[FIND] Expertise - Librarian/Investigator/Salander

Forget what you think you know about librarians. Sure, there are some bespectacled, hair-up-in-a-bun nerdy types still out there, holdovers from the days of Dewey Decimal and card catalogs. But today's hard-core researchers are as likely to sport tattoos and piercings as a group of brainy Suicide Girls, and they are not to be trifled with or in any way underestimated. (Think Lisbeth Salander.)

In a story in the winter 2009 edition of American Libraries titled "The Bunheads are Dead," Ken Haycock and Carla Garner thoroughly dispel the myth of stodgy shushers. Today's librarian is an information analyst, a freedom of information and protection of privacy officer, an information broker. They are highly trained, badass researchers and they likely hold at least a master's degree in library and information sciences (MLIS). 

According to Haycock and Garner, the MLIS students, "...learn higher-order analytical skills for assessing community information needs (whether for a municipality or in the private sector), developing collections of resources to meet those needs, designing programs and services to exploit those resources, and assessing the effectiveness and impact of implemented services." They are, in short, the people you need to access, analyze, and understand information. 

A professional investigator, like a librarian, should be comfortable with in-depth research techniques. Not only should they have access to public records database services, which are necessary, but they should be on a first name basis with the staff at various public offices. They should have the Tax Assessor's phone number on speed dial, have a person in the Planning and Zoning Office, and know the lady at the front desk at the Register of Deeds.

 

And when they have to research in an unfamiliar jusrisdiction, they must have a working knowledge of the process. It's much easier to get information from someone if they think you know the ropes. Your professional investigator will maintain contacts with other professionals in the information industry as well—corporate librarians, investigative journalists, reference librarians, etc.

 

Lisbeth Salander, the fictional bedragoned badass, offers a fantastic example of how this work should be done: Skill, resources, and contacts. Kow how, know where, and know who.

 

Like a librarian, Salander and your professional investigator don't have to know everything, they just have to have an analytical mind, access to resources, and know people who can find/exploit the things they can't.

[FIND] Expertise - How to use your PI - Part 1: The Why's

This series of posts is exerpted from an article produce by Nashville private investigator, Thomas H. Humphreys for Pursuit Magazine. Thomas H. Humphreys holds the CFE designation from the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners. He is [FIND] Investigaitons' lead investigator.

How to best use a private investigator Part 1

If you're a busy attorney, and you've never considered hiring a private investigator, you're throwing away money. No matter how skilled, experienced, or efficient you are, you can't possibly get to all the work that crosses your desk. You can't do the fishing for case-making facts as thoroughly as you would like. And you can't be an expert in everything.

What if you could outsource some of that time, shoe leather, and expertise, bill for it, and say yes to a wider variety of cases? How smart would you look if you had a savvy private eye in your rolodex, a gal with a hefty rolodex of her own?

The Whys:

Outsource Work

The May 5, 2011 edition of The Economist printed a two-page story about the legal industry in America. They use Howrey (one of the world’s top 100 law firms) as an example of sea-change facing the profession. Aside from bankruptcy, securities litigation, and regulation issues, the world of 700 member law firms has been hit hard. Gone are the lucrative mergers and acquisitions (M&A), and it seems that clients are seeking, even demanding, alternatives to the ubiquitous billable hour.

One point The Economist makes: Clients are demanding “…that their lawyers pass certain routine work to cheaper contractors.”

Should lead counsel be in the field interviewing witnesses, canvasing neighborhoods, and personally vetting experts? Someone must, but these things take a lot of time and often lead to endless cul-de-sacs of evidentiary dead ends. Why not pay a professional investigator to track down hard-to-find witnesses, canvas the area, and vet experts?

Outsource Expertise

It used to be that an associate could read up on a topic and brief the partner, each being paid handsomely for the private course of study. Now, more often than not, it makes more sense to bring in a qualified expert in certain fields, pay her a flat fee or lower hourly rate, and likely be better informed in the long run.

