Next, Jennifer Brown, J.D. and Kevin M. Cosgrove, PI, CFE join Paul to talk about conducting witness interviews. Get tips on preparing for an interview, building a rapport with witnesses to get the facts, and learn how to deal with objections. Learn to handle demanding attorneys who push to get information in a method that’s unethical or illegal. Hear the do’s and don’ts of closing an interview and leave the door open. See Interviewing the EMT or Paramedic, Jennifer Brown, J.D., The Legal Investigator, and Important Witness Interview Strategies and Considerations for Investigators, Kevin M. Cosgrove, PI, CFE, Pursuit Magazine.

Regular contributor Alan Goodman joins Paul to talk about how the evolution of training is legitimizing the profession. Learn about the various universities, community colleges and other venues offering training and training information.

Next Paul challenges listeners to answer Alan’s question, “Would you hire someone who graduated from one of the programs at City College or Boston U, or are you more comfortable training yourself?” and Alan talks about upcoming investigator events.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THIS PODCAST

Guests on the March 2012 podcast are:

• Jennifer Brown, J.D., Heartland Investigative Group: 999 18th Street, Suite 2055, Denver, CO 80202, T: 303-825-2373, jbrown@heartlandinfo.com.
• Kevin M. Cosgrove, PI, CFE, New York State Licensed Private Investigator and Certified Fraud Examiner: T: 914-589-4460, kmcinvestigations@gmail.com, LinkedIn profile.
• Paul Jaeb, Heartland Investigative Group: 520 Nicollet Mall, Suite 520, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55402. 612-371-9255, pjaeb@heartlandinfo.com, www.heartlandinfo.com.
• Alan Goodman, Lawyers Investigating Service, Inc: P.O. Box 8479, Portland, Maine 04104, Maine: 207-775-5685, 800-244-5685, Nationwide: 888-244-5685, F: 207-893-1475, aegelis@aol.com, www.lawyersinvestigatingservice.com.

See The American Private Investigator resources for links to the organization websites mentioned in this podcast.

Pensacola, FL, April 4, 2012

Click here to view the approval document

“We worked closely with the Missouri Board of Private Investigator and Private Fire Investigator Examiners during the curriculum review process.” said http://PIeducation.com Course Director, L. Scott Harrell. “The Board wanted to ensure our training met their professional standards and that we would serve the licensees of Missouri with quality training opportunities. We’re proud to have met and exceeded their expectations.” Harrell concluded.

The following continuing education courses are currently approved in Missouri:

Serious Surveillance: Obtaining Video Evidence that will Stand up in Court  – Approved for 14 CE Hours in Missouri

Investigations in the Land of the Lost: The Art of Skip Tracing and Missing Persons Investigations – Approved for 14 CE Hours in Missouri

Industry Ethics and Laws for Private Investigators – Approved for 2 CE Hours in Missouri

We suggest to all of our Missouri continuing education clients to take one of the above approved 14 hour investigative studies courses and if you order any of these courses priced at $119.95 or above you will receive the 2-hour Ethics course absolutely FREE.

Missouri Continuing Education Requirements:

Chapter 324 – Occupations and Professions General Provisions
Section 324.1122 A licensee shall successfully complete sixteen hours of continuing education units biennially. An individual not licensed as a private investigator or private fire investigator who is hired as an employee by a private investigator agency or private fire investigator agency shall successfully complete eight hours of continuing education units biennially. Such continuing education shall be relevant to the private investigator or private fire investigator business and shall be approved by the board as such.

About PIeducation.com

PIeducation.com has provided CEUs to Investigation Agencies and their employees via Internet and distance education since July 1, 2002. As of March 2012, the company has conferred over 104,000 CE hours to private investigator licensees in the states of Oklahoma, Texas, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Kentucky, Kansas, Oregon, Louisiana, New Mexico, Arizona and Iowa.

The course is completely online and is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The format makes training both affordable and practical; anyone can complete the entire course from wherever and whenever he or she wants! Students, and their employers, no longer need to bear the inconvenience or burdensome expense of travel and time away from work. There is no time limit in which a student must complete a course; they may take as much time as needed and work at their own pace. Our courses are competitively priced and group discounts are available upon request.

