What is your job?
Private investigator (PI)
What is your typical day like?
Answering phone inquires, Internet research, field research, surveillance, interviews, background investigations, location research, review police reports for insurance companies, assist attorneys in obtaining information and process serving.
What would surprise most people about your job if they only knew?
A PI should always affirm the validity of a client’s request. If someone hires a private investigator to locate someone, the P.I. should determine the client’s motive for finding the individual.
For example, if a man calls wanting to locate a particular female, I must confirm why he wants to find her. He may want to do her harm and I will not be an instrument for him to find her if that’s his motive.
What do you love about your work?
Producing results, such as finding someone’s lost loved-one. And the challenge of difficult interviews.
What do you find most challenging?
Obtaining financial background information and following someone by vehicle in a rural setting.
What special education or preparation is required to do this?
One must be licensed by the State of California which usually requires an extensive law enforcement background.
What is your background?
After leaving Vietnam, I followed my parents to Nevada County from the Los Angeles area in 1970. I was previously licensed by the State of California to operate a private security firm for 12 years prior to entry into the Butte Police Academy.
I was a Nevada City Police Officer from 1984 to 1998, and then served 12 years as a welfare fraud investigator for the County of Nevada.
What’s new?
GPS and other technical tools to assist in job performance.
There are also computer programs where you can interview a person, download and transmitted to the client within minutes.
http://liarcatchers.com/public_record_searches.html
