Guidelines for Hiring a Private Investigator

There are several variations of the “How to Select a private investigator”, articles which appear on internet search results. Many of these “How To” articles are real light on “advice”, as their blog article tries to extract your contact information for profit.

It is critically important that when a consumer decides they have a need a PI, that the consumer speaks to the investigator. The prospective consumer should ask any questions as they have, nothing should be off limits, there should be no such thing as a stupid question. I recommend preparing a list of topics you want to discuss with the private detective before you call the PI. During your interview with the investigator take notes and use those notes for any follow-up interview. With that in mind, be aware of the following

• One of the biggest complaints I often receive from potential clients is that private detective firms do not answer their phone and/or do not return calls on messages left. A private detective firm should answer their phones, at the very minimum phones should be answered on weekdays during business hours for all new incoming work. I understand if a PI Firm does not answer the phone at times during business hours, but this should be the exception, not the rule. However, there is absolutely no excuse for a private detective firm to not return messages left.Do not get me wrong, while it is okay if a private detective firm limits their receiving of incoming calls for “potential clients” to business hours on weekdays, that should not be the rule for all calls. A professional private detective firm will receive calls from clients at all times, 7-days a week, 24 -hours a day, within reason if the calls are emergent. If a client abuses that privilege, it will be up to the private detective firm to put reasonable restrictions and parameters on the client’s future calls. Any professional PI Firm must understand that often they deal with highly emotional people, the investigators should “gentle prompting” while setting any parameters that must be set.
• It is not necessary for a top-of-the-line private detective firm to have a physical office in a commercial space. With the COVID restrictions over the past several years most PI cases are arranged over the phone. However, it is absolutely necessary that the private detective does have at the very least a home office to invite you to if you would like to meet in person. Some of the larger companies (as mentioned in Guideline #1) like to overrate the importance of having a physical office. Keep in mind, the cost of the commercial office space that these companies boast of being paid by the consumer through higher hourly rates and other hidden costs.In my thirty-five years in the police department, I was in the streets investigating crimes, at meetings with business leaders, meeting informants in the field, supervising my police units on their calls, and countless other duties outside of the police station. During the majority of my service in the police department, my office was in my police car while many of my colleagues were surfing the internet in their “offices”. Simply stated, there is a whole range of other attributes to look at in hiring a PI than whether or not the investigator rents an office in a commercial building.