From Police Officer to Private investigator

Police Officer To Private Investigator.

For many police officers looking for a career change, many consider a natural transition from being a police officer to becoming a private investigator. Many succeed but many also fail. This blog hopefully, will help anyone considering the transition go on to make it a succesful venture.

There are lots of detective agencies in the UK and all over the world that are run by ex police officers, especially those that come from a detective role. Some have put in 30 years of service and when it’s time for something new, why not carry on doing something that they know and create a business of investigating? It makes perfect sense but I am going to tell you the differences between working in the police and working as a private individual.

Legalities & evidence.

Working in the private sector is going to be a lot different to what you are used to because you will now have no more powers than any other civilian. You wont be able to seize electronic equipment such as computers and mobile phones for analysis of messages, calls and cell site analysis. You wont be able to check someones criminal history on a computer database. You will not be able to check a vehicle registration mark to find the registered keeper, you wont be able to confiscate any substances to prove drug use. Looking into individuals private and business bank accounts is out of bounds. You wont be able to compel someone to attend an interview and the list goes on.

At this juncture you may wonder if it is worth the transition. The issue a PI has is down to legalities. However, although it’s more long winded there are usually ways to bring an investigation to a succesful conclusion using other legal methods. Being a PI you will have to learn all about GDPR as that is what constraints you will have to work with. Any breach of GDPR in your investigation is not a legal one and this will not be good for you or your client if you use illegal methods to prove your case.

Adaption is key.

The above paragraph basically says that you can be succesful working in the private sector but you just need to adapt. One area I see a lot of ex police fail is in the surveillance arena. you have probably worked in a surveillance team for 20 years. In that time you have dealt with some serious criminals from drug dealers to suspected terrorists in your time in surveillance so there is nothing you need to learn, right? WRONG! I have seen so many ex cops fail here for the simple reason that they did not prepare for civvy street and worse of all because they, in their minds know everything and they failed or refused to adapt.

Let me explain the differences between surveillance in the police to surveillance in the private sector.

At best you will now be working as a three man team but usually a two man team. In the police there would probably be a 7 man or more team which means your exposure levels would be much less.

You will now be working to a private individuals or a small companies budget as opposed to the public purse and results will be expected in a much smaller time scale. This means at times getting in closer than you would like and now theres only probably two of you gaining exposure as opposed to having the luxury of 7, 8 or 9 officers spreading the exposure levels out and ‘losing’ yourself for longer periods so you are not fresh in your subjects memory.

Last but certainly not least we come back to evidence. In the civilian world if theres no imagery then it didn’t happen. Everything we do in surveillance requires imagery to back up our report. From a simple matrimonial/infidelity surveillance to an insurance fraud or criminal case imagery is required. Mrs Jones wants to hit her wayward husband with a report showing him with his floosie the night before. It’s no good a report saying what he did without photographic evidence to back it up. The same is true for insurance fraud. If the guy is claiming for injuries sustained in a car accident renders him unable to use his upper limbs, it proves nothing if the report says we saw him in the gym lifting 100kg but there is no imagery to back it up.

What’s the best way to prepare myself before going into a private investigation role?

Here, I hope to advise you of what I have learned from my 28 years of working as a private investigator but before I do, let me tell you about myself. I do not come from a police or military background, however, I was mentored by an ex police surveillance operative who saw something in me, who not only taught me surveillance but also helped show me how to run my business. Over the years I have seen many people come and go and this advice is purely from my observations.

Look for a private investigator course the ABI offer several courses. The IPI also does a general all round course These can be done long distance if required but dont do a long distance surveillance course, this needs to be done practically not remotely. I did a long distance (non surveillance) PI course many years ago and it helped me immensely. Steer away from any courses that have the wording similar to “Licensed private investigation course” There is no such thing at this time as licensing for PI’s.

If you are considering surveillance, even if you have years of surveillance under your belt its worth doing a five day course where you can learn all about surveillance in the private sector and get your hands on some of the kit we use including camera equipment. My advice would be to steer clear of the training providers that have images of themselves in camouflage clothing on tanks in the desert and appear full of self ego. A tank is not going to help you carry out covert surveillance.

As mentioned previously, you will need to produce photographic evidence. Not only that, the photography or videography has to be good. This is where a lot of ex police fail. They arm themselves with a camcorder and take poor, shaky and out of focus footage, which demonstrates lack of experience and lack of professionalism. Just last week I watched a police documentary where they carried out surveillance on a drug dealing team. The main surveillance operative boasted 34 years experience. His footage was shocking. Out of focus, in focus, shaking about it was terrible and akin to someone with parkinsons! Produce that in civvy street and I guarantee no surveillance team will have you work with them again. This is a small world and trust me word gets around and this is where you will fail!