The Economist points out that law firms can guarantee themselves work by becoming “…experts in other industries, not just areas of legal practice.” An alternative to this, The Economist points out, would be outsourcing the expertise.

That’s where professional investigators come in. An attorney can leverage expertise, an investigative firm’s collective experience, to his own benefit. A true professional investigator either maintains expertise in various areas, or maintains affiliations with industry specific experts. Either way, an adept lawyer will realize the value of knowing a professional investigator, the consummate information professional, the guy who knows a guy.

First and foremost, attorneys are experts in the law. Some lawyers also craft themselves into industry specific experts: real estate, finance, criminal defense, aviation, medical malpractice, etc. The lawyer/expert is usually a person who takes on one type of case and charges top-of-the market fees for his niche. However, for the majority in the legal profession, criminal defense work can mean anything from a criminal charge for inadvertently carrying a four-inch pocketknife through airport security (a misdemeanor in Tennessee, apparently) to first-degree murder (widely accepted as felonious activity anywhere in the country), and literally anything in between.

Experts in the law, a general defense team should be well equipped to argue legal points; but what about specific issues in obscure cases from various disciplines in which they are not schooled?

Can, or should, counsel review a real estate appraisal report for a fraud case? It seems easy enough, but what about making sure the report follows Uniform Standards of Appraisal Practice? What are the four forces that are required to create value? These are industry-specific issues in which most attorneys do not (nor should they be expected to) have any competency.

Would it be advisable for a lawyer to analyze blood spatter in a crime scene photo? Should an attorney be expected to break down a financial statement and explain in detail whether it is misleading or fraudulent?

Why not hire a professional investigator knowledgeable in that field to bring one up to speed? By delegating work to experts in various fields, counsel makes his firm look savvy, connected, and thorough.

In the end, law firms must decide on a case-by-case basis whether to add a PI to the defense team. If your client left his cheese knife in his backpack after a weekend of hiking and finds himself in the clutches of TSA and airport police, an investigator probably isn’t necessary. If, however, your client has been charged with fraud in conjunction with an eleventy-billion dollar Ponzi scheme, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to consider hiring a professional investigator. Client is a local charged with DUI, no real need for a PI. Client’s an international banking mogul charged with attempted rape, you bet a PI is one of your first calls.

Part 2: The How's will post next week.

Start Over Smart - A Modern Divorce Expo - New York

Nashville private investigator Thomas H. Humprheys on divorce fairs and why they may be a great idea:

Start Over Smart, a Modern Divorce Expo. Hosted at the Metropolitan Pavilion, 125 West 18th Street, NY, NY this weekend. Oh how I wish I had known about this sooner.

[FIND] Lexicon 

Divorce (de vors) n. 1. the legal disolution of a marriage 2. complete or radical severance of closley connected things.

The following stats are taken from the Start Over Smart Expo website:

The chances of a marriage surviving today are roughly equivelent to the flip of a coin. The number of marriages that end in divorce...45% to 50% for first marriages. ...60% to 67% for second marriages. ...70% to 73% for third marriages. The statistics are not necessarily encouraging.

Approximately 10% of the U.S. population has been through a divorce. I'm going to venture a guess that you have either been divorced, are directly related to someone who is divorced, or are close friends with someone who has traveled the long lonely road to splitsville.

The average duration of a divorce proceeding? About a year. And it's often a dificult, painful, embarassing, and ego-crushing experience, but somehow percieved as better than staying in a broken relationship.

Many professional investigators shun domestic work—too tawdry, too messy, beneath them. Here at [FIND] Investigations, we don't mind matrimonial investigations. Domestic investigations, even though they are sometimes tawdry and messy, offer our investigators an opportunity to ply their skills in a nuanced fashion. 

Our team has attended conventions undercover as builders and real estate agents. We've donned western wear and two-stepped in honky-tonks. We've trolled the streets of the French Quarter, looking for illicit behavior. 

The work is, if nothing else, entertaining. It's also, quite often, gratifying.

