What Does a Private Investigator Do on a Daily Basis?

What happens during Fraud Investigations?

A Private investigator (PI), plays a critical role in helping individuals, law enforcement agencies, and corporate bodies investigate, research, and gather information. Some of the duties of a private investigator are helping to find missing persons, performing research for legal and financial organizations, and criminal investigations. As a licensed private investigator, you work for private citizens, attorneys, or businesses.

Private Investigators in Los Angeles work independently and in organizations with law enforcement agencies. They usually conduct investigations on missing people, background checks on people, and researching information on legal, financial, or criminal investigation. However, Private Investigators in Los Angeles are not legally authorized to perform or replace acts that are performed by a Police Officer, such as arresting people or conducting warranted searches.

On some occasions, they may carry and use a firearm provided they have the necessary permits. Private Investigators are, nevertheless, often required to present the results and findings of their investigations to their clients or in a court of law as a testimony or as evidence.

Primary Responsibilities of a private investigator

Here’s a list of some common tasks Private Investigators are required to carry out:

  1. Information research:
    • Going through legal or financial records;
    • Finding information for further investigation;
    • Verifying the accuracy and source of all information gathered; and collecting evidence to validate the research.

  2. Performing surveillance:
    • Following crime suspects of interest;
    • recording their activities and whereabouts; and
    • informing clients of recent findings;  

  3. Interviewing people to gather a series of information:
    • Tracking people associated with the investigation;
    • conducting interviews to gather information; and
    • reporting based on findings.

  4. Investigating on kidnappings, disappearances, homicides, suspicious activity, and theft.
  5. Working together with Law Enforcement offices:
    • Sharing investigation results and findings; interviewing detained suspects and helping in the investigation.

  6. Perform personal background research:
  7. Investigate the past activities and characteristics of a person under investigation.

  8. Performing undercover investigations:
  9. Evaluating performance or honesty of employees of a company by posing as a client.

    Apprehending criminal suspects or criminals and take them to the authorities.

  10. Presenting investigation results as evidence and giving testimony in a court of law:
  11. Transcribing interviews conducted and organizing evidence to be presented in court.

  12. Meeting with the client to show investigation findings.

Updating clients the progress of an investigation; and asking for more information for the investigation.

Daily Tasks of a private investigator

Now that you know the responsibilities of a private investigator, let’s look at the tasks a private investigator needs to perform on a daily basis.

Unpredictable Schedules

Unlike a 9-to-5 job, the hours and duties of a private investigator can vary from day-to-day. A typical day of a private investigator might be spent meeting with clients and conducting surveillance, but the next day could be completely different. There are unpredicted schedules which comes up unexpectedly and unplanned in his daily activities and have to respond to them

The All-Important Brief

At resumption, an investigator commonly deals with this first in their day-to-day duties, which is typically provided to the surveillance manager, who then passes the information on to the rest of the team. This document is crucial to the result of the investigation because it contains specifics of the case and also the client’s objectives. Only once the brief has been received can the private investigators begin doing the job.

Working as a Team

Some Investigators in LA operate alone, but in the real world, it’s not uncommon for teams of 2 or 3 to work on a case together. Depending on the circumstances of the case, the team may go by car, motorbike, and in some cases on foot, in order to survey and get key evidence related to the case.

Surveillance

Surveillance plays a crucial role in a private investigator’s daily activity. Conducting surveillance might sound exciting, but it usually involves so many difficult tasks, such as sitting in a car for hours. You can’t take a quick nap or read a book to remove the boredom. One second of lost concentration could cost the entire case.

Research

One of the major responsibilities of a private investigator on daily basis is researching. He/she may be researching legal records, family history, conducting a computer search to research a criminal offense or conduct a background check on a job candidate. After the research, he/she will analyze the facts to find pertinent information for solving a case.

Interviewing

Part of the fact-finding method involves interviewing people to collect the necessary information. These people could also be relatives of missing individuals, someone who has witnessed a crime or has other relevant information. Through these interviews combined together with the investigator’s own research, he/she will gather evidence to solve a case or present court evidence.

Conclusion

Private investigators are hired for many reasons. Therefore, it’s essential to examine the reason for hiring a private investigator before you meet one. You have to know the cost of hiring a private investigator when making your decision to hire one. Therefore, it is important to do proper research before hiring a private investigator.

It is important to check the reputation of the private investigator before hiring. Some investigators are not ready to achieve the specific results at the end. Such investigators will demand the payment and yet will not accomplish the task. Look at their history with clients. See if they are on any rip off reports.

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We have an extensive network of investigators in Los Angeles that produce results of the highest level and quality, without compromise. Our team uses technology combined with professionalism in all our services. You can trust our team to handle any case you bring to us with honesty and integrity.

If you need solid proof, contact us at (310) 613 3755 for a free, confidential consultation to set your mind at ease about the quality of service you’ll receive by the end of the investigation.

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