Our primary goal when creating the 70-hour Georgia private detective pre-licensing course was to provide a superior training experience over and above anything else available on the market and, through regular updates, to keep it that way. Upon completion of this course, the student will not only have obtained the fundamental skills and tools necessary to considerably shorten the “learning curve” required to be a working private investigator in Georgia, but they will also have been exposed to the inner-workings of a number of different investigative specialties as well.

Going way “beyond the basics” means that our graduates are ready for success!

The course outline can be found here: http://pieducation.com/georgia

P.S. Did you know that you can make a generous additional income simply by referring training clients to this course (and others)? Click here to learn more about our affiliate marketing program: http://compasspointpi.com/affiliates

Please feel free to me, should you have any questions or if we may be of further assistance.

Warmest Regards,

Stephanie Mitchell
Manager, Continuing Education
http://www.PIeducation.com

Ofc: (877) 363-4887
Fax: (877) 761-8264
stephanie@compasspointpi.com

L. Scott Harrell
Course Director, PIeducation.com
Georgia Private Detective Classroom Training Instructor #CLTR000950

The ability to conduct surveillance/stake outs is by far one of the most important and lucrative skills a private investigator and process server can possess. Surveillance/Stake outs can also be one of the most difficult, tedious, challenging, yet rewarding tasks performed. It is a skill-set that requires concentrated practice built upon a solid foundation of time-tested fundamentals. This course is written to give you the information needed to successfully obtain and report video-based evidence that can withstand the scrutiny of litigation and give your clients the edge they need.

This course, written by L. Scott Harrell, teaches course participants the most important aspects of surveillance: how to prepare for a surveillance assignment before leaving the office, detailed diagrams describing the surveillance set-ups and investigator positioning used by veteran investigators, using today’s technology in throughout every aspect of surveillance operations, preparing professional surveillance reports and understanding the many legal aspects affecting video evidence obtained through covert surveillance.

This course is approved for 10 hours of continuing education for process servers in Arizona. An exam will be administered upon the conclusion of the program. If the candidate passes with a score of 75% or better, a certificate of completion will be issued in accordance with state licensing authority standards.

Arizona Private Process Server Continuing Education Policies

Pursuant to the Arizona Code of Judicial Administration §7-204: Private Process Server,(hereafter referred to as “Code Section”) all certified private process servers must complete continuing education every twelve months.

For more info see: http://azcourts.gov/cld/PrivateProcessServer.aspx

About PIeducation.com

PIeducation.com has provided continuing education to private investigators, process servers and bail enforcement agents via the Internet and distance learning opportunities since July 1, 2002 and is the undisputed market leader in this industry segment. As of January 2012, the company has conferred over 61,000 CE hours to over 5,800 licensees in among the following states Arizona (CE for Private Process Servers), Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Oregon, North Carolina,  South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas.

The on-line format makes continuing education (CE) affordable, flexible and practical. Students no longer need to bear the high expense of travel and time away from work. Completing courses is easy and done at the student’s own pace. All courses can be downloaded for off-line reading rather than staying connected to the Internet the entire time. Students can log out and back into their courses whenever they want and pick up where they last left off at any time. If students choose to download the course material then they can finish studying at their leisure before logging back in to take an online, open book, final exam that is submitted via a simple browser-based form.

PIeducation.com is a division of CompassPoint Investigations, private investigators in Pensacola, FL.

Georgia private detectives require a total of 16 hours of continuing education due before the end of each license renewal period. By Board rule, the Georgia Board of Private Detectives and Security Agencies’ CE has set the requirement that all GA PIs complete 12 hours industry related training + 2 hours on ethics + 2 hours on homeland security.

As an GSBPDSA licensed classroom training instructor (CLTR000950), PIeducation.com offers every course a private investigator in Georgia needs to complete his or her CEUs in an affordable and convenient format. Our online CE courses for private detectives satisfies your continuing education requirements for Georgia.

You can click here to learn more about GA private detective continuing education requirements and see a copy of our Geaorgia Intructor – Classroom Training license here.

PIeducation.com courses are online and available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We provide instant access to quality courses at a very affordable price!

Complete your continuing education at a time and place most convenient for you.

Watch the video below to see how easy it is to choose and order your courses with PIeducation.com:

Watch this next video to see step by step instructions for completing your course quickly and easily:

Waited until the last minute? No problem! We are here for you and can return continuing education completion documents the same business day if you need them in a hurry.

