No reasonable person would disagree that law enforcement have a difficult job. In addition to often being dangerous, lack of funding often leaves many jurisdictions without the right amount of trained professionals or resources to conduct criminal investigations efficiently or successfully. Under the most forgiving of perceptions, law enforcement professionals make mistakes. Hiring another investigative professional, such as a private investigator to conduct a simultaneous investigation can be a way for victims of crimes to ensure that multiple professionals from diverse disciplines have eyes on their case. Hiring a private investigator to conduct a concurrent investigation with law enforcement can be one of the best ways to cover all of the bases in a myriad of investigation types.
It is easy for investigators and other law enforcement professionals to make human errors that can have exponential consequences for criminal justice investigations. Even in the most serious of cases such as sexual assault or homicide, important details can be missed due to bias, lack of manpower, and resources. After the initiation of a police report, victims and their families can go weeks without answers due to those aforementioned roadblocks. This is why many victims and families find it prudent to hire a private investigator to do due diligence in a simultaneous investigation with police.
One type of investigation where this practice is common is in missing person cases. Even if a person is reported as missing by a friend or family member, it might not be the top priority of investigating law enforcement. Sometimes there are violent crimes that must take precedence, or maybe the missing person is someone who the police assume has disappeared of their own volition. In the case of missing person investigations, time is of the essence, and the more time that passes without pursuit of leads, the sooner the trail goes cold. If law enforcement does not immediately follow up, vital information will be lost. That is why hiring a private investigator to conduct a simultaneous investigation is the route many families of missing persons to take. Private missing person investigators can hop on a missing person’s trail while it’s still hot—speaking to witnesses, checking security footage, and notifying proper authorities before the person makes it out of the state. Even if the missing person does cross state lines, as long as a private investigator is licensed to practice in that state, private missing person investigators are free to follow leads from state to state without restriction of jurisdiction.
Hiring a private investigator to conduct a concurrent investigation may sound redundant, but it is one of the only ways victims and their families can ensure all possible leads are being exhausted in their cases. Sometimes professional bias or ineptitude will prevent a law enforcement investigator from following a lead, convinced that their own theory of the crime is correct. Not only does this have devastating effects in the case of missing persons, but this can lead to a brick wall in investigations of all types including corporate investigations where massive financial losses may be incurred, or in domestic and private investigations where a person’s life may ultimately be at stake. Hiring a private investigator also ensures that decisions about your case can be made quickly without the binds of bureaucratic red tape. In order to follow the law, law enforcement officers typically must follow a chain of command before taking specific action. Private investigators typically work for themselves and can exercise independent judgement on when and where to make a move in a case. In this way, private investigators can exercise the autonomy necessary to ensure that time is never lost in a case.
If you have need of a private investigator to investigate a criminal matter with a concurrent investigation, reach out to Lauth Investigations International today for a free quote on our investigative services. Call 317-951-1100 or visit us online at www.lauthinveststg.wpengine.com.
Are you ready to revamp your corporate culture in 2021?
As the world finally bids goodbye to one of the worst years in history, anxious and eager people everywhere are looking forward to what 2021 might bring. With the COVID-19 vaccine having been approved and administered, the country is finally beginning the slow process of healing from this pandemic, and both businesses and private citizens are making plans to move forward in the future. Part of moving forward is examining and improve the corporate culture of the workplace As employers gear up for another fiscal year under the restrictions of a global pandemic, many are seeking to transform their corporate culture to springboard operations once everything returns to business as usual.
That’s a tricky phrase, “business as usual.” Every business encounters corporate crises from time to time, like employee theft or other forms of internal corruption, but when the business has a pervasive repeating pattern of disruption to daily operations, there could a glaring problem with the corporate culture. Corporate culture is a reflection of how operations, relationships between employees, and enforcement by leadership interact to make up an employee’s experience in working with the company. Corporate culture in 2021 will be punctuated by restructuring, employee turnover, and policy reform in order to address systemic issues.
Corporate culture audits in 2021 are not only going to be a new trend, but they will be a necessity to retain employees and control costs. Undergoing corporate culture audits is the first real step in addressing pervasive issues within the workplace. Think of it as an annual physical or checkup with a physician for your business. When you go to the doctor, you undergo an examination, and the specialists run tests in order to determine how healthy you are—a corporate culture audit is no different. A corporate culture auditor comes in and evaluates the level of functionality within your corporation so you can start implementing strategies to improve and grow your business. A corporate culture audit is a type of internal investigation in which the source of pervasive issues are vetted and corrected by an internal investigator.
