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How to Choose a Private Investigator for Physical Surveillance
& Insights on the Surveillance-Investigator Profession
Physical surveillance is one of the oldest and most misunderstood investigative tools in the private sector.
It is an art form and to be successful, requires following a subject without losing sight of that subject, while not being detected by the subject.
If you are about to spend thousands of dollars to hire a private investigation company to gather critical information and evidence, it is important to ensure the private investigation company is qualified to conduct a private sector physical surveillance. There are numerous person at private investigation and security companies who are charlatans and fraudulently claim to be private sector physical surveillance experts. The below guidelines should help identify those types so you don't waste money and miss out on valuable evidence.
If you are about to spend thousands of dollars to hire a private investigation company to gather critical information and evidence, it is important to ensure the private investigation company is qualified to conduct a private sector physical surveillance. There are numerous person at private investigation and security companies who are charlatans and fraudulently claim to be private sector physical surveillance experts. The below guidelines should help identify those types so you don't waste money and miss out on valuable evidence.
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Four long-term full-time successful professional surveillance-investigators contributed to this piece. The goal was to come up with the most important items to consider when choosing an investigation company for physical surveillance. Physical Surveillance - The act of covertly surveilling a person-of-concern without being detected while not losing sight of the person-of-concern. CHECKLIST 1. In the state of California, a private investigator license is required to provide the service of physical surveillance, therefore verify the private investigation company has a valid private investigator license in California: https://search.dca.ca.gov (Note: Persons in the field conducting the physical surveillance should each be California licensed private investigators or valid employees of the California licensed private investigation business.)
2. Verify private investigation company (corporation or LLC) is active and in good standing with the California Secretary of State: https://www.sos.ca.gov/business-programs
3. Will the private investigation company use employees or licensed PI sub-contractors to conduct the physical surveillance?
The worker classification of the field surveillance-investigator will determine how much more vetting will be needed to ensure legal compliance, amount of exposure to liabilities and if there is valid insurance coverage. Please contact us if need additional information. Note: Watch out for PI Companies that say they use "off-duty" or "former law Enforcement." Good chance any surveillance-investigator fitting that profile is not a full-time or practicing surveillance-investigator and is not properly licensed nor has the requisite skill-sets. There are exceptions to this guideline, of course.
4. Verify the private investigation company has the required general liability (E&O) insurance policy of a minimum $ 1,000,000 coverage.
If you use the investigation company, you should asked to be added as an additional insured on the private investigation company’s general liability (E&O) insurance policy. A certificate of additional insured will be provided naming your company. 5. Check local on-line civil and criminal superior court and federal court records to determine if the considered investigation company and/or its officers appears as defendants? Example: There are several cases of private investigators (some former law enforcement) who were convicted in past years for illigally placing electronic tracking devices on vehicles and cases where there were privacy violations.
6. Does the private investigation company specialize in surveillance-investigations?
Private sector physical surveillance is the most difficult investigation discipline to perform successfully on a consistent basis. Just as one would not use a primary physician for heart surgery, one should not use a generalist private investigator for a highly specialized discipline, such as physical surveillance. Part of being a specialist in surveillance-investigations are having the requisite skill-sets and equipment, one of which is operating a camcorder in high stress conditions. Whether gathering video evidence of a stalker violating a TRO or in real-time recording activity of a Person-of-Concern for a threat assessment professional or recording vital evidence for a high-value civil lawsuit, skill-sets such as a surveillance-investigator positioning his/her vehicle in a discreet position to successfully secure needed information and evidence is a must. Ensuring an SI has the requiste camcorder skills and proper camcorder equipment (typically 40-60 optical zoom and date/time stamp) is one of the most important items. Another important piece of equipment is having a non-descript vehicle with the right amout of tint on the windows.
7. Do the surveillance-investigators working your case perform physical surveillance as a full-time job?
Private sector physical surveillance is the most difficult investigation discipline to successfully perform on a consistent basis, and should only be performed by full-time practitioners. It is an art form that requires extensive experience, regular practice and expensive equipment.
8. Does the investigation company use the necessary equipment to assist the surveillance-investigators? Investigation companies specializing in physical surveillance and their surveillance-investigator practitioners should use high-tech equipment specific to their craft. For example, a qualified private investigation company will have surveillance-investigators who use long range HD video cameras; FCC licensed two-way radios; rapid deployable compact video cameras that are connected via data (not wi-fi) and drone capability operated by drone experts. Equipment frequently makes the difference between success and failure of a physical surveillance assignment.
9. Ask for a sample surveillance-investigation report and sample invoice.
The invoice will provide you with those potentially unexpected costs, much like the “resort fees” at some hotels. Typical charges are hourly rates and gas mileage fees traveling to and from the physical surveillance location. These are typical pass-through costs that all go directly to the surveillance-investigators. Auto maintenance, fuel cost and auto insurance are at a premium expense these days for surveillance-investigators.
10. Does the person supervising the field surveillance-investigators have private sector physical surveillance experience as a field surveillance-investigator and managing a surveillance team on same type cases, and familiarity with privacy laws and procedures for secure communications with a client?
Just like a sports team or military unit, a qualified experienced supervisor-manager is necessary to achieve optimal positive results and avoid negative situations. There is a significant difference between government (police) physical surveillance and private sector physical surveillance. Government has significantly many more resources and the private sector surveillance practitioner must rely more on individual talent and experience. As a general rule, prior physical surveillance experience in law enforcement is not an indicator that one would be good at physical surveillance in the private sector. If a physical surveillance is to watch a Person of Concern who has threatened the workplace or school, and you want the surveillance team to be armed retired law enforcment, it is best to use qualified surveillance-investigators and place one or two armed retired law enforcement as a passenger with a surveillance-investigator. That arrangement is more cost effective.
