Introduction to Conducting Private Investigations: Private Investigator Entry Level (02E) (2022 Edition)

Contents

Introduction

Part I: Orientation

1 - The Private Investigation Profession

2 - The Ethics of Being a Private Investigator

Part II: Investigative Skills

3 - The Scientific Method

4 - Research

5 - Interviewing

6 - Surveillance

Part III: Documentation

7 - Managing the Investigation

8 - The Products of Investigation

Part IV: Types of Investigations

9 - Background Investigations

10 - Missing Persons Investigations

11 - Criminal Investigations

12 - Undercover Investigations

13 - Fraud and Financial Investigations

14 - Insurance Investigations

15 - Domestic Investigations

16 - Accident Investigations

Part V: The Law of Investigations

17 - The Law of Private Investigations

18 - The Law of Public Investigations

19 - Important Legal Concepts

Conclusion

Introduction

I wrote the first edition of this textbook as an entry-level resource for Private Investigator Entry Level (02E), the course mandated for all private investigator registrants in the Commonwealth of Virginia. After the first edition was published I received feedback from private investigators all over the country telling me that my book was an unmatched resource for their practices, too, and not only for Virginia investigators. Therefore, when I was asked to publish a second edition I considered how I could make the book even more applicable to investigators throughout the United States, while still maintaining its use as a textbook for the 02E course.

It goes without saying that some laws and technology have inevitably changed since the first edition was published. For example, there was a major U.S. Supreme Court decision on global positioning system (GPS) trackers, and this was a game-changer for how private investigators throughout the country use GPS trackers. One of the reasons I took the opportunity to write the second edition of this textbook was that I could not live with the idea that something I wrote was no longer true. I combed through the first edition in painstaking detail to correct areas where law and technology have changed the playing field during the past two years. Likewise, many of the web links I included in the first edition are no longer active. I chose to remove many of these links, rather than update them, because I realized the same problem would inevitably happen again before I have the opportunity to publish a third edition.

I have also learned a lot since the first edition was published. My practice is constantly growing and evolving. For example, I published a book in 2012, titled Principles of Investigative Documentation,¹ and writing that book made me rethink some of the documentation practices I included in the first edition of Introduction to Conducting Private Investigations. Over time I developed better ways of performing certain investigative tasks, and I wanted the second edition to reflect what I have learned. Many of these changes are subtle and may not be noticeable by those who read the first edition. Others represent major changes in how I have come to see the value in certain types of information. The most widespread changes are in Part II (Investigative Skills) and Part III (Documentation), where I increased the emphasis on evidence available through social media.

What remains from the first edition is as relevant now as it was the day I first wrote it, and I left those portions unchanged. The genesis for the book is still implicit in its pages. My goal was to write a textbook that would be a valuable resource for entry-level investigators. Before I wrote the first edition, I had been teaching criminal justice courses as an adjunct instructor at a local college for over a year and became certified to teach the 02E course in Virginia. As an adjunct instructor, I taught courses on criminal procedure, criminal investigation, and white-collar crime. In teaching these courses, I drew on my Master’s degree in criminal justice and over a decade of experience working as a private investigator in the Washington, D.C. area. I also relied on the excellent lesson plans and textbooks provided by the university. When I began teaching the 02E course, I was surprised to learn there were no textbooks related exclusively to conducting private investigations. While there were a few specialty books on different aspects of the field, there were no entry-level textbooks that covered all the areas required by the Department of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS), the agency that regulates private investigators in Virginia.² The first edition of this book was an attempt to provide such a textbook for students and instructors of the sixty-two or so (at the time) private security schools certified to teach the 02E in Virginia.

In this book I have attempted to balance the theoretical with the practical. I learned as an instructor that theory often spurs classroom discussion concerning the salient legal and ethical issues of our profession. But theory is often the missing component in private security classrooms since 02E courses are often taught by practitioners with extensive experience, but little conceptual education in private investigations. I wrote this book to help practitioner-instructors incorporate concepts and theories with their own real-world experiences. Accordingly, instructors should maintain their own lesson plans and supplement them with readings from this book. By assigning readings and exercises that complement their own learning objectives, students will benefit more from the lessons.

