Private investigators can do everything from security services to surveillance to background investigations to searching for missing persons.
But regardless of your personal reasons for hiring an investigator, your specific choice of investigator is going to have the biggest impact on the outcome of the investigation. In fact, a good investigator can completely change the outcome of the case.
In order to make sure that you hire a investigator who will be well worth your financial investment, here are the top five traits that you need to look for in a private investigator in NYC:
#1 – They Must Be Licensed
First and foremost, the investigator you hire must be licensed, without question. In several jurisdictions throughout the country, private investigators are actually required by law to have a license.
This license requires the investigator to be both trained and to undergo background checks in order to obtain. This means that an investigator you hire with a license will have much more experience under their belt, be trained in what they do, and should be safe to work with.
You can also go to the online license verification services to find out if the investigator is indeed licensed and not just saying they are.
#2 – Credentials
After confirming that the investigator you want to work with is licensed, you next need to check and verify their credentials. Investigators can provide a very wide variety of services, as we discussed above.
However, most private investigators do not perform each of those services either. Instead, most investigators will specialize in a few specific areas where they have more training and experience.
For example, if a private investigator used to work as a police officer, that’s going to give them different skills and experience than if they served as an arson investigator.
Besides making sure that your investigator is trained and experienced in a specific field, you also will want to confirm that they are well trained and experienced overall. An investigator who is well trained is far less likely to cause issues such has a conflict of interest or breaching your client confidentiality agreement.
3 – Passion For What They Do
The next trait you will want your investigator to have is a strong passion for what they do. This means that they will have much more motivation to accurately solve cases and to perform high quality work.
Private investigators who truly love what they do will stay up late or wake up early to study the details of a case or to do any other tasks related to the investigation. A passionate investigator will also contact you often to keep you fully up to date on the details of the case and how it is progressing.
To find out how passionate your investigator is, ask him or her how long they’ve been at it. If they’ve been doing their job for a long time, it’s a good sign they like what they do.
4 – Friendliness and Sociable
There are many reasons you want your private investigator to be friendly and sociable beyond the fact that they will be easier to work with.
For one thing, it means that the investigator will be more easily able to hide what they do and thus appear to be completely harmless to the individuals or organizations who are under investigations. This means that the investigator could win over the trust of someone who under scrutiny, and they will also have a much easier time to gain the trust of informants.
5 – Respectful
Last but not least, you need an investigator who is truly respectful. This means they should not fabricate any evidence just to make you feel better, respect the terms of your confidentiality agreement, and so on.
You should inquire about the details of the investigator’s previous cases. If they willingly reveal a lot about those cases up front, who’s to say they won’t do the same to you later too? A good investigator may tell you a little about the types of cases they have worked on, but they won’t reveal to you specific details of them.
Hiring A Private Investigator In New York City
The five traits that we have covered here today will easily be the most important ones for you to use when you go about finding a private investigator in New York City to hire.
