Private Investigator’s in Fugitive Recovery


By Steven De Gon, LPI/CFRA



I feel that this will be a meaningful outline why Private Investigator are better at Fugitive Recovery than the so called “Bounty Hunter”. Foremost private investigators have very good resources as well as the natural instinct in locating individuals. The so called bounty hunter doesn’t have the resources such as IRB, Merlin, LocatePlus, to name a few. We also do further investigations as far as side tracking the individual. When doing fugitive recovery side tracking is important, for the individual that we are hunting always go home to mommy, daddy, husband, wife , son, daughter. They have to have some source of contact with them.
We also go as far , if need be search court records, assets, motor vehicles, and so on. The typical bounty hunter, not saying all, just don’t think outside the box. Bounty hunters don’t require licensing in many states which has the tendency to create “wanna be’s”, or what I would like to call “Cowboys”.
Another thing I find is a problem with the average bounty hunter is they have very poor surveillance skills and patience. It’s kick in the door, and that can create problems for both them and the individual or the party that has nothing to do with the suspect at all and this can be very dangerous for everyone and cause future problems for the industry. This is a business that could create great things for private investigators in the future. Some states have even passed or considering passing laws that only investigators can do fugitive recovery.
Hunting Fugitives is like looking for a needle in a hay stack at times. Some of them are career criminals and they have been running from the law all there lives and they now how to stay hidden. That is where the skills of a Private Investigator comes into play. For, example tracking down the homeless, no address, no car, no family or no family locally, nothing. Where do you start looking. Well a good investigator now’s where to look. There is a old saying , that investigators learn first and foremost you have to “think outside the box”. The application that is filled out when someone is bonded doesn’t always tell the truth. So; the process of elimination starts. So are all the numbers good, are the address right, do they really own that vehicle. This is where IRB comes into play or go to the county building and running records or even possibly go to the County jail and ask them for the arrest records.
These are just a few steps to start with.
Investigating isn’t just in the office you have to go out and do surveillance and ask questions. Sometime talking to people face to face can tell you if they are lying or telling the truth. Or; locating that mother-in-law or father-in-law or ex-wife or husband is a very good start. Remember in our business there is no such thing as a coincidence. Some how one thing leads to another.



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