I also wrote this book to be readable and entertaining. Many of the case studies and descriptions of different types of investigations are drawn from my firm’s cases. Like most private investigators, I have developed certain niches and areas of expertise during my career.³ Most of my billable time during the past five years has been spent conducting investigations and behavioral analysis interviews in employment litigation matters. My goal in writing these narratives was never to brag about my experiences or to claim that I know everything there is to know about each type of investigation. Rather, I have provided case studies and examples for the enjoyment and education of the student, and for instructors to supplement their own experiences as necessary.

As I discuss in the text, Virginia regulations make it illegal to disclose facts about a particular case to third parties without the client’s written permission.⁴ Because some of the cases discussed in this book occurred many years ago, it was impractical to contact each client to obtain written permission. Therefore, I remained in compliance with the law by largely fictionalizing the facts in each case, thereby making them unrecognizable to any parties involved. Some of the examples represent the facts of several cases merged together, and other examples are completely fictional. In other words, although the scenarios herein do represent actual cases worked by myself or my firm’s investigators, they are not verbatim examples. I did this not to embellish my experience or to make the cases more interesting to the reader—but solely to protect the confidentiality of the clients and other parties involved.

This book is organized around the main topics mandated by the Department of Criminal Justice Services, and then separated into individual chapters as required by necessity. Although I introduce and order the topics in a way that should be logical and clear to entry-level private investigations students, the topics are distinct enough that instructors can assign readings from the book in any order they see fit. This textbook is organized into five parts, which mirror the subjects required for registration in Virginia. Although the book was structured to make it easy for use in DCJS-compliant courses, the content is equally applicable to private investigators anywhere in the United States.

Part I (Orientation) begins by clearly defining the role of the private investigator. It differentiates the private investigator from other types of investigators in American society, and discusses the legal requirements that define and govern the profession. Part I also explores the ethical dilemmas that arise from the nature of the profession and discusses the ethical standards that resolve these predicaments. The private investigative field is fraught with moral pitfalls that require an investigator to exercise self-consciousness with regard to her professional role in society. It is an axiom that a private investigator’s ethics will be challenged in the course of practicing her profession, and successfully traversing these challenges requires an unyielding moral compass, as well as a solid grounding on issues of misrepresentation, bias, conflicts of interest, and confidentiality.

Part II (Investigative Skills) begins by detailing the methodical system of problem solving at the core of the profession, and then introduces the technical skills necessary to conduct investigations: research, interviewing, and surveillance. By having a disciplined and systematic approach to her investigations, and having an investigative toolbox stocked with all the knowledge and experience required to employ each of the divergent methods of gathering evidence, an investigator should be well-equipped to solve any problem.

Part III (Documentation) discusses the methods of managing and documenting investigations for clients. On a fundamental level, private investigation is the business of selling investigative reports to customers. Clients unsatisfied with the quality of an investigator’s reports will seek investigative services elsewhere. The ability to solve problems is not sufficient; evidence must be properly documented to be actionable in court and to justify the costs associated with conducting private investigations. An investigator must have thorough knowledge of how to collect and document real evidence, and how and when to take sworn statements and declarations from witnesses.

Part IV (Types of Investigations) details the different types of investigations that a private investigator may be hired to conduct. The book specifically addresses the eight different types of investigations named in the DCJS requirements: background, missing persons, criminal, undercover, fraud and financial, insurance, domestic, and accident investigations. However, we could have defined the types of investigations differently. For example, we could have instead discussed investigations concerning various types of litigation or internal investigations, and in many ways this may have been more applicable to the types of investigations that private investigators routinely perform. Although the universe of types of investigations is practically boundless, an investigator should be prepared to conduct any investigation, anywhere: ethically, legally, logically, and competently.

Part V (The Law of Investigations) addresses the legal restrictions pertaining to how a private investigator may conduct investigations, including laws relating to privacy. Additionally, Part V discusses a number of constitutional rules—those governing search and seizure, and the privilege against self-incrimination, for example—that formally apply only to law enforcement (i.e., public) investigators, but that any private investigator must also understand as background in her own investigations. Additionally, Part V provides background on the structure and inner-workings of both the state and federal court systems, the rules regarding service of process, and the myriad types of civil parties and corporate structures. As a gatherer of evidence, an investigator must understand the rules regarding the admissibility of evidence into court proceedings.

