an overview of the topic, then investigate the specific aspects of the topic that are most useful to you.  Following this pattern you can acquire a great deal of useful knowledge in a relatively short period of time. If you can’t do this, then you will not be a successful Private Investigator.

I will deal with a separate subject area in each of the following articles within this series of articles.

How to Become a Professional Private Investigator I

Published on November 17, 2008 in Canada, How to Become a Professional Private Investigator, Methods and Private Investigator. 1 Comment Tags: , , , .

Lately, I have noticed that I have become a mentor to several young Private Investigators. The hardest part of this role is conveying that being a good Investigator entails more than secret sources and interrogation techniques.

Where do Private Investigators Come From?

Many people become Private Investigators without a college education, experience, or a clear plan for their new career.  They don’t get any meaningful training from their employers. Often, the employer just wants a warm body to do the work and views them as disposable if they don’t measure-up to some arbitrary standard.

At best, the Private Investigator took a Law Enforcement Administration course or Investigation course at a Canadian community college. These new Investigators usually have unrealistic expectations of remuneration and working conditions. At worst, the new Investigator couldn’t cut it as a pizza delivery driver.

The problem most entry level Investigators face is gaining an understanding of the skills and knowledge that they must progressively acquire to have a profitable career. Few employers or colleges provide this information to illustrate what a progressive career would look like. Fewer still, provide training and career guidance.

I recently spoke to a college instructor of investigation related courses who dismissed this lack of career guidance, saying that it was the employee’s own fault for not understanding the industry and that the employer just had to take what was on offer in the labour market for Investigators. Of course, he had never been a Private Investigator or agency owner. Nevertheless, the callousness and sheer stupidity of his remarks forced me to revisit the topic of training the new Private Investigator.

Now that I have climbed onto this soapbox, a series of articles on this topic will follow.  The next article will outline what the community college programs don’t teach. Then I will move on to how to learn to be a Professional Private Investigator in Canada.

Napoleon on Project Management

Published on November 7, 2008 in Competitive Intelligence and How to Become a Professional Private Investigator. 2 Comments Tags: , .

My work as a Competitive Intelligence (CI) Researcher or Investigator has evolved from fulfilling information requirements of established projects, to managing projects within projects. I expect this trend to continue over the next decade as the complexity of  information and analysis requirements increase.

As the concepts of Project Management are imposed on Investigations, CI, forecasting and planning processes, study of this area of business skill will not only become absolutely necessary for all managers, but also for people like me.

[asa link]078521285X[/asa] offers an excellent look at the prime components of success and failure as a project manager through a short and very readable review of Napoleon’s greatest achievements and the origins of his ruination. This is the best primer on the subject that I have read.