INVESTIGATIVE
SPECIALIZATIONS
AND HOW TO ESTABLISH YOURSELF AS AN EXPERT
By: Ralph D. Thomas
NAIS SURVEY REVEALS LEADING INVESTIGATIVE SPECIALIZATIONS
AND HOW YOU CAN DEVELOP YOUR AREA OF SPECIALIZTION AND
ESTABLISH YOURSELF AS AN EXPERT ON THE SUBJECT
Here is some very interesting data compiled by the National Association
Of Investigative Specialists concerning what private investigators and investigative
agencies specialize in. The data was compiled by radomely selecting 400
investigative agencies from all parts of the United States that had listed
their specializations over the last six months. Some of the specializations
where merged. For example, if someone put down skip trace, that was counted
in missing persons totals. If someone put down insurance fraud, that was
simply tallied as insurance. It should be pointed out that most agencies
list more than one specialization. Some list everything. Other adopt another
approach by putting down general investigation as their specialization.
In fact, out of 400 agencies, 61 listed general investigation as a specialization
but three forths of them listed more specific specializations. It's also
interesting to note that only 39 listed the general term "civil and
criminal investigations."
If you are wondering what in the world to begin to specialize in, you can
use this little survey as guidelines. There are advantages and disadvantages
to specialization. The advantage, of course, is that you can more easily
identify segments of the population that would most likely need your specialized
service. It also gives you the opportuntiy to focus in on a specific subject,
start boning up on the subject and become an expert at it. By specializing,
you are identifying yourself as an expert in a certain area. You'll stand
out from the investigative crowd. On the other hand, narrow specialization
becomes restrictive to the amount of business you can capture. For example,
someone needing a surveillance doesn't want to hire an expert in missing
persons for their surveillance. It's kind of a catch 22 these days. Most
users of investigative services know that generalists in private investigative
practice are fine but they are not a master of anything. That's the way
people think these days. That is why you see so many agencies listing their
expert specializations and throwing in general investigation. They are attempting
to obtain the best of both worlds.What does all this mean to you? Let us
look at the figures more closely and see if we can spot some trends.
SPECIATIONS BASED ON DATA FROM
400 AGENCIES IN THE LAST SIX MONTHS
Note: Listed from the most often quoted specialization to the least. These
are the top twenty. The number after each specialization gives the total
number quoted out of 400. All but 21% listed more than one which were tallied.
TOP TWENTY INVESTIGATIVE
SPECIALIZATIONS
(Click to obtain more information on these specializations)
MISSING PERSONS
First, it should be no surprise that missing persons is the number one specialization.
If you don't do it you are missing a huge market share in the investigative
industry. To really make money in this area, you'll need to know more than
just how to run database searches. If you wish to bone up on the subject,
the best selling book is How To Find Anyone Anywhwere. Better yet, you can
begain to establish yourself as a missing persons location expert by taking
the official missing persons certification course (CMPI) through NAIS.
The legdenary David Mollsion, one of the nation's best hardcore skip tracer's
in the business, will be conducting a class on hardcore skip tracing at
the NAIS Convention this Labor Day Weekend. Don't miss it.
INSURANCE AND SURVEILLANCE INVESTIGATIONS
Insurance and surveillance are running right behind missing persons. Insurance
is a harder market to break into simple because your clients exist in insurance
offices spread across America. It's expensive to market to these people
and they tend to like to be wined and dinned. If you want the best in training
material in the area of insurance investigtion and surveillance, NAIS offers
the following top manuals on the subject: Secrets Of Surveillance By ACM
IV Security Services, The Physical Surveillance Training Manual, by Ralph
Thomas, Serious Surveillance For The Private Investigator. Insurance Claims
manuals will also serve you will. The best ones on the market are Bill Zirorek's
new manual Special Investigtion Units and Neil Argaves's Private Investigator's
Handbook Of Insurance Investigtions.
BACKGROUND INVESTIGATIONS
Background investigations is a huge market that's easy to enter. The level
of skill needed to perform most background checks is not that great and
a board selection of clients exist for this type of specialization. One
of the best books published on background investigtions comes with the snappy
title, When In Doubt, Check Him Out by Joseph Culligan.
ASSETS INVESTIGATIONS
Assets investigtion business is way up. Clients for this type of specialization
come from all walks of life. It's a broad area to specialize in. Secrets
Of Assets Searching is one of the top manuals written on the subject as
well as Ron Mendell's book Assets Investigtion. Ron Mendell himself will
be presenting expert knowledge on how to conduct assets invvestigtions at
the 95 NAIS P.I. Convention in September.
