Sleuthing In Seekerville

-->

by Colleen Collins and Shaun Kaufman.

We loved being invited to blog for Seekerville because that’s what we, as private investigators (PIs) do for a living: seek. Every day we seek information about people, places, and things:

• People who’ve disappeared, moved, or committed/witnessed crimes.
• Places where events occurred, evidence might have been left, or people can be found.
• Things that are evidence, contain clues, or reveal data.

Besides both of us being writers, we also teach classes to writers on a variety of investigative topics at www.writingprivateinvestigators.com. Therefore, we thought it’d be interesting if we elaborated on five investigative questions we’re most often asked by writers.

Most-Asked Question #1: Do All PIs Carry Concealed Handguns?

Answer: It's interesting how many people assume PIs carry guns. We don't (our stun guns are sufficient), and we know many other PIs who don't carry as well. Yet it seems the majority of PIs in movies, books, TV shows them wearing/using guns. A few years ago, there was a best-selling novel starring a junior PI (she'd just started work in her relative's PI agency) and she carried a Glock in her glove compartment. The premise of the story was that her relative couldn’t trust her to take on any serious investigative jobs, so she'd been relegated to hunting down an occasional cheating spouse or a lost cockatiel—and for those jobs, she carried a Glock? For us, that seriously stretched the story's believability.

But many fictional PIs do carry firearms, and if the author makes it credible, it makes for a great read. Robert Parker's female PI Sunny Randall comes to mind. A former cop with grit and smarts, it's plausible and nail-biting when Sunny pulls out a rifle and blasts the bad-guy as he trespasses her front door, leaving a bloody crime scene in her own living room.

Just keep in mind that under the conditions any real-life PI would legally carry a firearm, so would a fictional PI. That's not saying all fictional PIs have to conform to the letter of the law—in a recent novel by Julie Leto (Dirty Little Secrets), her PI was prohibited by law from carrying a firearm, but she did anyway (which said a lot about her character, and also created some amusing scenes as she attempted to keep the gun a secret).

Keep in mind, too, that in the real world armed PIs rarely (if ever) get into the kind of gunplay seen in fiction. Many PIs will tell you that if gunplay or a fight breaks out, it indicates an investigator isn't doing her job well. When a surprised client asked PI Jim Rockford (from the Rockford Files TV series) why he didn't carry a gun, he said, "Because I don't want to shoot anybody." After all, the primary guiding forces for any investigator are stealth and discretion.

Most-Asked Question #2: When Does Surveillance Become Stalking?

Answer: Let’s start with checking the ethics in one’s motive for conducting surveillance. If the surveillance performed serves a purpose of obtaining information that PIs usually obtain, then courts will uphold rigorous surveillance. A few years ago, an individual in Michigan sued Henderson Investigations for a violation of the Michigan stalking law for actions the investigators took during an insurance surveillance. The PI firm fought the case all the way to the Michigan Supreme Court, which agreed with the PIs that “surveillance by private investigators contributes to the goal of obtaining information and amounts to conduct that serves a legitimate purpose. Even though plaintiff observed the investigators following him more than once, this is not a violation of the stalking law.” (In summary, the Michigan Supreme Court dismissed the lawsuit outright and never allowed it to the stage where a trial was held.)

Contrast this with a situation where a PI is hired to simply “put the muscle” on a witness or opponent in a lawsuit. Repeated contact in the absence of an information-gathering purpose is a road sign indicating the on-ramp to stalking and illegal harassment.

Most-Asked Question #3: Is It True that PIs and Cops Don’t Get Along?

Answer: We get this question a lot. PIs and police both feed at the same trough of information, and because they are competitors for information (especially from witnesses) they sometimes clash. These clashes can include withholding information from one another; however, if the right personalities are involved and trust is abundant, then an atmosphere of cooperation and sharing is possible and can produce significant investigative results.

For example, a few years ago, the NY police cooperated with local PIs to break a theft ring in the garment district.

