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Not everything can be taught. Either you have it or you don’t. That’s the way it goes, sometimes.

As far as private investigators are concerned, they have to possess a certain set of skills that allows them to get the job done without blowing their cover. They know how to approach certain situations and know how and when to move and where to move to. They know the props they might need. They know how to stay in character. They know the signs to look for.

They know how to maneuver.

Training is necessary. That part is sort of like music theory. It provides explanations. It tells them what is happening and tells them what to do and why they’re doing what they’re doing. The actual surveillance is the test. Private investigators must apply what they’ve learned in training and use whichever tactics are applicable, because they may not all be necessary in a given situation. The answers aren’t laid out, so it’s up to them to decide what to do and how to do it. ♦

Transcript:

…so when I go out on a surveillance, and I know Charles; this is Charles Boneh. He’s a surveillance operator that works with me. He has his own company out of Miami. He has similar training but from a foreign government.

When we go out on surveillance, we just don’t pull up our car, sit, and hope the guy comes out of the house or, you know, that sort of thing. I remember a job that Charles did for me, I think it was up in Stuart or one of those places up there, where his training was able to get the goods of the person…he was outside, up the street, maybe 50 yards up from the house. He’s watching it. But he’s also listening. He’s looking at what’s going on. And he hears this noise coming from the back of the house.

So, he leaves his surveillance position and drives around the corner and starts going up this little hill. And he looks back down at the house and hears the person that we’re trying to surveille, in the swimming pool, a young lady who says she cannot bend, she cannot use her back, she’s in all kinds of trouble and distress because she was in this automobile accident. And here she is, diving into her pool. Charles is sitting there videotaping her, you know. She gets out of the pool, gets up on her lounge chair, and she starts stretching her legs, touching her forehead with her legs, and Charles has got her all on tape.

Now, I believe that any other surveillance operator would’ve stayed in his static position and waited til somebody came out the door to get in their car to go follow them wherever they were gonna go. It’s a difference in training.

So, make sure that your P.I. that you’re using to do surveillance specializes in it. He’s got some skills. He knows how to manipulate. He knows how to be a chameleon. He can change colors, change looks. He’s got a variety of cameras, not only handheld, but hidden, a buttonhole in your glasses, in your baseball cap. Whatever the situation may need. Because your player may get out of the car and go into a mall. Well, hey, this is the best time. Let’s get in there with a hidden camera and follow this person around while they’re carrying bagloads of stuff when they say they can’t carry anything. Or doing their shopping, standing on their feet when they say they can’t walk. These are the different kinds of skills that I’m talking about.

Although the bulk of our work comes from clients wanting documents served, we also conduct investigations and carry out the investigative services mentioned in this graphic, on a regular basis. People who request these services may include attorneys doing work for insurance companies and insurance companies themselves, for instance, when accidents happen.

Investigations can range from minor to in-depth, depending on the information being sought and the severity of the matter at hand. At the end of the day, they are always needed.

It is an honor to say we’ve come this far. But, more importantly, the only reason we are here is because of YOU. So, first things first, we want to simply say, “Thank you,” for your business and for trusting us to carry out your service of process and investigative needs.

During these 25 years, we have built countless relationships, many of which are still standing strong today. With these bonds has come trust from all parties involved, and this is the main reason why we have been able to maintain our reputation within the legal realm of South Florida.

With our recent change in ownership, we are looking forward to taking our business to the next level. This involves optimization and servicing more clients on a more widespread basis, implementing the advantages technology has the opportunity to provide. But in order to effectively expand, we have to first make internal expansions. In the past couple years alone, we have made adjustments in different areas, in an effort to better please you and to increase our exposure and to ensure we are carrying out our services to the best of our ability. As with anything, if you want to see something different, you have to do something different. So, we are taking heed to this ideology and are wishing for the best, moving forward.

That being said, we are always open to your questions and concerns and any suggestions you, our clients, may have. Taking the time out to voice your thoughts to us allows us to see the other side of the business, from your perspective. And engaging with that point of view helps us to identify any areas that may need improvement. So, please, feel free to reach out to us or leave reviews on any platform. We appreciate the feedback.

