Private investigators have been part of our culture for more than 150 years. And just like every other aspect of change and growth, the expectations and the skill set of investigators continue to evolve. Long time investigative firm, , has been on the cutting edge of changes in the industry.
For many years, investigators tailed cheating spouses or provided surveillance photos of employees suspected of workers compensation fraud. Company owners requested proof of a person doing strenuous work at home or dancing in a bar but later claiming they were so injured on a job that they required workman’s compensation. And they still do that kind of surveillance.
However, thumbing through public records in court house basements is now a rare occurrence in regard to finding people. The lives of thousands of people are lived online. They share birthdates, photos of themselves, friends and family members on Facebook and Instagram. They do banking and pay other bills online. Their email address, often kept for many years, can be as important to an investigator as a social security card in a missing person search.
Carefully watching Facebook activity can actually be as telling for an investigator as watching someone’s house for hours. Lots of people post everything from what they ate for breakfast to what motel they’re enjoying. When they have no idea they are being watched, the details are plentiful in a missing person investigation.
The downside to all this quick-to-gather information is the fact that today’s generation, especially between the ages of 18 to 25, are frustratingly transient. They tend to job hop. They rarely can be traced to a land line, instead choosing only to use cell phones. They relocate often. And many younger adults may live week to week, using payday loans to get by. All of these activities make an investigator’s job much more difficult.
But is known for their ability to find missing persons. Using strong investigative strategies based on past experience and powerful tenacity, investigators can trace activity and piece together the puzzle in front of them. We know how to locate people in all sorts of places and situations. The digital forensic skills and database resources make the client requests much more successfully attained.
-Brenda McGinley, CEO, All in Investigations, All in Investigations