CRIMINAL DEFENSE INVESTIGATIONS
Criminal Defense Investigations appear to be on the rise. This is a direct
result of the court trends to give all defendants the right to an investigator
just like they do a lawyer. Most of these cases are coming from law offices
and, in many areas of the country, it's not a bad idea to get to know the
local judges. The P.I. Catalog maintains a who page of manuals on various
aspects of criminal investigtions. Death Investigator's Handbook by Doctor
Louis Eliopulos is one of the better books to be published in the last several
years in this braod subject area. Crime Scene Search And Physical Evidence
Handbook, Law Enforcement Investigtions and the DEA Narotics Investigator's
Manual are also fine material that will enhance your skills and knowledge
of the subject.
One of the nation's most established and well known experts on criminal
defense and homicide investigations is the legdonary Bill Dear of Dallas,
Texas. Mr. Dear will be presenting his expertize on how to conduct these
types of cases at the Labor Day NAIS P.I. Convention. Don't miss this one.
ONLINE
Database and online searching specializations looks lucrative from the onset.
However, the major clients of online information brokers in our area tends
to be other investigators. Keeping that in mind, you'll note that there
are fourteen of them for every one hundred and ninety investigative agencies
based on this data. If the average agency will use your service five times
per month (which is high) and you get $50.00 for each search (which is high)
and you can only capture an average of thirteen clients, you'll quickly
see that the numbers don't add up right for high volume in this area any
more. Unless you have a way for mass marketing, I'd stay out of it.
From another perspective online computer skills have definate advantages
when combined with other specializations such as background, assets and
missing persons investigtions. How To Investigate By Computer has been a
top selling manual on the subject for almost ten years. Tammy Leon and Barbara
Thomas will be holding breakout groups on online searching at the 95 NAIS
P.I. Convention. Don't miss it!
SERVICE OF PROCESS
Service Of Process has always been a major revenue producing area of private
investigation. It's not uncommon to find a large agency in a metropolitan
area billing an average of several thousand dollars per week. However, it
takes a while to build that kind of volume. Nelson Tucker's Secrets Of Successful
Process Serving is the number one selling manual on the subject.
EXECUTIVE PROTECTION
I was surprised to see bodyguard and executive protection services as number
ten. This is way up from seven to ten years ago. A close look at this market,
which has always been narrow, shows a swelling demand. There are several
excellent manuals on the subject including Leroy Thompson's Dead Clients
Don't Pay and Benny Mares's Executive Protection. Provding Protective Servcies
is a U.S. government reprint that is extremely well done.
Mac MaCullen is one of the nation's leading trainer's in the area of bodyguard
and executive protection work. He will be giving an expert's presentation
on the subject at the fall NAIS P.I. Convention. If you are considering
moving into this area with your investigative service, don't miss this one.
PRE-EMPLOYMENT
Pre-Employment is a huge market caused by the federal government outlawing
the use of polygraph for pre-employment several years ago. These types of
cases tend to be easy to obtain when you prepackage your services at flat
rates. However, some major players have entered this market with cut-rate
pricing. it's becoming a competitive market to be in but case assignments
and , repeat business clients are common and volume easy to build. Pre-Employment
Investigation For Private Investigators is a very well done manual on the
subject.
LIABILITY
Liability investigation is still a major mainstay for many agencies but
the focus of liability has changed. The new hot topics are premises liability
and security negligence. Ed Pankau will be presenting how to investigate
these types of subjects at the 1995 NAIS Investigator's Convention Labor
Day weekend. Another raising area of liability investigation is what Gary
Hyatt calls falling tree investigtions in which government entities are
found liable. Mr. Hyatt will be teaching this subject at the upcoming NAIS
P.I. Convention this fall.
Accident investigation has always ben a major mainstay of these types of
investigation areas. There are two very well done manuals in print on the
subject. Jack Murray's Accident Investigation In The Private Sector and
Ed Livesay's Secrets Of Accident Investigation are both excellent.
Mr. Jack Murray will be speaking at the 1995 P.I. Convention on both how
to conduct an accident investigtion and how to testify in court.
COUNTERMEASURES
I am not surprised and you shouldn't be either that countermeasures services
has moved from way below 25 up to number twelve in specialization. This
area is a vast untapped market for several reasons. Many agencies claim
to offer countermeasures services but you can not do it with a $99.00 bug
tester. You need something a little better than that, but you don't need
$20,000 in equipment either. A modest investment of between $3,000 and $5,000
in the right equipment will get you started right.
Although many countermeasures professionals attempt to get many in the investigative
profession to believe that you need years of training and tens of thousands
of dollars in equipment, their figures on training and equipment investment
is inflated.