Husband's being a sanctimonious jerk, lawyered up and ready to fight wife to the bitter end. He has a few words to say about her lifestyle, her friendships, her enjoyment of the bottle, and he wants to win and take all. Wife contends husband is no saint, hires us to document husband's drug use. We obtain high-definition video of husband smoking it up - deadhead style - in the car with a very young lady formerly wearing a mumu and currently wearing only dreads. In mediation, upon being presented with his porn debut, husband's tone suddenly morphs from arrogant jackass to conciliatory. 

Wife brings home the bacon, plays the "I'm just a poor little soon-to-be single mother" card to great impact in meetings. Husband hires us to document wife's affair. We doll up in western shirts and shit-kicker boots and go two-stepping in a local honky-tonk. Wife dances "girls-gone-wild-style" on a table with her boyfriend. They make out in the relative privacy of a dive bar full of strangers, stroll back to their hotel hand-in-hand, and end up in sharing a hotel room at the Hyatt. In mediation wife's tone switches from "poor little me" to outraged power-player in less than a second. 

We don't judge—we just collect information—facts and documentation that often comes in mighty handy at the mediation table. Truth empowers.

Divorce is never an easy thing. Emotions, egos, and hearts all live somewhere out near the edge of a sleeve, exposed and itchy. 

The good thing is that you don't have to walk the road alone. Friends can prop you up. Lawyers (yes I know - but they do serve a purpose) can help you navigate the system. PIs (again, yes I know - but they serve a purpose too) can help you sort out the facts from the hot rhetoric, and gain clarity and understanding. However, it's often hard to know which of these disparate services you really need, as the slow, painful realizations start rolling in. Sometimes you don't know what, or who, you need until it's too late. That's where the most interesting event I've seen in years, the Divorce Expo, might just come in handy. 

What a fantastic idea: a two-day gathering of experts, support services, and fellow travelers. I read about the Paris Divorce Expo a couple of years ago, and decided to skip the event due to -  well - it was in Paris. I just heard about the NY Divorce Expo this morning. Had I known about it sooner, I'd be in NY this weekend.

Maybe soon, we can put together a Divorce Expo right here in Nashville. It would be, if nothing else, entertaining. And most likely quite informative.

I Could Arrest You...

Yep, that's what he said: "I could arrest you." Places and situation changed to protect the guilty.

Client called me Saturday afternoon. Said, "My car was broken into. Can you help me get my stuff back?" 

Not normally what I do, but hey - it's Saturday afternoon on Memorial Day weekend. What else am I going to do? "Sure, I'll do what I can," I said.

I set up a few tricks involving Craigslist and ebay, something to send me an alert when certain criteria were met. Within an hour, I had a perfect match for my client's iPad. "Do you want me to set up a buy?" I asked.

"Yes," Client said.

Here's where it started to go south. I called the Flarksville Police Department to let them know what I was up to. No answer, Memorial Day weekend you know. I called my lawyer to make sure what I was about to do was - at the very least - not illegal, if not outright stupid. "I don't see a problem," Lawyer said.

Off we went. South to the fictional town of Flarksville. Twice I tried to raise the good people at Flarksville's Finest, to no avail. Memorial Day weekend, you know.

I met the suspect in a well-lit parking lot at the intersection of XXXst Boulevard and Ft. XXXXXX Drive in the fictional town of Flarksville.

All tall and tattooed, Mr. Thug got out of his SUV and walked a brand new iPad over to my car. I climbed out into the sweltering heat of late May and shook Mr. Thug's large hand.

"Dude, man - this shit is tight," he said.

"Cool," I said. "My nephew is home from the sandbox tomorrow. Thought this might be a nice welcome home gift."

"Shit, dawg, he gon love this. Man, dude - I'm tellin you, this shit is tight," Mr. Thug said.

I still wasn't clear on exactly what that means, this shit is tight, but it seemed to suggest a ringing endorsement of the merchandise.

After a few minutes of niceties, during which I videotaped Mr. Thug's face, arms (clear shot of tattoos), girlfriend, and license plate, we got down to business. "How much?" I asked.

