What does a PI do for a Living...Pt 2

Having re-read my little rant in part 1, I thought maybe I should actually give you an idea of what it is a Private Investigator does for a crust.

There are two aspects to Investigations - Factual and Surveillance. The Factual guys (I am one for instance) tend to specialise in interviewing individuals for Insurance claims that may have been requested for any number of reasons. We visit the site of motor accidents and photograph it from every angle, drawing up a sketch plan of the site to include with our report. We might then interview the witnesses to the crash, locals who may have some information of interest or the Police who attended. The Police are generally unhelpful, but are required to confirm their attendance, the Officer who may have dealt with the accident and a file number.

We will request the medical records, work records, financial records and the like from the claimant; have a look at yur insurance policy - it requires you to supply any and all information relating to your claim, or the claim will be denied.

You may not be aware but the Insurance industry pay out on 80% of claims made, with a significant proprtion of the remaining 20% being either fraudulent or declined for Policy deficiencies. Only the big claims will proceed further through the legal system to a court, the Insurance companies do not need or want to have their names and reputations dragged through the courts so they tend to deny a claim and leave it at that.

So we need to have a good understanding of the law, a confident manner in dealing with people and an ability to spot a possible angle for enquiry in a claimants statement.

These days you also need a reasonable typing ability as CTP statements are taken on the spot, printed and signed by the claimant. Touch typing ability is a must as you need to be able to type and look at the witness as you type.   You will also need to have a fairly extensive resource kit of Laptop, portable printer, mobile phone, audio recorders, digital cameras, covert cameras, mobile modems, inverters and chargers and batteries of all sorts. And that is a short list.

You do not need to have years of Police experience behind you to succeed in this aspect of Investigations, I know more succesful non Police Investigators that the other way around. And the divergent experience and knowledge these people bring to the industry is vital.

 The second aspect of Investigations is the more one more commonly associated with the term Private Investigator - Surveillance.

The idea of the solo male sitting in a car for hours on end still holds true but these days it is less likely to be the result of a wayward husband or straying wife, more likely to be the result of a worker's compensation investigation. We are often tasked with gaining evidence to either support or to counter the claims made by an injured party who is on long term compensation - and there are a lot of them out there.

A surveillance operative will endure long periods of hot, uncomfortable surveillance - very hot if you live up this way. They may have to sit for several hours on a job before the claimant moves and the investigaotr is then required to follow them and continue to gain video footage of the indivual to assist the Insurance company to make a decision on the claim.

Note: we are not there to catch people out, we are there to record and report the activities of a claimant to either support or discredit their claim. Obvioulsy if the claimant knows we are out there then they will put on a bit of a show for us and that is why a covert surveillance works best.

The equipment required to fulfill this role is far less than that required for the Factual operators and it is probably the easier option to take if you are entering the industry. It is pretty difficult to conduct both facets of Investigations, the requirements and demands of the job too often clash so only those in the regions will generally take on both roles. Having said that, if you intend entering the industry in any regional area then you had better include in your plan a multiple income plan. For instance, I am also a licensed Commercial Agent allowing me to conduct repossessions, serve legal documents and the like and I also facilitate the training you see listed on this website. I also complete both aspects of Investigations - Factual and Surveillance, so I know how difficult it is to do that well.

I invite your questions and comments on this blog, if you have any questions about the industry then drop me a line at dan@drmgroup.com.au or on (07) 41230795.

Remember, there is free training availabe at the moment under the PPP scheme to train as a PI and if you are up this way, then I will probably be your trainer. If you would like to know more about that then check some of the archived blog's on this site.

I look forward to hearing from you

Think Long and Prosper

Dan