The private investigation industry has evolved beyond the ancillary fact finding art in corporate threat assessments, infidelity cases, theft, copyright violations, insurance fraud and basic security services. It has evolved into a vocational art utilizing current techniques such as high technology, physical surveillance, dynamic interviews, computer data base queries and liaison with private and public sector intelligence entities to satisfy the client.

I enjoy the area of human intelligence and covert surveillance; I am a subject matter expert in both areas. I favor these areas of private investigations since they are exciting,resource intensive, require patience and are challenging. Both of these investigative facets are integral components in structuring and proving a hypothesis in a case. Human intelligence spans the arena of witness, victim, client and informant. The value of such intelligence is that it can corroborate suppositions, direct investigators in the right direction and augment the veracity of a case. Covert surveillance can accomplish a similar goal in that it allows investigators to monitor a target in his/her natural setting without the benefit of trying to stage unnatural behavior. The covert surveillance gathers authentic information to support the framework of an investigation as well as garner valuable evidence and additional leads.

The Private Investigation Industry, from my point of view!
By Pamela 

The private investigation industry is a growing industry that uses different methods (surveillance, interviews, computers, etc.) in which are used to satisfy the customers needs.
Private investigators serve a  huge purpose in peoples lives for example the house wife who thinks her husband is cheating.  She does not have the time to go and follow him around through out the day or check to see if he is really working late when he says he's at the office.  That is where a private investigator comes in but he doesn’t just follow the "husband" they take pictures and document what is going on at certain times.  The pay close attention to who he might be with or who is contacting him.  Basically private investigators pay more attention to detail then the average person would.
 
        A background check is very important now days because there is so much going on.  You cant just take everyones word anymore, nor can you just look at a person and tell if they are good or bad. Thats where background checks come in at. Most of the time you only really hear about background checks when you are trying to hire somewhere.  Most businesses use them on all of there employees, which is good. It gives that employer more information about the person they plan to hire.  Its very important, you can  get information on anything that person has every done before in there life.  One time a person should get a background check is if they plan on hiring a nanny or just someone to watch there kids. People can put on a smile and tell you anything and most people  are gull-able so they are going to except that smile but if you want your kids to be safe you should do a background check.

         My first practical application of the suspicious mind was with the fiancé of my mother.  I was in high school at the time, and quite frankly, felt very wary of him. The things he said were not congruent with what I saw with my eyes.  His car and his clothing did not match up with the amount of money he claimed he made, and he always seemed to be short of money, borrowing from my mother. He contradicted himself many times in conversations.  I did not like the way he looked at me or my sister. I had a bad feeling about him.  I suspected he was taking advantage of my mother.  I wanted to find out the truth behind his façade, but I had no idea how.

We lived in a closely knit neighborhood on the southwest side of Chicago.  It was one of those neighborhoods where everyone seemed to know each other.  There were a few Chicago policemen on our block, and I didn't hesitate to use that to my advantage.  I casually asked one of them if he wouldn't mind just doing some checking on this man.  All I had was his name, car make and model and his license plate.  My policeman neighbor said he would see what he could find out and let me know.  POLICE OFFICERS are not able or allowed to conduct Background Checks for Civil Matters...YOU must hire a Private Investigator to conduct the same Background Checks.

Lo and behold, several days later I got what I was looking for.  My mother's fiancé turned out to be an unemployed house painter, and had a police record which included shoplifting, molest, and assault.  Worst of all, his wife had a restraining order on him after several incidents of him beating her up.  Yes, I said wife.  Not ex-wife!  It was at this point that I realized the value of background checks.
My first real foray into investigations was after my mother died in the early 70's.  My sister and I had often wondered about our father, who we had not seen since we were toddlers.  We had pictures of him, his name and place of birth was on our birth certificates and we had a smattering of information about him.  Basically, we had very little to go on. My mother had always told us he had died, but I knew it was a lie.  Once again, my thirst for the truth overcame me and I set out to find it.

There was no internet at the time, and I had no experience in finding people.  But I learned as I went along.  My mission was to locate a man with the last name of Smith, who I had never met.  My first stop was Halls, Tennessee.  My birth certificate said he was born there.  Here, I was able to obtain the names of his mother and father.  With the knowledge of his mother's maiden name and her place of birth, I researched further and was able to find similar names in the state of Tennessee.   Several hours of phone calls and a barrage of letters later, I located a cousin of my father in Memphis.  A phone call later, and I had the information I needed.  He was alive and well, living in seclusion in a tiny apartment in Goodlettsville, Tennessee just outside of Nashville.
 I had succeeded in locating a missing person!

Today we have the internet.  What a wonderful informational tool that is.  We can find a universe of information on people and their backgrounds if we know how to use that tool.  But the question is; are background checks important! 

YES!

Recently, a friend of mine who is handicapped from a car accident and is also quite well off financially, informed me that he had met a woman online and was getting married.  I asked a few questions, and discovered that they had never met in person, but this woman claimed to be madly in love with him and he with her.  They decided to get married without ever having met each other.  He paid for her to ship all of her belongings from North Carolina to Portland, where he lives in his paid off house.  He also purchased a plane ticket for her to fly to Portland, where they met for the first time at the airport.  I smelled something fishy about this whole story.
 I met her right after she arrived in Portland, and got to know her.  I casually asked her a few questions about her past, such as places she lived, places she had worked etc. I asked her how old she was and when she told me, I pretended that I didn't believe she was that old, and got her to show me her drivers license.  I stared at the drivers license long enough to memorize the number, then excused myself and went to the bathroom to quickly jot it down before I forgot it.

 Armed with her name, last city of residence and her drivers license number I ran a rudimentary background check, using one of the hundreds of third rate websites that are available.  It cost me $50 to do it, but what I got was enough to satisfy me.  She was not exactly what she claimed to be.  She was a gold digger and she was only there because my friend was lonely and had money.  The information that I gave to my friend contained many things that were not divulged to her, and many a lie was revealed.

 A background check can keep the "mice out of the cheese house".  My mother would have been well served to have run a background check on her scoundrel of a fiancé (she didn't marry him by the way).  An employer is well served to run a criminal check on prospective employees, particularly those who have applied for trusted positions.  A parent would be wise to run a background check on their daughter's suitor before things get too involved.  I am a very strong advocate of the background check.

Background checks are an integral part of private investigations.  A background check can not only provide a piece of the puzzle, but can also tell the investigator where the next puzzle piece can be found.  A background check can eliminate false leads and save the investigator time.

Do I believe background checks are a useful tool for employers, parents, friends or investigators?  Yes, I do

Michael Joseph
Advanced Investigation
www.backgroundcheckdr.com  <http://www.backgroundcheckdr.com>
1-877-999-7715 Office
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