Get started right now… time is slipping away faster than you might realize.

Click this link: http://PIeducation.com

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]]> http://pursuitmag.com/georgia-private-investigators-your-license-renewal-deadline-is-only-a-few-days-away/feed/ 0 http://pursuitmag.com/75-off/ http://pursuitmag.com/75-off/#comments Thu, 04 Aug 2011 16:00:35 +0000 SiteOwner http://pursuitmag.com/?p=14131 We’ve just reached 9,000 Pursuit Magazine email list subscribers and a few thousand additional followers and fans via Facebook and Twitter. I thought it was time to say THANK YOU to everyone for joining us online!

Through PIeducation.com, the market leader in state-approved private investigator continuing education (CE), we’ve arranged a very special offer being shared with our fans, subscribers and followers:

THREE DAYS ONLY – AUGUST 5 -7, 2011

You can order our online skip tracing course, “Investigations in the Land of the Lost: The Art of Skip Tracing and Missing Persons Investigations” (by far our most popular course) usually valued at $89.95…

FOR ONLY $22.49

Here are the details:

1. You must use the following link, which will only be available for 3 days, 8/5/2011 – 8/7/2011:

http://pieducation.com/PM-Subscriber-Thanks.htm

2. Our courses are PERFECT for anyone learning new skills or improving professional abilities but if you take the course for continuing education credit, you can only choose the “digital certificate delivery” option, meaning that we will not mail a hard-copy certificates for clients who take advantage of this special offer.

You can learn more about the course by clicking the following link, but you MUST use the link provided in this post or email to order.

http://pieducation.com/catalog/about-skip-tracing.shtml

Thank you for helping us make Pursuit Magazine the most widely read publication, online or in print, for private investigators in the world!

Warmest Regards,

L. Scott Harrell
CompassPoint Investigations
Pensacola, FL * Mobile, AL

http://compasspointpi.com

http://PursuitMag.com
The Journal of Professional Excellence for Investigators
Subscribe and read past articles and issues, all for FREE!

http://PIEducation.com
Online Continuing Education for Private Investigators and Process Servers
Accepted in TN, AZ, IA, OK, KS, OR, SC, LA, NM, NC and KY.

FL PI Lic# A 2500251

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Brendan Davis joins CompassPoint Investigations as Director of Communications

GULF BREEZE, FL. – August 2, 2011 – CompassPoint Investigations has named Brendan Davis as their new Director of Communications.

Mr. Davis, who previously held the position of Associate Editor at The Vanguard, will be in charge of expanding and maintaining CompassPoint Investigations’ online presence and social marketing ventures, as well as developing content for their numerous online properties such as Pursuit Magazine and PIeducation.com

L. Scott Harrell, the owner of CompassPoint Investigations and Pensacola private investigator, announced the news. “We are excited to welcome Brendan Davis into the CompassPoint family. Brendan’s passion for developing quality content in many different media formats is endless and he has a history of staying on the bleeding edge where information meets new channels of distribution,” Harrell said. “I am excited about our opportunity to leverage his background in journalism in an impactful way across the diverse facets of our entire operation.”

“I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to join such a dynamic, creative and vibrant company,” Davis said. “There are so many exciting things happening at CompassPoint, and they are refreshingly enthusiastic about using new media and technologies. It’s a perfect fit, and I’m looking forward to working with CompassPoint and expanding its lead as the most innovative preeminent private investigation firm in the industry.”

Mr. Davis earned his BA in Communications from the University of South Alabama in 2009, and currently resides in Foley, Alabama.

CompassPoint Investigations provides private investigation services, service of process, private investigator training and continuing education, and business consulting programs throughout the Gulf Coast and Southeast United States, including Florida, Mississippi, and Alabama.

###

Contact:
CompassPoint Investigations
4657 Gulf Breeze Pkwy, Suite D
Gulf Breeze, FL 32563
Ofc (850) 637-8096
Fax (877) 761-8264

http://compasspointpi.com

FLPI # A 2500251

The investigative report is the most important product a PI produces and it must be able to clearly explain to the reader of the report, in the investigator’s absence, what information the investigator was able to produce.  The investigation report is also an integral part of marketing for private investigators.  In fact, the investigative report is so important that 200+ page books have been written on the subject (when you include all of the basic rules for grammar, spelling and punctuation) which is not really appropriate for this particular course.  I would urge you to learn more by picking up a book or two specifically about writing reports.

