In recent years private investigators have come under increasing scrutiny and pressure from zealous privacy advocates, national and state lawmakers and perhaps most importantly attorneys and civil courts. Numerous courts have recently held that information brokers and private... Read More

Part 1 in this series can be read by clicking here DELIVERY NOTICES AND DELIVERY POSTCARDS I developed this idea several years ago to increase my success rate with process serving. It was an incredible concept that never failed me, not one time. With the concept of the traplines... Read More

Legally using telephonic information to find your skips and determine useful information. Over 20 years ago, when I started my investigative agency, I asked as many investigators as I could what the most valuable tool in their arsenal was. The dominant answer (other than our... Read More

The term “public record” has always been VERY misleading. Even though a record is “public” and available for public scrutiny in the strictest sense, in reality it may not be readily available. The availability of numerous public records via the Internet... Read More

The following resources have been selected as a starting point to assist private investigators who are working with parents who have experienced the tragedy of a child abduction or who have a child who has run away. As previously mentioned in the beginning of this text, it is... Read More

As I explained in my previous article, Introduction to Skip Tracing, classifying your subject as “intentionally missing” or “unintentionally missing” is very important and will assist you in determining which action to take and what information you will... Read More

How Do PIs Find a Runaway? Many times as a private investigator you’ll receive a desperate phone call from a worried parent begging for help in finding a runaway. The novice PI might refer the parent to local police and call it a day. They know that databases are useless in... Read More

From time to time you are going to come across a military address while conducting a database search. Knowing what to do with the address, to whom it belongs, and what additional information can be gleaned from it can yield very important information! I learned a lot while I was... Read More

Proposed legislation would prohibit the sale of Social Security number information. As a result, private investigators would lose access to databases that are effective for helping distinguish individuals with similar names. This is particularly important with regard to women... Read More