Private investigators are either hired by individuals or companies to carry out investigation in law related cases. For example it can either be an attorney or an insurance company hiring them to follow around individuals involved in some criminal act. They are also hired by people in cases of adultery. According to the law these PI’s should be licensed and may not be allowed to carry out guns or fire arms. These PI’s should have some sort of experience related to police or military.
Most of these PI’s are self employed and work in irregular hours. Their work is dangerous and because of this they need to have a strong experience which can train them to deal with people in difficult situations.
PI’s have a very important function when it comes to serving attorneys because they help in extracting and finding important information not known previously by the attorney. PI does usually have a lot of contacts because of this they can get into places no one else can. They collect a number of clues combine them together and come up with facts which can help us in finding out and financial or personal information about a person be spied on which can be beneficial to the attorney.
Private detectives are hired my companies to do back ground check on employees, give protection to celebrities or investigate in crimes involved with computers. For example, if anyone is extracting money from bank account, hacking emails or selling illicit information on the net they can be stopped with the help of PI’s.
PI’s depend a lot on computers which can give the information related to criminal’s previous arrests, his emails, previous records, convictions and membership to any hotel, group or site which might be suspicious. They also interview the person’s colleagues or family members in order to find out if they had any disagreements with someone or were involved in some fight. Some PI’s will supply information to the people who hired him with constant surveillance against the targeted person. They will keep an eye on the activities of the individual, check who he is coming and going with, all with the help of video cameras placed secretly around the house, or by keeping a record of the phone calls being made. They also use a GPS system and binoculars to spy.
Strict laws are laid on the PI’s which will guide them along the way so that they do not perform any task which is not acceptable by the law. For example, when it comes to collecting evidence it should be done properly otherwise breaking any rule stated by the law shall discard that evidence. Therefore PI’s need to play close attention to their methods and ways as sometimes only their mind will guide them.
Just like doctors that specialize in a subject, PI’s are also trained for specific jobs. For example I previously mentioned investigators involved in computer crimes are also known as computer forensic investigators while legal investigators are hired by attorneys to solve criminal cases by locating witnesses and interviewing them or the police present during the crime scenes. They take pictures and gather evidence as well because sometimes they serve as witnesses as well.
Also see: Private Investigators Law > Types of Private Investigators