While writing the book, I kept the learning objectives for the 02E course at the forefront. DCJS requires instructors to incorporate learning objectives in each course, and it is these learning objectives that become the basis of the exam that all students must pass with a score of at least seventy percent in order to become registered private investigators.⁵ While instructors may want to employ their own learning objectives in their classrooms, this book is intended to teach students the following:

The general knowledge required to conduct background investigations

The ethical standards required of private investigators

The basic private investigation licensing requirements for different jurisdictions in the United States

The definition of a private investigator as specified by the Virginia Code, and what distinguishes being a private investigator as a professional identity

The importance of avoiding misrepresentation and bias during investigations; identifying and avoiding conflicts of interest; upholding confidentiality; and maintaining sound business practices

The general methods of conducting missing persons investigations

The relevant principles and theories of the U.S. Constitution and the rule of law, including the landmark concept of what entails a reasonable expectation of privacy, and other legal safeguards proscribed by the Fourth and Fifth Amendments

The general knowledge required to conduct criminal investigations

The respective jurisdictions of state and federal court systems; the rules and legal theories regarding service of process; the various types of civil parties and corporate structures; and the procedures for criminal and civil actions, from filing to appeal

The rules of evidence

The major state and federal laws related to privacy and employment protection

The general information required to conduct undercover investigations

How to conduct investigations using the scientific method

How to conduct investigative research, including court records retrieval and online database searches

The general information required to conduct fraud and financial investigations

How to conduct interviews and interpret behavioral symptoms of deception

The general information required to conduct insurance investigations

How to conduct covert and overt surveillance

The general information required to conduct domestic investigations

The methods, and importance, of documentation during investigations, including note taking, report writing, and testimony

The methods of gathering real evidence

How to take sworn statements and declarations from witnesses

The general information required to conduct accident investigations

This textbook admittedly does not explain everything there is to know about conducting private investigations, but it provides a framework for learning the field through the 02E or similar private investigations course. As with any trade or profession, students will grow into investigators with practice from real investigations. Students learn best by doing—not listening or reading. When I teach class, I always incorporate as many practical exercises as possible to help simulate this real-world experience. For example, when I teach constitutional law to undergraduate students, I conduct an exercise where they are required to complete an affidavit in support of a search warrant to establish probable cause, and then conduct a search of my car in the parking lot. Inside my car, students find various contraband, which they must catalog in an inventory. Such an exercise encapsulates the implications of the Fourth Amendment more effectively than reading a textbook or listening to a lecture. The exercises and questions dispersed throughout this textbook are ones that I have found most helpful in driving home the learning objectives in my courses.

The end result, I hope, is an interesting and informative textbook drawn heavily from my experience as an investigator and instructor, with a good balance between theory and practice. While the book is intended first and foremost as an instructional tool, it also represents a personal apex, an implicit memoir outlining much of my investigative experience to date. It was my (perhaps grandiose) hope that by chronicling my experiences in this textbook, I could raise the bar on the instructional quality of private investigation courses across the country, and thereby set higher standards for private investigators everywhere.

Philip A. Becnel IV

Part I

Orientation

1

The Private Investigation Profession

Private Investigator: Any individual who engages in the business of, or accepts employment to make, investigations to obtain information on crimes or civil wrongs; the location, disposition, or recovery of stolen property; the cause of accidents, fires, damages, or injuries to persons or to property; or evidence to be used before any court, board, officer, or investigative committee.⁶

Types of Investigators

In order to understand who a private investigator is, it is important to distinguish between the different types of investigators in the legal system. Investigators fall into three broad categories: law enforcement, public, and private. Law enforcement investigators are sworn agents and employees of government agencies whose sole purpose is to enforce criminal statutes of the jurisdictions where they operate. Public investigators are employees of government agencies who provide criminal defense services or investigate specific regulatory or other non-criminal matters. In contrast, private investigators are licensed within a specific state or jurisdiction to work on behalf of private citizens, companies, or their legal counsel to investigate both criminal and civil matters. In this discussion we are going to focus solely on law enforcement and private investigators.

The primary role of law enforcement investigators is to enforce criminal laws on behalf of the citizenry within their respective jurisdictions. Although they may occasionally, with the permission of their agencies, work for private interests in a security function, they are first and foremost agents of state and county governments. Their ultimate goal is to make arrests based upon probable cause. Contrary to popular belief, the police do not actually represent the interests of victims, and they do not investigate matters of civil law, except in very rare instances, such as for civil seizures of the proceeds of crimes that they investigate. Within the scope of their purview, the police are required to enforce criminal laws in an equitable manner, conducting arrests and otherwise initiating investigations fairly and without prejudice, and based on the best interests of all citizens within their jurisdictions. They are also afforded powers that no other citizens have—including private investigators—to help them perform their obligations to enforce the laws, including applying for search warrants, seizing property, and making arrests.

