Private investigators engage in a wide variety of responsibilities. And as we discussed in last week’s article they work with a variety of clients. All of which come from different industries and walks of life. Today we will discuss what jobs a private investigator may engage in, and how they would execute them.
Of course there are certain types of work a private investigator does that the public is aware of. Most of these from media, for example surveillance. But in fact this is a misconception as to what private investigators spend most of their time doing. Besides that, different private investgation agencies and individuals tend to have different specialties.
What Are Private Investigators’ Responsibilities?
Private investigators often engage in work not associated with the public’s general perception of them. Often times what would seem like work outside of their industry. However, they are often related.
One of the predominant responsibilities of a private investigator involve process serving. This can range from the personal delivery of a summons to court, to serving a subpoena. Delivering other legal documents relevant to a court case and other contexts often apply too. These are delivered to different parties in a legal case.
Besides legal work, private investigators also trace absconding debtors. This can form a rather significant part of a PIs workload. As mentioned earlier in the article, different PIs and agencies focus on and specialize in different fields.
For example, some agencies may only specialize in tracing. Whilst others only perform technical surveillance and countermeasures. This entails locating and dealing with unwanted electronic surveillance. Essentially a form of cyber-security. Detecting bugs for example, and neutralizing, would be an example of such a duty. This specialty is most often conducted by those experienced in intelligence and counterintelligence. People that have had experience in executive protection and law enforcement can sometimes be found in this line of work too.
Corporate Investigation and Professional Witnesses
Other private investigators work in corporate investigation. Most of their responsibilties entail antifraud work, loss prevention, internal investigations (e.g.: employee misconduct) and can even range to the protection of intellectual property and trade secrets. Antipiracy measures and copyright infringement investigations can also fall under this categotry of work.
Due dilligence investigations for potential investors are also fairly common for PIs to undetrake. This we covered in last weeks article too. Malware and cybercriminal activity, as well as, computer forensics can also become part of a private investigators job in these fields.
Some PIs even work as professional witnesses. They observe with the particular agenda of observing a situation, intending to report the events in court. This can be a form of evidence gathering and acquisition, and can be particularly relevant to cases involving antisocial behavior.
If you find yourself in need of this particular set of skills, please feel free to call us. Or simply click on this link to get in contact with one of our team members.