"Shit, dude, man this is brand new. This shit is tight. This shit sell for $800 retail," Mr. Thug said.

"I'm assuming we're going to be dealing at wholesale prices," I said.

"Awwww yeah, dude. Man, we doin business," Mr. Thug said. "I'm gon let you have this shit for $400, half price." 

Well, of course I couldn't pass a deal like that up. Especially considering the fact that the serial number was an exact match for the iPad my client purchased at full retail just last week.

Man - dude, this shit IS tight.

I peeled off four benjamins and pressed them into his huge open palm, all on video. I was strolling back to my car when an idea hit me. Turning, I asked, "Say, would you mind making out a bill of sale on this? You know, just so we have a record."

"Naw dude, that ain't a problem," Mr. Thug said. "You got some paper?" 

I handed him a sheet of paper from my surveillance field book and he dubtifully penned the following bill of sale:

I, XXXXX XXXXXXX, herby [sic] sell this ipad to XXXX XXXXXXXX for $400. May 28, 2011. 

There are two totally astonishing things about this particular bill of sale. First, Mr. Thug used his real name. Second, he signed it.

Late now, I thought it might be advantageous to see if anyone at the Flarksville PD was around to answer a call. To my utter suprise, a dispatcher picked up on the first ring.

I told her the whole story. "I'll send a patrol car right over," she said.

"Thanks," I said.

Roughly 30 minutes later a young street cop rolled up, exited his vehicle, and approached. I offered a hand in greeting.

"I don't shake," he said. "What's the story here?"

After about 10 mintues of Street Cop berating my client for not adheering to "OpSec" protocol, I asked if it might be possible to speak to his superior. This made Street Cop very happy. 

Superior rolled up 20 minutes later, exited his vehicle, and huddled with Street Cop, whispering authoratatively.

Superior was about five foot six, bald head, tighlty trimmed mustache, and glasses. He walked with his chest out, ready for a confrontation. After about five minutes of briefing and debriefing, Superior called me over.

"Son, I need you to come over here," he said, pointing to a specific spot. I approached, respectfully, if a little tired. As I neared the indicated spot, Superior jumped backward, hand on weapon.

"Son, you need to stop right there," he said. "I don't want you anywhere near my weapon." He gathered up my PI License, my drivers license, and my handgun permit. "Check him out," he said to Street Cop, who dutifully hopped into his cruiser and ran my information.

"Son," he asked in a sarcastic yet authoritative tone, "do you have any law enforcement experience?" 

"No sir," I said

"Well," he said, "I could tell. What you've done here is putting me in a bad position, son."

"Sir, may I ask a favor of you, please?" I asked. And before he had a chance to reply, I said, "I am not your son. Please call me Mr. XXXXXXX or some other courteous name, but don't call me son again."

"You," he said, all red in the face, dome a-gleaming, "DO NOT tell me what to do. I could arrest you for possession of stolen goods. You've just ruined any chance that this ALLEGED thief is ever going to be held accountable for his actions.

"We have PROCEDURES that must be followed," he ranted, on a roll now. "You can't just come in here and buy stolen goods. That's a crime.

"I could have you arrested," he veritably yelled.

*  *  *

Six months later, Mr. Thug pleaded gulity. He was sentenced to six years in prison. Smash and grab theft went to near ZERO after Mr. Thug was arrested (May 29, 2011 - the day after I was told that I could be arrested for possession of stolen goods.). It seems that verified video, fingerprints, a signed and dated bill of sale, and old fashioned detective work actually is admissible in court. And furthermore, Mr. Superior, it is not a crime to gather and return stolen property to its rightful owner. I haven't seen Street Cop since, but really hope to meet him somewhere and shake his hand. Or at least try.

"I don't shake." Really?

Artisanal Techies - And the Entrepreneurial PI

Nashville Private Investigator, Thomas H. Humphreys, noticed an interesting story by Jessica Stillman on Inc.com this morning. “Meet the New Breed of Entrepreneurs: Techie Artisans”

Ms. Stillman interviews a couple of young moguls who marry old school business techniques with hyper-current tools. The results: hand crafted shirts and artisanal preserves backed with tech that would make Captain Kirk jealous.

