Is it possible to do an investigation in a day? Yes. Also, is it possible to do it well? That’s what we’ll talk about today.
“I want to hire a private investigator for an hour in “Villarepuertas de Guzman”, three hours from the capital.”
Sounds odd? exaggerated? Maybe to the inexperienced ones. The investigators who are reading me now have heard this a lot, over and over. Before answering the key question we are going to share a couple of concepts:
Possibility vs. Probability
“Everything is possible but not equally probable,” said a statistician, and it’s one of the phrases that have been most stick to my head from my university years. Just behind the one of “Does anyone know when they are going to upload the grades of the test?” And “Why have they canceled this class without telling us and made us waste our time like this?” Okay, the “today I’m not coming to class, I’ll stay in the bar” was also very important but it’s harder to admit.
Let’s get to the point. It is not the same thing saying that something is possible than saying that something is likely. Is it possible that at the exact same moment you find out that you have won the lottery a lightning strike you in the head? It’s possible but probably not so much.
Possibility is “yes or no” thing, there are no intermediate values.
We are used to say “impossible” to those things that are only remotely probable. But possibility is radical, or it is possible or is not. If it’s remotely probable then it’s possible.
Fidel Castro said that Cuba and the US would only reconnect when there was a black US president and a Latin American Pope. In those moments that was really unlikely, but it was possible, and well… here we are.
The pre investigation
I’m really sure they have said it before, and you have experienced it sometime, things don’t usually work very well if you rush them. Although there is an impulse and desire, sometimes it’s better to slow down a little because by hurrying you may find that you lose an opportunity and maybe you won’t have another.
The previous investigator phases
Private investigators have two very important pre-stages in every investigation; these are two phases that customers don’t like to pay but then if they are not done, they would like to have paid. They are:
The planning
Basically it is the compilation of all data that can fall in your possession, even the most irreverent, and the organization of these data and the analysis of the customer demand.
What does our client really need and how can I get it?
Many times it doesn’t match your initial request and you will have to learn to reason your proposal. Surely they would want it faster and cheaper, but life is not usually like this, neither in this job nor anything else.
The first contact
It’s that first moment, with all the data in your hands and the perfect plan, where you realize that things are not as they had been told and that you’re going to have to readapt your plans to reality. And it always happens, and it will continue to happen, no matter how well you prepare the topic and plan like a champion.
In a contract of one week nothing happens, you already have it planned and won’t affect at all the final result. The sooner you figure out which part of the plan is failing the better.
The problem is when you only have 1 day and you have hardly any data.
Surveillance is not easy or difficult
99% of the times when someone is lost in surveillance are because of the traffic. And these conditions are sometimes unalterable. They happen and they will continue to happen.
Where experience and previous planning has a great weight is in recovering from these adverse conditions and even anticipating them. Getting to the junction with 3 possible roads and deciding for one that is correct will depend many times on whether you have followed that person before, and if you can figure out, based on the data you have, where he/she is going.
This preparation is what increases the probability of success from 33.3% to 80%.
And yes, I’m focusing on surveillance of infidelities, basically because those are the cases where clients want performances “Do it now! I know they are seeing each other right now.”
So… Are they possible or not?
Possible yes, but sometimes more difficult.
It’s hard to explain to people that it’s in their best interest to control their anxiety and to come up with a realistic plan. Sometimes we lose those clients, but it’s better to lose them by not offering them the service they want, that to probably fail the case and disgrace the whole profession with a more than likely bad result.
Is it possible that this article was relevant and enjoyable to all the readers?
Yes.
It is probable?
No. and that was not my intention anyway.
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