When there are pervasive issues in your corporation or organization, internal investigations are a necessary evil to get to the root of the problem. In recent years, the public’s interest in internal investigations continues to grow as individuals seek to break the culture of silence that surrounds many industries. This is in the interest of ultimately changing the professional climate that allows abuses and misconduct to occur within the organization. Cultural waves of awareness and learning—like those that occurred during the #MeToo movement, and the genesis of the Black Lives Matter movement—bring more attention to some of corporate America’s most pervasive issues, including sexual harassment, racism, and discrimination. Now leadership is seeking the advice of consultants and risk management experts in order to erode bigoted phenomena from their workplace. A private investigator may be the answer.
Internal investigations are necessary, but they don’t necessarily have to be internal. Private investigators are completely independent of the corporations that retain them. Though they are paid for their services, it is not in the bet interest of a private investigator to be loyal to anything less than the truth. Complete transparency and integrity are the cornerstone of their business. Therefore, a private investigator is a perfect individual to document internal issues for an organization, because they are inherently without bias and are able to maintain complete objectivity. With Lauth’s corporate investigators on your side, you’ll receive the unvarnished reality regarding the internal problems in your corporation or organization.
If you need help changing your corporate culture in 2021, contact Lauth Investigations International today for a free quote on how we can help you get to the bottom of your corporate culture issues. Call 317-951-1100 or visit us online at www.lauthinveststg.wpengine.com
Private investigators can serve multitudes of purposes in both the private and corporate realm. Private investigator services are typically diverse and can bring clarity in the murkiest of circumstances. Whether it’s hiring a private investigator to track a missing loved one or to investigate a pervasive pattern of workplace theft, the name of the game is quality. When you’re ready to hire a private investigator, it’s important that you select the correct professional for the job. Here are some questions you can ask a private investigator about their firm and their body of experience when exercising due-diligence in the hiring process.
How long have they been in private investigations? What is their specialty?
While it’s true that many private investigator services can be very similar across all firm types—such as background checks, surveillance services, and location services, also known as “skip traces”—it’s also true that many private investigators choose to specialize in one or two areas of intelligence-gathering operations. For example, many law enforcement officials and investigators use their retirement years getting a private investigator’s license and continuing to serve the people in their communities by picking up missing person cases or helping families find clarity in the complex personal and domestic situations of their every day lives. Other private investigator services skew more towards the corporate side of the United States, such as internal corporate investigations, background check services, and serving as multi-tools for law firms. The nature of intelligence operations is knowing how to spot patterns, anticipate and assess cause and effect, and comprehensively pursue any and all leads that might arise. The more years private investigators have on the job, the stronger their investigative tool chest will be.
What is their level of transparency and communication?
Private investigators should always be straightforward with their clients. It demonstrates a level of integrity and transparency that is crucial in a quality investigator. Private investigators should be willing to meet with prospective clients in person. Quality investigators go the extra mile to establish professional relationships based on trust and transparency. Every investigation type is different, and the unexpected left turns of any case can be difficult to anticipate at times, but regardless, private investigator services should have a price range with the caveat that they may be subject to change. The best private investigator services will come with a cursory phone call and a free consultation from the investigator to determine the client’s level of need and to do their best to estimate what their retainer will be.
Do they have a verbal agreement or a written contract?
In tangent with transparency and communication, the terms of agreement regarding private investigator services should be clear, explicit, and in writing. Private investigators who do not clearly define their services, term of service, or outline terms of payment on paper should be a big red flag. Desperate clients sometimes get bilked for thousands because of dishonest professionals who intentionally keep them in the dark. A comprehensive, quality investigation is always initiated with clear terms in place, in writing, and signed by both the private investigator and the client.
Can you verify their private investigator number?
Private investigators are licensed state to state. Regardless of where the private investigator is located, they must be licensed in the state where the investigation is to take place in order to have investigative power and access to proper resources. Private investigators should provide their license number when asked so the client can run the number when their state’s database of privately licensed contractors.
In private intelligence, due-diligence is key, and that means as a prospective client, you have a right to know that you are getting what you paid for. That’s why you have to ask the right questions when vetting private investigator services for your needs. When it comes to your corporate or personal life, you deserve facts, not fiction.
Since 2018, the number of working private investigators in the United States has been expected to rise exponentially in the coming years. The continued development of the internet, ubiquity of information technology, and the budding applications in both the professional and private sector are all factors that have directly influenced this rise. The private investigation industry has seen a lot of professional transplants, in which individuals who previously worked in a similar or completely different industry have begun the process of getting their private investigator license and opening their own private investigation firms.