These artisan producers make their goods one stitch and one simple-syrup at a time. They kick the process into 4G speeds on the back end, retail stores on-line, cloud-based accounting, and social media, all employed to track, streamline, and augment the sales process.

Our little burg of Nashville has several fantastic examples of this artisanal-techie trend. Otis James, our favorite tie maker, built his reputation on fine craftsmanship and solid design, but the business (the sales and marketing, accounting, etc) is powered by tech.

Our friends Matt and Carrie over at Imogene and Willie build what are quite possibly the best damn denim jeans on earth in a tiny cut and sew shop on 12^th Avenue South, right here in our neighborhood. Their website and blog harks back to an era of storytelling and nostalgia, but they track every interaction, every click, every order.

Mike Maher, one of the rock-star entrepreneurs Ms. Stillman interviews, tells the story of L. L. Bean, who, ”…was sending a letter to everybody who registered for Maine Hunting Licenses…” when he was starting his new clothing company. Technology makes that process so much easier. Sure, it’s good to hand write notes to clients, but having the client list available at the strike of a key...

Here at [FIND] Investigations, we often make the comparison between our work and that of a bespoke tailor. Ours is a boutique business. We approach our work in much the same way as these entrepreneurial artisans. From our method of investigation to our reporting, we combine old-school tradecraft with current tech.

When a client comes to [FIND] Investigations they know they’re not buying “just the facts.” They’re buying a package. They’re buying detailed research, in-person interviews, on-site courthouse searches, all performed by seasoned and experienced operatives. They’re buying a finished report that imparts a narrative. They’re paying for detail and depth.

From the custom stamped letterhead on 24lb bond linen paper, to the old-school date stamp on the cover-page of each report, every interaction imparts a since of quality.  But behind every vestige of old school appearance, there lies a deep well of technology.

Some of Our Tech – Tools we use to stay on top 

Mac – [FIND] Investigations is driven by Mac. Our on-site secure server is a Mac. Our laptops, desktops, and portable devices are all Mac. Our investigators all use iPads and iPhones in the field.

Square – [FIND] Investigations started using Square about a year ago. Prior to that our clients had two options for payment, cash or check. Now we just swipe that card and get to work.

Dropbox – [FIND] Investigations uses Dropbox to transfer files from office to iPad. Our investigators upload field notes and photos, the home office downloads them. We pay extra for secure service, but the Dropbox app is fantastic.

Harvest – [Find] Investigations uses Harvest to keep track of time and expenses. Each investigator has a unique pass code and can log in and start a time clock from anywhere using their iPhone. When it comes time to invoice, Harvest has all of the hours, mileage, expenses, etc. ready to go. It also feeds directly into QuickBooks come tax time. 

Squarespace – We host our website here. Squarespace allows us to update from the road (via iPhone or iPad), keep track of Internet traffic, and customize our website with ease.

Social Media – Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn – all available, all the time. 

Other Tech

Cameras – We have acquired bunch of goodies over the past couple of years. We regularly deploy the most advanced hidden cameras, wall chargers, iPod docks, etc.

In the field, we abuse our workhorse Sony HD handycams on a daily basis. The latest hidden camera trick is to just keep it simple and use the iPhone.  Click it to silent mode, turn on the video camera, and hold it to your ear like you're talking. Works every time.

Communication – We use our iPhones extensively while in the field, but sometimes you need to cut down on the conversation and get down to business. We always carry radios as part of our kit. They’re professional grade Motorola radios that work on an itinerant frequency. They’re secure precisely because they are so simple.

It’s true, there is a wealth of technology that makes our work easier, but in the end, it’s the hard work, tradecraft, and attention to detail that makes the case. As with the tech-savvy entrepreneurs mentioned in the inc.com story, our tech, while fun and definitely cool, is simply a tool.