Thank you, again, for allowing us to see 25 years in business. Here’s to many more to come!

You, the client, are our number one priority. Therefore, we always want to complete service, and we always try our best to get this done as quickly and as efficiently as possible.

Transcript: 

If we don’t get the guy, then we have to face you.

You have to understand that it’s an embarrassment for us, as professionals, that we haven’t gotten the guy served yet. We like to get them served the first time out. Be done with it. Get rid of that person. Because, the quicker we turn in the paper, we’re on to something else.

Most process servers will serve twenty to forty papers a day, good process servers. That includes your records custodian subpoenas all the way up to your divorce summonses.

Surveillance is a key aspect of private investigation work.

Clients may request surveillance when they know their target subject will be difficult to capture through traditional methods of service of process alone. Or they may want to gain more insight on an individual or a location. At the end of the day, the client wants to build a case, so private investigators step in to help make this happen.

Here, you can learn more about the different instances that sometimes require private investigation. Surveillance can be used in all types of cases and usually requires extensive work by the private investigator, meaning hours of observation. However, the investigator can only work with what the client provides. This means the client must allot a certain number of hours to get the job done and must give as detailed of a description as possible of the subject, for instance, so the investigator knows what, or who, to look for. Other details include the model and make of the subject’s vehicle(s) and daily routines.

This page gives a nice and brief overview of how a PI moves. A reasonable number of hours are needed as surveillance requires the investigator to sit for hours on end and do nothing but watch for activity, which, sometimes, doesn’t even happen.

The client pays for the type of surveillance that will get done. In other words, you get what you pay for. If the client only chooses to pay for an hour of surveillance, chances are, he or she won’t reap much. But if at least four or five hours are on the table, for instance, the probability of obtaining something valuable would be much higher.

Just as with service of process, the client must put himself or herself in the private investigator’s shoes. The client should ask him- or herself questions such as:

• What time of day should this be done?
• What does John Doe’s typical schedule look like?
• What does John Doe look like?
• What are we trying to prove?

Most importantly, it should be remembered that the PI and the client are working together as a team. That’s what matters and is what helps to make the job successful. ♦

Transcript:

When you set up a surveillance, make sure you give your operator all of the information he’s gonna need, especially how many hours you’re gonna give him. Don’t shortchange yourself. Don’t think you’re gonna find somebody and follow them and give the guy eight hours to do it when it’s a very important, high-profile, high-dollar case. Don’t do that, because you’re not gonna get anything; you’re gonna waste your money.

So, it’s up to you, as paralegals, to convince your clients that, “Hey, you want the goods. Expect to spend some money.”

Most investigators do surveillance charge about $100 an hour, some a little more, some a little less. But it’s about an average of $100 an hour. Give them a dollar figure. You’ve got $3,000 to work with. I could videotape anybody anywhere in any position you want, okay, in 30 hours. Don’t say, “I need it done this morning,” and you’ve got four hours, because you barely get enough time to drive there in four hours in some of these things.

So, make sure that you have down the hours that the investigator can work and give them all the information possible, especially if you have pictures.

You don’t wanna do what I did once when I was doing a job. I was given an address, given a car, given a tag number, and I was told it was a Hispanic female. Period. I went there. I set up across the street. Hispanic female comes out of the house, gets to the same car, and she starts washing the car. Now, I got 45 minutes of a person washing a car, bending over, kneeling down, laying on a thing scrubbing things, every position you could possibly think of, and I’m thinking, “I got her solid.”

I come back. I present the tape to the attorney. He looks at it. He says, “That’s not her.” I said, “She’s Hispanic, female, this house, this address, this car.” He said, “Oh, no. The person we’re looking for is 280 pounds.”

Well, why didn’t you tell me this? This girl was a little 100-pound nothing. If we had that information, we wouldn’t have wasted the time, we wouldn’t have wasted the video. Okay? So, make sure you give all the information that you’ve got because the tiniest little detail can be the difference between a good surveillance and a bad surveillance.