With some study (not years of it) and a modest investment of several thousand
dollars in equipment (not several ten thousand) investigative agencies are
finding that they can enter this specialiation quite easily. The market
was once controled by a mere handfull of people but demand is swelling and
more and more investigtive agencies are finding lucrative assignments in
this market. If you want to check this area out, check your copy of the
P.I. Catalog for moderatly priced equipment and training aids. Sam Pritts
and Cody Woods from The Spy Exchange And Security Center will be presenting
hands-on demonstrations of countermeasures equipment at the NAIS P.I. Convention
Labor Day weekend in Austin, Tx. this year. If you are considering entering
the countermeasures business or already are in it, don't miss this informative
presentation.
DOMESTIC
Domestic investigations are down. Forty years ago, it was number one and
has slowly dropped to below the top ten. However, domestic cases should
be around for a long time. Due to no-fault divorce laws, the focus and reason
for domestic cases has changed. It used to be, you needed to obtain grounds
for a divorce. Now-a-days it's a matter of confirmation of suspision, money
and child custody issues.
POLITICAL
Political investigations have come way up. They used to be right around
number 30. I saw it coming. It's becoming more and more difficult to run
for office and more and more expensive.
BAIL BOND RECOVERY
Bail Bond Recovery is way up. I'm seeing more and more investigators attempting
to specialize in this. It can be very profitable. However, you have got
to be one of the best skip tracers around. This is a specialization for
the adventurous. Many in other areas of investigation tend to be snobish
towards it becuase of the seedy reputations in the past. However, it's becoming
a specialized area with professionals. One of the more popular programs
is Bob Burton's organization. Burton holds training siminars on bail recovery
and founded a closenet association.
Thomas Publilcations offers Mr. Burton's two manuals on the subject and
David Mollsion's newest book, Modern Day Bounty Hunting. Mr. Mollision will
be teaching at the 95 P.I. Convention in September.
SEX CRIMES
Sex Crimes Investigations are now in the top twenty from way down on the
list only a few years ago. This is closely related to criminal defense investigtion.
Take a look at the recent article on False Memory Symdrom in the summer
issue of the NAIS newsletter, The Private Investigator's Connection and
you'll begain to grasp the investigative trends in this area. Reportedly,
nationally known speaker and author Jack Murray is working on a training
manual for this area of investigation. Availability and publishing date
is iffy but Mr. Murray will be speaking at the 1995 NAIS P.I. Convention
this this fall.
ADOPTEE/BIRTHPARENT SEARCHING
It's way up and continues to climb. This is a narrow nich market to people
who have been adopted and don't know who their parents are or parents who
had chlidren who where adopted who want to know get in touch with them.
There were tens of thousands of adoptions that took place in the baby boomer
age. A vast number of both children and parents are looking for each other.
These types of searches are extremely rewarding cases to work but they have
specific sets of their own investigative problems. The leading manual on
this subject has been written by Bill Dear. Finding Your Birthparents And
Other Family Members is a specific manal geared towards this type of booming
specialization.
EMPLOYEE THEFT
This is an often overlooked area of specialization and market for investigative
agencies. It's a major trend. Because of competition, profits in business
and industry tend to be razor thin these days and companies are looking
for ways to cut expenses. Employee theft is a major problem and concern.
This type of work involves physical surveillance activity (see P.I. Catalog
page on surveillance books) and general investigative techniques (see page
on general investigation). The security section of the P.I. Catalog contains
several specific manuals geared towards this specialization. Lounge Evaultation
business is booming, shoplifting and employee theft are major concerns with
businesses, industrial spying and general retail security measures are all
vital areas. Don't miss the manuals on these subjects.
HIGH TECH HIDDEN NITCH SPECIALIZATIONS
Aside from the mainstay specializations we have covered, there are some
underlying hidden agendas we have found closely associated to private investigtion.
The general information broker business is booming. This is much different
from the narrow and personal computer type searching most private investigators
know about. These specialists are actually general information specialists
who are hired to find general types of information or data on just about
any subject. Only a few years ago, there were only a handful of these people.
Today, it's a major emerging profession. The pioneer in this area is Sue
Ruggee. She has a book on the subject simply titled Information Brokering
which is listed in the P.I. Catalog.
Cutting edge forensic services in the form of 3-D Courtroom presentation
(see article in summer issue of PI Connection) and Photo-Computer Image
Processing (see Spring issues of P.I. Magazine and the Spring Issue of the
NAIS newletter) fields are booming as well as audio tape enhasement services.
It's important for private investigators to know and understand what this
new technology will do and where it is going. One of the foremost experts
on this area is Norman Perl of National Audio/Video Forensic Labratories.
He'll be giving a prsentation on these cutting edge subjects at the Labor
Day NAIS Convention in Austin, Texas.
Tape recorded dialed number decoding is a little extra nitch service being
provided by many agencies. It seems many people have recorded telephone
conversations and want to decode the numbers that were dailed. Both the
Dialed Number Tape Recorder which is a self-contained telephone tape recorder
and the new stand alone Tone decoder is the equipment to offer this service.
For details, see a copy of the current P.I. Catalog.
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