11. Most important: At a minimum, have the prospective private investigation company provide you with three credible references who have used the prospective company for the same type of physical surveillance assignment you need.
Unfortunately, it is not uncommon for private investigation companies to falsely claim to be "experts" at physical surveillance. If you have any questions regarding above considerations or believe you have been misled by a private investigation company, please contact us at (888) 965-4827 for a free consultation. Click here for PDF version
These evidentiary video prints were secured in three difference cases. The recorded evidence was very valuable to each case. It was extremely difficult to discreetly obtain said evidence given the circumstances and challenging environments. Only a high-level surveillance-investigator with necessary skill-sets and proper equipment could have this type of success, hence the importance of ensuring you use qualifed surveillance-investigative practitioners.
Some Notes, Asides and Insights on the Surveillance-Investigator Profession
Several seasoned private sector surveillance-investigators contributed to below.
A physical surveillance assignment to surveil a person of concern who has threatened violence at a workplace or school is considered high-stakes, and should only be conducted by qualified high-level performing surveillance-investigators (SIs).
If you are a private investigation company specializing in surveillance-investigations, and believe there was a decision made that an unqualified surveillance-investigation vendor was unfairly contracted by government or academia, you may want to consider filing a California Public Records Act to secure documents to see who did the selection and if the vendor was qualified. There are some exemptions to to the CPRA, one of which would require that an investigation be completed before the requested documents will be provided, such as vendor contracts and related emails and texts.
A large number of physical surveillances are conducted by private investigators with little to no expertise or do it part-time, hence the need to ensure qualified SIs are used on any matter of importance.
Former co-worker referrals, sometimes called "tribal referrals": In law enforcement, especially at the federal level, retirees who are private investigators or in security positions will often refer physical surveillance assignments to a former co-worker private investigator with little to no experience (non-merit based decision) conducting private sector physical surveillance and/or use unqualified SIs. The results are usually not good. This practice of putting revenue gains over success of case objectives may not be fraud, but it is certainly unethical.
Getting burned or not being able to maintain visual contact with the person being surveilled are both failures, and in a high-stakes assignment, serious unfavorable consequences may occur.
A high-level physical surveillance investigator should be getting around $ 70+ per hour on a high-stakes assignment.
Physical surveillance is a necessary tool for most investigative tool boxes. Government agencies from local law enforcement to the FBI to the CIA have full-time dedicated specialized units that are well funded with sophisticated equipment, court approved GPS trackers, aircraft and numerous personnel to conduct high-stakes physical surveillance and gather valuable information and evidence.
According to a ChatGPT inquiry, government physical surveillances cost around $ 26,700 per day and up. The needed resources used by government to successfully conduct physical surveillance on one person well illustrates the difficulty of conducting physical surveillance.
Private sector physical surveillance and government-law enforcement physical surveillance are significantly different; one primarily relies personal traits and skill sets for success, and the other on equipment and technology for success.
In private sector physical surveillance, the numerous and deep resources used by government are not available, so the success of physical surveillance is based almost entirely on an SI’s skill-sets and innate talents, hence the import of choosing a qualified SI. Additionally, just because a person has conducted surveillance as a government employee, it should not be assumed the person has what it takes to be effective in the demanding private sector...rarely does one find a former or current law enforcement person effective at private sector physical surveillance. Most high-level SIs in Southern California do no have backgrounds as government employees.
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There are two key industry measuring sticks used by some private sector physical surveillance professionals for assessment and case management purposes:
Surveillance-Investigator (SI) rating. Much like an athlete in sports, an SI's skills, innate talent and effectiveness are wide ranging. Some specialty physical surveillance investigation companies use the following to identify an SI’s level of performance:
Tier-1 level is an SI who is exceptional in performance, has a record of making good split-second decisions in stressful situations, possesses that mystical 6th sense for determining when too close to subject and when too far from subject, and has a minimum of five years experience as a full-time SI with significant experience on high-stakes assignments.
A Tier-1 SI will appropriately demand the highest hourly rate. Most of these SIs have annual earnings in the six figures in Southern California. The information and evidence that would otherwise not be obtained makes their cost well worth the pay rate. Tier-1 type SIs will likely avoid the many problems others might create.
Tier-2 and Tier-3 are capable but may lack certain traits needed for that Tier-1 performance.
The fourth rating is referred to as the Unknown and are private investigators who claim to do physical surveillance but do not have a known history. We recommend avoiding the Unknown unless the assignment is low risk and the outcome of the physical surveillance is not that important.
Ratings for the subject being surveilled. The Awareness Rating Scale (ARS) is a subjective measure of the subject being surveilled and how alert that subject is to her/his surroundings. The rating ARS-1 through ARS-5, 5 being the most aware.
An ARS-1 on the scale represents a person who is likely not very aware of their surroundings, hence the lowest risk for detecting a tail. For example, the cartoon character with bad eyesight Magoo would be an ARS-1.
ARS-5 is at the top of the rating and represents a very aware subject who is a high risk of detecting surveillance. An ARS-5+ is a subject who actively checks for a physical surveillance, thus requiring extreme measures by the SIs to not be detected. Only Tier-1 level SI's should be used on subjects that are ARS-4 and ARS-5 and up.