Two professional areas that are seeing a lot of transplants are journalism and law enforcement. In their pursuit of the truth behind a good story, journalists are realizing that they can apply private investigator methodology to their journalistic pursuits, and vice versa in applying journalistic integrity to private investigations. In the same process of application, law enforcement officers are finding a third act in their professional lives by transitioning from law enforcement to private investigations.
Private investigator methodology is often compared to that of law enforcement. This is because fact-finding and following leads typically demand the same approach. This makes former law enforcement officials often ideal individuals to become private investigators. Police officers and detectives in particular are natural doers—professionals who thrive on action and progress. As such, many law enforcement officials find retirement disagreeable, and seek to apply their professional knowledge to private investigations.
Police turned private investigators can continue their careers of service to the community. While police turned private investigators can also apply their due-diligence and methodology to corporate investigations, their expertise is best put to use helping families get justice. Former police officers know the system, and in many cases, they remain living in the communities where they served during their retirement—so not only do they know the system, but also THE system in local law enforcement that might have failed to get justice. The reasons why criminal investigations fall apart are not exhaustive. Sometimes local police departments do not have the resources at their disposal to carry out a comprehensive investigation. They might lack the manpower to properly exhaust every lead. As a result, evidence disappears, witnesses disappear or cannot remember details accurately, and the trail towards the truth goes cold.
Police officers and other investigating bodies often run into bureaucratic or jurisdictional issues that prevent them from moving forward with a case. And the lack of communication between departments in different jurisdictions allows suspects and subjects to move between jurisdictions. The result is the same—the trail goes cold. Private investigators are not members of law enforcement. They are not bound by jurisdiction. They are only bound by their limits of licensure. As long as a private investigator is licensed in the state in question, they can follow tips and subjects wherever they lead. Private investigators don’t need substantial evidence to follow someone, nor have to clear their next step with a bureaucratic ladder of command. Private investigators can strike when the iron is hot, and increase the chances that answers will be found.
Police officers’ knowledge of the system allows them to collect evidence and witness accounts with great detail and discipline. They know exactly what law enforcement would be looking for and how thorough to be. They can take special professional care that no evidence is mishandled for later use in a criminal trial, and preserve the integrity of witness testimony by serving as an expert in the courtroom. Testimony of a former police officer always adds another veneer of integrity to the case.
2020 is already going down in the history books as one of the strangest and most devastating on record. On New Year’s Eve, as most of the world looks forward to bidding this awful year goodbye, many are waking up to bizarre news of Casey Anthony having filed paperwork to open a private investigation firm in Florida. Under Anthony’s name, the company will be called Case Research & Consulting Services LLC. Florida private investigators and Floridians alike are stunned by the news, reaping the tragic irony of a woman with Anthony’s backstory working in search of truth. The idea of “private investigator Casey Anthony” is garnering mixed reactions, from the mystified to the enraged.
It’s hard to find a person in the United States who is not aware of Casey Anthony. The entire nation was outraged when she was acquitted by a Florida court in the 2008 death of her two year-old daughter, Caylee. The case received a figurative flood of media coverage, with the public obsessing over the story. When the family realized the daughter was missing, Anthony led Florida investigators on a wild goose chase involving a story about a nanny who refused to return the child to her family. Despite a strong case against her, a Florida jury acquitted her in 2011. Following her acquittal, Anthony disappeared from public life. She started a photography studio that closed in 2018. She told the media around that time that she had recently begun working for Patrick McKenna, the lead investigator on her defense team who was also on the defense team for O.J. Simpson. She had begun doing some online investigation work, such as social media investigations for McKenna’s firm. An address associated with McKenna is listed as Case Research and Consulting Services’ business address.
This move has arched eyebrows throughout the nation, as many cannot forget the alleged lurid details of how Anthony’s defense team operated during the trial. Private intelligence and private investigations are operations that demand a high level of integrity on behalf of the investigator—a quality that no one would immediately associate with Anthony. When she was released from prison on lesser charges associated with the case, there was a steady stream of bizarre details about the defense that continued to mystify followers of the case. Following her acquittal, another private investigator on her defense team, Dominic Casey, said in an affidavit that on more than one occasion, he observed non-ethical behavior between Anthony and her attorney, Jose Baez. He visited Baez’s offices outside of business hours and was shocked to find Anthony there so late, and observed her running naked through the hallways of the offices. He told the media that she was sleeping with Baez in order to cover her attorney’s fees. Dominic Casey also reported that after he was hired, Baez told him that Casey had told him that she had in fact murdered Caylee, and Baez instructed Dominic Casey to find the body before someone else does, according to the affidavit. These are the allegations of one Florida private investigator against a celebrity defense attorney, but like the photography studio, it’s possible that this is another endeavor for Casey Anthony that will eventually fizzle out.