Most-Asked Question #4: In movies, TV, and in books, PIs break the law all the time—do real-life PIs ever do anything illegal?

Answer: Not if they want their evidence to be admissible in a court, nor if they want to keep their license and their reputation. Dirty PIs may make a case, but they burn a career.

But let’s turn this around to writing fiction–imagine how it bumps up the stakes and tension if a fictional sleuth, knowing he/she is committing a felony, does it anyway. They illegally track with a GPS, knowing the consequences if they get caught, but they’re doing it for a compelling reason (to save a child, for example). Adds complexity and tension to the story, doesn’t it? Or they go into the gray zone and purchase that illegal cell phone software as a last means to track a killer. As a writer, knowing what’s legal or not for your protagonist sleuth helps you crank up the stakes and add plausibility.

Most-Asked Question #5: Who do you think are the most realistically portrayed PIs in books or other media?

Answer: We’re often asked this, and it’s a tough one to answer because too often books (and other media) add flash and drama to make the PI protagonist seem bigger and badder than how he/she might really be in the real world. For example, searching public records is a cornerstone of a private investigator's skill set, but it's pretty tedious work (hardly worthy of a TV show).

This isn't a PI, but both of us love the Jesse Stone character in recent made-for-TV movies (starring Tom Selleck as Jesse Stone). He's a police chief in a small town, and his crafty, persistent, insightful approach to investigations feels very right-on to us.

We're both diehard Rockford fans, even though no PI in their right mind would do lengthy surveillances in a shiny gold muscle car (talk about sticking out!). Nor do PIs get embroiled in the quantity of violence and lengthy car chases Rockford does. But if you peel that away, he's a hard-working, blue-collar character that reminds us of many PIs.

We’re big fans of authors Reed Farrel Coleman and Sean Chercover—both create three-dimensional, compelling, realistic PIs. Interestingly enough, Reed Farrel Coleman never even spoke with a real-life PI while creating his fictional PI Moe Prager, but we’re guessing his research with a retired NYPD homicide detective helped him make Moe Prager (who’s a retired cop turned PI) very realistic. Sean Chercover, on the other hand, is a former PI.

One of Colleen’s favorite PI short stories ("Death Flight" by Ed McBain) stars a tough PI (Milt Davis) who's filled with doubt about handling a particular case because he thinks he's unqualified. And, in truth, he is (which also happens in real-life private investigative work). Milt Davis’s grit, native intelligence, and determination to see a job through make him a realistic PI.

Thank you, Seekerville, for inviting us to be guest bloggers.

Any questions, feel free to comment and we’ll answer. All who comment will be eligible for two giveaways: a “Writing PIs in Novels—Keeping Sleuths Real on the Page” T-shirt (size L only) or a free class (Crime Scenes, Homicides, & DNA in October, Surfing the Web and Digging for Dirt in November, or Trials 101 in December) from http://www.writingprivateinvestigators.com/.

Winners’ names to be picked Friday, September 25.

Bios:

Colleen Collins http://www.colleencollins.net/ is a PI by day, a multi-published author by night. Her articles on private investigations have appeared in PI Magazine, NINK (Novelists, Inc.), and other publications. A member of the Private Eye Writers of America (PWA), Mystery Writers of America (MWA), and Romance Writers of America (RWA), she's written 20 novels for both Harlequin and Dorchester and has spoken at conferences and workshops about writing private eyes in fiction. She and Shaun teach classes to writers at writingprivateinvestigators.com and blog about investigative trends and techniques at Guns, Gams, and Gumshoes

Shaun Kaufman has worked in and around the criminal justice field for over 25 years, as a former trial attorney and a current investigator. He's published articles in PI Magazine, the Denver Law Review, and authored numerous briefs for the Colorado Court of Appeals, Colorado Supreme Court, and the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals. Shaun is a popular speaker at conferences, entertaining and educating writers with his insights and expertise about investigations, crime scenes, how PIs effectively testify in trials, and more.