If you can find yourself a mentor, this is gold dust as they will advise you on everything from the latest covert and non covert kit, how to kit out your vehicle and many other useful things such as price structuring for your new clients. I value the input of a mentor above everything else. A good course is your foundation but the real learning is on the ground.

How Successful Will The Surveillance Be?

What is the success rate of surveillance?

When speaking to a new client, the question is often asked “How successful will the surveillance be”? Another question we regularly get asked is “What is the success rate”? These are good questions and quite often asked, understandably because the client does not want to waste their money on an unsuccessful days surveillance.

Unfortunately we can’t give an accurate answer due to a number of factors such as it being the wrong day, the wrong time, wrong information and occurances out of our control. Lets break that down and I will explain a bit better for you.

Targeting the best day for a sucessful surveillance

When a prospective client calls asking for surveillance we will always ask what is the background to the suspicions, if it’s matrimonial, do they have any idea who the other person is and is there a pattern, such as specific days that they believe any wrong doings are being carried out? This is so we can target days and times that surveillance should be carried out that are going to have more chance of being lucrative and not shooting from the hip and going on a day when nothing is likely to happen.

If the client does not know what days are likely to be succesful we will discuss a plan of action to obtain intelligence to target the correct days for surveillance to take place. At M.R.Investigations, we take pride in our work and we want to get you the best result possible for your money.

Wrong information.

Quite often especially with instructing employers, they will be acting on information received. Such as another employee has mentioned that another employee that is off from work sick is working elsewhere. In our experience these tip-offs are usually correct but on some occasions the information can be wrong and just be a suspicion or in a matrimonial situation a partner may decide that their other halfs actions are suspicious but turn out to be perfectly innocent.

Can the surveillance go wrong?

Usually the surveillance does not go wrong and comes to a succesful conclusion. However, surveillance can go wrong for any number of reasons beyond our control. It could be that the subject of enquiry drives at great speed, jumps red lights or other illegal manouvres which not only means there is great risk of compromise if we were to mirror these illegal manouvres but we would also have to be driving illegally which we will not do. There could be that the subject of enquiry manages to get past a bus and that bus then stops suddenly, preventing the operatives maintaing a visual on to the vehicle we are following and is lost from view.

We have a saying “There’s surveillance teams that have losses and surveillance teams that tell lies.” Basically if someone tells you they never have a loss they are lying. However, all is not lost, apart from physical surveillance we can use technical surveillance to assist us making a recovery of the operation such as GPS trackers.

Is experience important?

Is experience important when looking for a private investigator?

When looking for a private investigator it is good to see that the company has been operating for a number of years and have a lot of experience. Experience means they have developed valuable skills over time. It builds a foundation of practical knowledge and confidence that can be utilised out in the field where split decision scenarios can mean the make or break of a high pressure situation.

The above is all good but you have to consider that sometimes people from all walks of life can become complaceant, rest on their laurels and stagnate into a certain way of doing things that have worked for them over the years. We have been operating as private investigators in Coventry & Warwickshire and beyond for a lot of years now. Our first case was in 1998 which was a surveillance, following an ‘R’ Registered (1997) Ford Puma in my ‘L’ Reistered (1993) Ford Mondeo. My surveillance equipment consisted of one Sony compact camera with a low storage compact flash camera!

Upgrades required.

As time went by it soon became apparent that my Arsenal was limited to say the least and I needed more equipment that was up to the job and slowly moved up to better tools of the trade, such as a Sony Hi 8 mini dv cassette camcorder. Radios for use when working as a team. I then progressed to using stabilising vehicle mounts for my cameras, as well as full remote control switches which means I don’t even have to physically touch a camera when on a mobile follow to get the all important imagery.

I learned a lot over the years not only from other established investigators but younger ones too. If I saw some kit, be it cameras, power supplies, storage methods or anything else that aided my work, made it better or made the job easier then I had to have it. Even to this day I am always buying new equipment and experimenting with equipment. Some things I tried once and never used again. Either because it wasnt up to the job or something better superseded it. I have worked with other investigators that don’t share that same work ethic and I find it hard to understand why they wouldn’t want the same. It can be that they are new to the industry and slowly building their kit as and when they can afford it but in a lot of cases it’s because they don’t want to spend the money.

So how does this all help you as a client? If my job is made easier, I am able to work easier. If my equipment is the best there which I can operate seamlessly it means the end product such as a report and video footage is going to be better.

We fully embrace technology. Technology has made our work far easier. We at M.R.Investigations were one of the first to use camera technology that helps us get far more evidence with less physical input 10 years ago that others are just waking up to now.