I am not going to belabor the topic any longer, but suffice it to say this:  you will be judged by your clients by your ability to communicate well in writing.  That means that at an absolute minimum you must use spell-check, not confuse the words your and you’re; to and too; they’re, their, and there; and have another set of trusted eyes proofread your reports for grammar and punctuation.  I’m not kidding.  I’ve seen great investigators lose client after client because they did not learn to write at a high school level.  If you were not the best student in English class (and who among us was?), do yourself a favor and find someone to help edit your reports and learn from your mistakes.  Practice makes perfect.  Enough said about that.

The following are key considerations in writing a good report:

Conciseness:  The investigator should remember that the best report tells the complete story in as few words as possible but using enough words to clearly convey a message.

Accuracy: The written report should clearly record or reference all pertinent interviews and observations. Information obtained during an investigation should be verified by as many sources as are necessary and reasonable to establish the validity of the information. Again, investigative reports should not contain personal opinions or views.

Style: The report should be written objectively in the first person or third person, which means that it should be written, “I observed a white female…” or “The investigator observed a white female…”  Avoid the use of investigative jargon; instead use everyday language that your client would use in his or her conversation with you.

Format: All investigative reports should be typed with justified margins and the pages numbered in a manner such as “Page 1 of 5.”  Regardless of the nature or subject of the report, each should at a minimum have the following parts:

• Introduction or Premise- What was the nature and scope of the assignment?
• Summary of the Investigation- A good summary is one that the client could read and understand exactly what substantiated the report without reading the entire report.
• Identification of the Subject- Fully describe the subject of the investigation; this is the person, place or thing that the report is about.  If the subject is a person then full personal identifiers, if known, should be given that positively identify him or her.  If it is a building or object then you should accurately describe its location, color, size, features, etc.
• Investigative Methods- This is a step by step detailed account of your investigation and should include where you went, when you went and how long it took you, who you talked to, what you did, how you did it and when you stopped your investigative activity.
• Conclusion or Results- What did you learn during the course of the investigation and what is the end product.
• Professional Close- this is where you thank the client, identify the investigator or investigators who contributed to the investigation and specify who ultimately wrote the report.

You might also find it necessary to include:

• Exhibits and Attachments- This would be where you include photographs, records, important video still-frames and other items, documents or accounts of evidence you collected during the investigation.  All attachments should be labeled or numbered and referred to in the body of the investigative report. If the resulting digital document is very large, you can reduce the file size of your investigative report by compressing the images and make it easier to email or save.
• Witness or Contact List- It always helpful to maintain a list of people and their contact information with whom you spoke or had contact with during your investigation.

Lastly, consider the security of your finished investigative report! You don’t want to send an unprotected Microsoft Word (or other word processor) document to anyone… check out this important article on the “Security and Portability of your Investigative Reports” when you’re through here. Don’t learn the hard way, like many others, that investigation agency clients have been known to alter the final report if they are able.

There are a “million ways to Sunday” to produce a professional investigative report but organization, conciseness, clarity, and accuracy are the hallmarks of a good report and will keep clients coming back for more.

.

This article is an excerpt from L. Scott Harrell’s continuing education course Serious Surveillance: Obtaining Video Evidence that will Stand Up in Court available through PIeducation.com

State approved online continuing education for private investigators and process servers in Arizona, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas

I am pleased to announce the contest winner is John Virgili, a video surveillance specialist based in Sarasota, Florida. The new private investigator continuing education surveillance course coming soon to PIeducation.com will be titled “SURVEILLANCE: Obtaining Evidence that Stands up in Court”. Thank you, John, for your submission… we hope you enjoy your $200 gift certificate to the IRBstore.com!

We want to thank the below individuals for your course title submissions, too; it was a very difficult decision. Thank you for participating and helping spread the word about PIeducation.com:

• C.R. “Bob” Brown
• Rick Nelson
• Darrell Webber
• Linda McCarley-Schiro
• William Pope
• Debra Ferrara
• Kevin Thompson
• Billy Engle
• Marsha Kerrigan
• David Pelligrinelli
• “Denise”
• Bill Golodner
• Mitch Davis

If I missed someone on this list a BIG, HUGE THANK YOU to everyone who entered!  If you haven’t already, you can stay updated with the latest news, announcements and contests like this by subscribing to Pursuit Magazine (for free) on our home page and also becoming our fan on FACEBOOK.

