The Many Hats Of The Private Investigator In The Criminal Justice Field

Private Investigator also known as Private Detective requires broad knowledge to be very successful. You need broad based training, just like many other criminal justice professions. The last thing you need is to be called for a job only for you to discover that you are not equipped to handle that job. In this article, I will discuss some of the many hats (jobs) private investigators may be called to wear.

1. The private investigator may be called to wear the hat of Interviewer. This requires their talking to people to gather facts.

For example, a law firm preparing for a case in court may hire a private investigator to interview witnesses. Though a lot of people will call this interrogation when done by a private investigator, but the job here is just to help the law firm gather the facts.

2. The private investigator may be called to wear the hat of a Researcher. This involves going over mountains of paper to fish out information. In this digital age, this may involve using the computer and the internet.

It will be wise then for the private investigator to be high tech savvy. Investing time and money in computer training will not be a bad idea for those that don’t want to forgo work in this area.

3. The private investigator may be called to wear the hat of a Surveillance Person. Surveillance can be said to be synonymous with investigation. In the old days, this is probably the majority of the job done by private detectives.

An example is spouse that suspects his/her partner of cheating. He/She would hire a private investigator to follow their partner to catch them in the act of cheating. Private investigators normally accomplish this through surveillance.

The surveillance would normally be captured on video or still camera. This way, the private investigator will have the physical evidence to show the person who hired him/her. In the current reality TV craze, there is even a television show on this. The host would video tape the cheater, sometimes with hidden video camera. The video tape is then played on television.

4. The private investigator may be called to wear the hat of Store Detective. Theft is a big problem for retail stores. To help combat this problem, retail stores would hire private detectives.

The detective’s job is to catch shoplifters or employees that try to steal goods or merchandise. The detective will usually be hidden out of sight and most likely use hidden video cameras to watch shoppers and employees. If there are shoplifters, you can be sure the private detective will catch them.

There you have it! The many hats private investigators can wear in their profession. Those that prepare themselves with the right training will have plenty of jobs at their disposal. Who knows, they could end up being TV stars, like the star of the TV show, Cheaters.