Employee Absenteeism Post Budget

Employers & HR staff must now get serious with Employee absenteeism

With the latest autumn budget of 2024 one of the main issues for employers is the the increase in employers National Insurance contributions. You may ask how does this effect employee absenteeism? Absent employees has always been a problem for employers & HR departments and always will be. Genuine sickness no one has an issue with but malingerers and shirkers are a different matter altogether.

employee investigations coventry

With the latest increases of national insurance contributions this makes it even more critical that employers know that those that are absent are genuine and not only are they costing the company in sick pay but now also wasting money keeping them with the added national insurance contributions.

Helping employers & HR departments with employee absenteeism

M.R.Investigations has been carrying out investigations to what amounts to fraud for a number of companies and HR departments in Coventry, Warwickshire and the West Midlands for a number of years and have a good success rate, proving irrefutable evidence which has enabled the employers take the correct disciplinary procedures. We do this via a number of investigatory procedures and if all other avenues have been explored, it can often turn to surveillance techniques to ascertain once and for all if the absent employee is genuine or not.

Data Protection

We are aware that HR departments and employers are concerned about data protection issues and how we will handle personal data of the data subject. We are fully versed in GDPR and attended and completed the Association of British Investigators GDPR course which covered such topics as DPIA (Data protection impact assessments) , storing of data, transferring data securely and when to delete and document the deletion correctly within GDPR guidelines.

If you are an employer or HR department representing a company and have concerns that there may be suspicions about a fraudulent sickness claim, please don’t have any hesitation to call us with no obligation, to discuss how we can help you. 024 7512 0316

Difference between a Private investigator and a Professional Investigator

Difference between a Private investigator and a Professional investigator

What is the difference between a private investigator and a professional investigator is a question I have been asking myself lately. Which one am I? A private investigator or a professional investigator? Lets have a look and hopefully I can avoid all the confusion.

I have noticed recently a trend where members of trade associations, including the Association of British Investigators, IPI and WAPI have started calling themselves “Professional investigators” rather than “Private investigators”. Also on social media platforms such as Linkedin people calling themselves as such. From what I can work out this is because they want to disassociate themselves from the seedy image of a dodgy PI that maybe conjured up in the mind of the general public. After all in the UK it is an unlicensed industry and just about any Tom, Dick or Harriet could arm themselves with a camera phone, a car and a cheap website and in essence call themselves a private investigator!

Private Investigator Coventry

Before I go any further I must give credit for the inspiration of this post to an Australian website where they discussed the difference between a private detective and a private investigator. They drew their own conclusions on this which I will let you read yourself if you wish but I’m not going to throw “Detective” into the mix in this post to confuse things.

To find the differences between the two we need to delve deeper to see what the differences are. What exactly is a private investigator? A private investigator (or detective) is someone that carries out investigations for private, legal and corporate clients. A quick google gives this reply” A private investigator (PI) is a person or company that is hired to gather information and evidence about a situation or problem. They are often self-employed and work independently from law enforcement”.

What exactly is a professional investigator? A professional investigator (or detective) is someone that carries out investigations for private, legal and corporate clients. A google search for the term “professional” investigator comes back with little meaningful information so I will answer it myself. A professional investigator (PI) is a person or company that is hired to gather information and evidence about a situation or problem. They are often self-employed and work independently from law enforcement.

As you can see they are one and the same. They both do the same work, whether that be checking on a wayward husband getting his leg over elsewhere, serving process, corporate investigations, tracing enquiries etc. Trying to rename yourself just because of some bad eggs that you feel have tarnished the industries name is silly. The building industry has cowboys so do they change their name from builders to professional constructors? Of course they don’t. Yes there are some dodgy characters in the PI world (and in every other industry) but just because one day the dodgy guys start calling themselves “Professional” does that mean they have changed? Does calling yourself professional mean you are more proficient?

Remember at the beginning when I said that anyone can set themselves up as a private investigator overnight? Well it’s just as easy to do the same thing and call yourself a professional investigator.

What is the answer to my question am I a private or professional investigator? I will stick with private investigator, thank you very much. This way I am not trying to make myself sound better than anyone else when I’m one and the same. Could you imagine telling someone that you are a professional investigator? Straight away there would be questions as to what exactly this is. “are you a policeman” ? “An investigative journalist”? “Oh you mean you’re a private investigator” is how I guarantee the conversation would conclude.

The main reason I will carry on calling myself a private investigator is this. I guarantee you anyone looking for our services isn’t typing “Professional investigator” into their search engines. Carry on calling yourselves as such and you will be missing business that will be coming my way thank you very much sir.

My advice to anyone looking to hire a private investigator is do your research. Don’t just look at the best looking website. Read our blog post on how to choose the right investigator for you.