By Steve Pease/Michael Chandos
I'm 79 (as of last Saturday - one more year 'til Hell freezes over). I've been involved in part-time PI work since my Junior year in college, and I ran my own single-proprietor LLC biz (Glass Key Investigations) for 8 years. I was licensed in Colorado and New Mexico, and did tasks all over the world and in three countries. The work was fun and fulfilling. Running a business was Less fun.
I'm currently judging an annual contest for PI/Detective stories. It's always a learning experience, reading several dozen published stories, sometimes with widely varying story structures, sometimes with very ordinary plots. Writers have a broad understanding of the PI profession. Most are hugely influenced by Hollywood and have a cliché understanding. A few seem to have studied the craft. A few. Sometimes that's ok. Hollywood and fiction writers aren't in the documentary business. They are producing entertainment. They don't necessarily have to reflect absolute reality. But, I think they should at least reflect an understanding of "truth" as far as their story is concerned. They often have the title character doing things that would violate the law and Remove their license. Like planting, altering or picking up evidence. Shooting people. Solving crimes.
Really. I never solved crimes. There's a police force for that. Crimes are solved by Law Enforcement and a civil prosecutor. I investigate privately and work for the defense. A Private Investigator. Detectives work for the Police Department.
A PI may never comb a crime scene for clues. The Police won't let anyone near a crime scene until they "release" it, and by then it's messed up, dirty, with little evidence remaining. The PI may never be hired to investigate the crime scene. They might be asked to look into the entire event to see if evidence was collected correctly, properly, and the PI will search for additional witnesses, do preliminary interviews, look for what's missing, in concert with the client or, more probably, the defense attorney. Usually, the PI works under the protection of the defense council.
Writers can learn more about PIs by doing two things: consult the State on their PI licensing standards and processes, and by spending time with PIs. By 'em lunch. Look for the State's licensing material under the Secretary of State, Professional Licensing, or a similar office. Makes notes about everything, gather context, terms for things and war-stories. Let me close with one about trash dumps.
In most States and municipalities (but not all), once you put property on the curb for the trash collector, it is available to anyone. We were supporting a child support case, often nasty emotions involved. The mother was going out at night and leaving the kids with aging Grandpa on Friday afternoon, and not picking them up until Saturday. We photographed G'Pa sitting in his car port on a lawn chair, drinking beer all afternoon. The kids ran wild, got filthy, pee'd on the bushes, sipped his beers when he fell asleep. He rolled out the trash can that night, evidence for our taking. We came by at 2 AM in an older, nondescript pickup, dumped the cans quietly into the truck bed and sped off. The trash was pizza boxes, beer bottles, internet gambling receipts, cigarettes. Evidence for the ex-husband to prove the kids were better off with him. He won that decision.
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