He doesn’t wear a trench coat and trilby hat, and gorgeous blonde women don’t come to his office seeking help, but Scott Castleman is a private detective nonetheless.
The year 2011 marks his 10th year in business in downtown Oregon City, where his company, Corporate Crime Control, offers a variety of services, including surveillance, criminal cases, protective services and crime suppression.
This time of the year he adds an additional specialty to the mix: protest protection.
“The Portland protesters seem to be more active during the nicer Oregon months,” Castleman said, noting that he is a licensed private detective, with both national and international certifications.
International experience
Castleman said he is largely “self-taught to a degree,” but noted that he’s taken extensive courses in self-defense, non-violence studies, advanced executive protection and more.
Because he has had training from private security contractors, including the one formerly known as Blackwater Worldwide, Castleman explained that he has become part of a community of people with the same experience.
His contacts have provided him with some memorable cases, including when he was called up to provide security in New Orleans and Pakistan.
“We were the first people on the scene after Hurricane Katrina; we were there before the National Guard, before the humanitarian organizations. We saw the devastation; it looked like something out of ‘Mad Max,’” Castleman said.
He and the others called in were originally set to provide protection, safely evacuating people out of hotels and securing the French Quarter, “but then we switched to a more human role of getting water and supplies from Baton Rouge” to the people who needed them, he said.
As for the experience in Pakistan, Castleman admitted that he was scared for his life. International laws dictated that the team be unarmed and they could not even wear protective body armor, he noted, adding that his team was called in because of violence between tribes.
“We started out doing protective services for a private client, and then we did relief work because of flooding. If you bring in relief for one tribe, you get threats from the other tribe. It was a Taliban area, and we didn’t know who was on our side,” he added.
Local services
So, sure, Castleman has had some exotic cases, but his bread and butter comes from working with locals.
He always wanted to be a private investigator, he said. Even growing up in West Linn he dreamed of doing this job, which he likens to “putting the pieces of a puzzle together.”
Over the years he has learned that “you don’t always solve the puzzle and you can’t take cases personally – sometimes you get evidence that shows your client is not guilty, but they get a guilty verdict – it can be difficult.”
Castleman started out in 1992 working in loss prevention, assisting retailers in combating crime when he was only 18 years old.
In 2001, he began his own business, gradually making a shift to dealing with a corporate client base.
“We can take on any private investigation work, including domestic surveillance and criminal defense work, from DUIs to capital murder,” he said.
He and his team can locate and interview witnesses, perform a crime scene analysis and generate reports from their findings. He doesn’t advertise and takes pride in his work and the fact that attorneys seek him out.
He works closely with law professionals and the police, he said, noting that detectives on television or in the movies often are shown going out on their own and cutting corners to solve cases.