In contrast to law enforcement, private investigators may not apply for search warrants, seize property, or make arrests, and the investigations they conduct are primarily, but not exclusively, regarding matters of civil law. The role of the private investigator in investigating crimes typically comes about while working on behalf of victims or for the defense of those accused of crimes. While private investigators do not have the same powers or often the monetary resources provided to law enforcement, they do have significant advantages. For example, they are not required to issue Miranda warnings prior to conducting interviews, and the goals of a private investigation may require a much lower level of evidentiary sufficiency than criminal convictions, the principle function of law enforcement.

With regard to the jurisdictions where a private investigator is authorized to work, private investigators are licensed by state, and most of the U.S. states and the District of Columbia require licensure. The licensing requirements for the various jurisdictions vary widely, and a small handful of states do not require an investigative license. For those states that do require licenses, however, the license only affords the investigator the authority to work within the confines of the licensing jurisdiction, except where some states with similar licensing requirements have engaged in multi-state reciprocity agreements, which empower investigators to legally enter other jurisdictions for brief periods of time and under limited circumstances. The agreements differ slightly by state but are fairly consistent overall. For example, in Virginia, which has limited reciprocity agreements with Florida, Louisiana, Georgia, North Carolina, Oklahoma, and Tennessee, the extra-jurisdictional investigations conducted in the other state are limited to cases that originate in the licensing state. Under the Virginia reciprocity agreements, all of the state agencies limit investigations conducted in their states to thirty days, except Tennessee, which limits investigations to fifteen days. When conducting an investigation in a reciprocating state, Virginia private investigators automatically consent to accept service of process for any legal matter arising out of the investigation through the Department of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS). This rule is intended to allow state courts, where citizens were harmed in some manner by investigators traveling to those states under reciprocity agreements, to continue exercising jurisdiction over those investigators for their harmful actions.

Some areas within states that have no state-level licensing requirements have local or county-level licensing requirements. Therefore, when operating in states without a state-licensing requirement, always check first with the county where you will be working.

The Law of the Private Investigation Profession

Except in the small handful of states where the practice of private investigation is not regulated, private investigators are defined by state statutes. The laws concerning the requirements to obtain a private investigator license vary widely from state to state, but they generally range from:

States that do not have licensing or that have voluntary licensing

States that only require background checks

States that require background checks and some prior investigative experience

States that require background checks, investigative experience, and an exam and/or training

The laws vary widely from one state to the next. Even among the states that require licensing, it is common for the laws to require private investigation companies to have liability insurance and/or a bond, as well as a designated in-state registered agent. The state with the most stringent licensing laws is Virginia because its experience requirement is at the high end of all states (comparable with Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Nevada, and New Jersey), and its training requirement is the highest at sixty hours.⁷ We will next examine Virginia licensing requirements in greater detail.

Case Study: Virginia

The profession of private investigation in Virginia is governed by two sources of law: (1) the Code of Virginia; and (2) the Regulations Related to Private Security Services promulgated under that statutory authority. The Code of Virginia provides the statutory laws that govern the regulation of private investigators and other private security categories. Among other provisions, the Code creates an administrative agency, the Department of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS), and authorizes it to issue regulations implementing the statute and the power to enforce those regulations. Because the DCJS’s regulations both mirror the statute and then extrapolate upon the code, it is easiest from an educational standpoint to study the regulations.

Because the DCJS, the sole government entity that regulates private security services in Virginia, is relatively small—those tasked with investigating private security totaling only about four employees, who each must handle a caseload of forty to sixty complaints at any given time—its regulatory philosophy focuses primarily on investigative schools under their watch and on compliance agents, both tasked with furthering the compliance of private security businesses with applicable laws.⁸ The idea is that directly policing thousands of security officers, bail bondsmen, and investigators is too difficult for a small group of people, but tasking a few hundred instructors and compliance agents with enforcing the regulations within their own purviews (i.e., within their classrooms and companies, respectfully) is more manageable. In this way, private security practitioners (private investigators included) are introduced to