Warmest Regards,

Stephanie Mitchell

Manager of Continuing Education and eLearning, CompassPoint Investigations
Managing Editor, Pursuit Magazine

This article is posted courtesy IRBseach, LLC.

IRBsearch offers The Most information, The Best data sources, and The Fastest delivery for locating people, businesses, and their assets. With one click you can search billions of records in just a fraction of a second.

Which leads me to announce our first contest!

We will award a $200 IRBstore.com gift certificate (http://IRBstore.com) to the investigator who submits what we feel is the best title for our new online Surveillance course.  We will also choose a runner-up winner and award him or her a free PIeducation.com course, an $89.95 value.

You can post your suggested titles in the comments section below or email them to me at info@pursuitmag.com. Be sure to leave your contact information too. Entries must be submitted to us before 5:00pm (CST) on Wednesday, January, 27 2010 in order to be eligible. On Thursday, January 28, 2009, we will announce the winner here on Pursuit Magazine and notify the winners by email.

If we end up using the winning title for the course, we will acknowledge the winner in the courses’ “acknowledgments and bibliography” section too.

Enter as many suggestions as you want but please do use Google to check whether the title is sufficiently original.   Remember, all entries must be submitted to us before 5:00pm (CST) on Wednesday, January, 27 2010.

Have fun, thank you and good luck!

Warmest Regards,
Stephanie Mitchell

Manager of Continuing Education and eLearning
http://www.pieducation.com

Managing Editor, Pursuit Magazine
http://www.pursuitmag.com

Surveillance Course Outline

INTRODUCTION TO SURVEILLANCE
The Surveillance Objective

PREPARING FOR THE SURVEILLANCE ASSIGNMENT
Pre-surveillance Investigations
Getting the Right Information from the Client
Choosing a Surveillance Vehicle
Necessary Surveillance Equipment and Gear

CONDUCTING SURVEILLANCE
Visual Surveillance
Mobile Surveillance
Tailing Methods and Tactics
Positioning and Setting Up
Rural Surveillance
Blending
Night Surveillance
Making Positive Identification of your Subject
Your Own Powers of Observation
Managing Confrontation
Being Approached by Law Enforcement
Courtesy Surveillance Notification
Pretexting
Pretext Scenarios and Examples
Counter Surveillance Indicators
Surveillance Tricks of the Trade
Summer Surveillance Considerations
Winter Surveillance Issues
Managing Emotional and Physical Stress
Improving Your Surveillance Product

INVESTIGATIVE REPORTS
Investigative Notes
An Investigator’s Guide to Writing Well
The Surveillance Report
Writing Excellent Surveillance Reports
Emerging Internet Tools for Pre-Surveillance Checks and Surveillance Reports
Using Internet Mapping & Imaging in your Surveillance Report
Submitting the Final Report: Security, Compatibility and Portability

COLLECTING THE EVIDENCE & PREPARING FOR COURT
Laying a Foundation for Trial
What is allowed on Surveillance Video?
Editing Surveillance Video for Court
Editing Digital Photography for Court
Tips for the Surveillance Investigator Testifying in Court

NEW TECHNOLOGY AND SURVEILLANCE METHODS
Wireless and Remote Image Transmission Technology
GPS Tracking Devices
Surveillance over the Internet
Video over IP
Computer Monitoring

THE LEGAL ASPECTS OF SURVEILLANCE
Laws and Traffic Violations
Criminal Trespass
Use of Criminal Instrument
Interception of Communications
Use of Pen Register or Trap and Trace Device
Access to Stored Communications
Installation of Tracking Device
Disorderly Conduct
Obstructing Highway or Other Passageway
False Alarm or Report
Harassment
Stalking
Theft
Roping and Entrapment
Surveillance Case Law

Common Surveillance Terminology

This article is posted courtesy IRBseach, LLC.

IRBsearch offers The Most information, The Best data sources, and The Fastest delivery for locating people, businesses, and their assets. With one click you can search billions of records in just a fraction of a second.