What do private investigators actually do?

Private investigators’ job is to help organisations, members of the public, and solicitors, to solve sensitive or difficult problems by discretely gathering evidence and information. Information is gathered using professional methods, including tracking, surveillance, making enquiries and monitoring A Private Investigator will uncover the facts. This information is then presented, and advice is offered where appropriate.

A few common duties of a private investigator include:

• Surveillance, monitoring and vehicle tracking
• Personal background and history checks
• Relationship issues
  
• Employee Absenteeism
• Tracing missing people
  
• Investigating fraud and theft
  

Using a private investigator is perfectly legal, providing that you choose a professional and ethical investigator or agency, that follow the rule of the law, based on the country they operate in.

A reputable private investigator will only use legal methods to carry out their investigations. Here are a few examples of what a private investigator can and can’t do.

Private investigators are allowed to:

• Use GPS tracking
• Follow someone, in a public place
• Use public & Open-source records to look for people
• Perform background and history checks
• Social Media and Internet Enquiries

Private investigators are not allowed to:

• Bug phones
• Hack computers or emails
• Trespass
• Access sensitive private information
• Tamper with mail

The services of a private investigator can be used to help solicitors build up the facts and evidence required to build strong cases in court.

Private investigators have access to information databases and methods that allow them to acquire hard-to-obtain information about individuals or businesses for legal cases.

The types of work that we regularly carry out for solicitors include:

• Surveillance for insurance investigations
• Proof of cohabitation
• Evidence gathering for appeals and criminal defence
• RTA investigations.
• Background and history checks
• Tracing enquiries
• Serving legal documentation

What do private investigators have access to?

Private investigators have access to public and business records as well as private databases, all of which can all help them to track down a person’s whereabouts.

Private investigators employ the use of a variety of professional tools, equipment and know-how to obtain the information they require. The way in which information is gathered will depend completely on the nature of the case that is being investigated. ‍

A few common information-gathering techniques and equipment include:

• Surveillance
• Social Media and in-depth Internet research
• Public records
• GPS tracking
• Use local intelligence and resources