More on what we Do
Bugs.
This is another name for listening devices that are used covertly. Our company, Professional Process Servers & Investigators, Inc., has the capability to electronically “sweep” for these bugs, and we do this for several large companies; they get swept twice a year.
To be more specific, we have had high-profile individuals here in South Florida who have been involved in divorce cases and hired us to sweep their new residences. The motive behind this was to make sure their spouses were not using these audio devices or hiring a detective to work on their behalf. We can also do counter-surveillance measures to make sure the husband or wife is not being followed by another investigator.
This type of service is something that is understandable for well-known individuals. However, it is not something we do on a regular basis.
Planting a bugging device on someone’s car to track where he/she is going seems like a simple fix to catch someone’s whereabouts. However, this is not legal. The only way this can lawfully be done is if someone hires an investigator and a device is placed on a vehicle this person owns. For instance, a guy may want to know where his wife is taking his or their vehicle at 2:00 in the morning. If you were in this position, wouldn’t you want to know the same?
“But we believe in not even getting close to the grey line,” Bob, President of Professional Process Servers & Investigators, Inc., warns.
The work we do is always legitimate, and we always make sure to abide by the law and by the Florida Statutes, especially because the majority of our clients are law firms.
A privilege we have, which is a key advantage for investigators and law enforcement agencies in general, is special access to databases and sites that allow us to obtain discreet information about individuals. For instance, say we are working on an accident case and have an accident report. There is a witness, John Doe, with an address and date of birth taken by the police officer at the scene. Three years later, the case is going to court and the witness needs to be subpoenaed to take a deposition. However, it is discovered this person moved two years ago.
There are certain sources we use that allow us to locate individuals in circumstances such as these. The company that owns this particular database monitors Bob, our lead investigator, to make sure all their information is secured, locked up, and shredded.
We have a responsibility to protect the privacy of the individual, just as we protect the dates of birth and social security numbers provided in subpoenas for records by redacting them. There is no reason for personal information to get out there. The only other party that needs to have the individual’s information (i.e. vehicle information, tag information, etc.) is the process server going out to serve the document(s).
Here at Professional Process Servers & Investigators, Inc., we also do simple asset searches of real properties, cars, boats, planes, trains, pretty much anything that is considered to be a real property. When it comes to banking-related information, we are able to obtain this, but because of the amendments to the Privacy Act of 1974 (Computer Matching and Privacy Protection amendments) that were enacted in the 1990s, as private investigators, with today’s new technology, it is practically next to impossible. However, with a certified copy of a judgment from our clients, we can search banks and search for individual bank accounts by using the person’s information.
Once we obtain this information, we forward it to the client, who then sends over a writ of garnishment and finds out how much money is in the account. This is how attorneys are able to satisfy judgments. Most of this work is actually done electronically.
Our services are not confined within the United States; we actually perform investigative duties internationally. If a client wants to pay money for the team to go to another country, find an individual, and perform surveillance on this person, we can do this. We have a network of mostly retired FBI agents whose members are tactful and ready to take on these heavy jobs.
Once, there was an individual here from Sweden who was claiming a very severe injury. He showed up in court unable to walk, unable to talk, and barely able to lift his head. Afterward, he got on the plane and went back to Sweden. One of our retired FBI agents there was able to get video of the gentleman walking his grandchild into the park, and he was playing with the child, pushing the child on the swings, throwing the child up in the air and catching it.
“It was pretty damaging,” Bob said.
When the man came to his next hearing, he showed up in court in a wheelchair. When the video was shown in the courtroom, the case was thrown out.
Our most popular investigative service at Professional Process Servers & Investigators, Inc. is running skip traces. We do about 5-10 of these a day, and we do an average of two background checks a day.
The point of sharing what other services we do on a regular and on a not-so-regular basis is to expose what actually goes into a typical investigation. Sure, serving documents is the bulk of our business, but the investigative side of things is a lot more intricate and is necessary at times. There will always be jobs that require some extra attention and thorough examination.
Even when documents are served to someone, this does not mean that everything is over. There are still trials and hearings and depositions that subsequently take place that ultimately determine the weight of the case, and sometimes, along with these, come investigations of the persons seeking relief.
As I stated in my previous post on surveillance, no, we are not stalkers. However, the investigative work we do requires us to act covertly and use our best judgment to obtain as much information as we can on an individual. The main objective of the investigator is to gather information and nothing more. Investigators do not enforce laws and are not directly involved in the cases they work.
The simple goal is to get to the truth.
