PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR EXPERIENCE Episode 82

On this episode Phil talks about his life as a pi and some of the methods he uses on working cases and how he has  helped others get started, by forming the West Coast Detective Academy in 1989,  as Private Investigators. Phil says that you become a good pi with experience and common sense. For specialized areas there are courses or classes available. In this post Phil focuses on the Art OF Tailing or a moving surveillance. Phil shares some of the trade secrets that helped build West Coast Detectives International to be called The Little FBI. Please like, Share, and subscribe. Thank you so much, 

Transcript

0:05

Hello, this is a Private Investigator Experience podcast, and I'm your host, Phil. Little. On this channel, I talk about the cases in life of a PI and look at events that happened nationally and internationally that could affect us in our communities around crime or other security situations. Today I want to share answers to some of the questions I've been getting. This one I've gotten hundreds of times. What's it really like to be a private investigator? What do you do? How do you operate? I've gotten all these questions over the last 50 years at least, and I've I worked from my military law enforcement, intelligence service, and global security background. But before I get to this post, I'd like to thank everyone who has liked, shared and subscribed and help us grow the channel. That really helped us a lot. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. In 1989. I formed the West Coast Detectives Training Academy. After we had run the West Coast Detective Agency for many years, and we formed this to train men and women how to operate as a pi. Either open their own businesses or go to work for a government or corporation in their security departments. I formed the academy after receiving numerous requests for this much needed education program that was lacking in the investigative field. We had so many people wanting to join West Coast detectives, but they've lacked any experience or any kind of basic training. When I transitioned from the law enforcement to the private sector, there wasn't any training available. I had to rely on my. Training I had and as I went along with the help of some mentors, this process was slow and I learned from my mistakes establishing the training academy. Was a solution to this hit and miss on the job training, and I wanted to give back. I feel that any of us, whatever career we're in, if we have information that will help the public good, we should be sharing that with everyone that we can. Our program was a 12 week intensive training program. We covered all aspects of the case management techniques for working on all types of cases. Anything that the recruits would encounter in the field. And then we combine that classroom lecture with experts that specialize in those fields on a day-to-day basis. They had that practical training they gave them. Then they went in the field and got in the field training on the job in various types of techniques. One would be tailing with one agent or multiple agents also detecting when they were being tailed. Research and reporting. Participated in surveillance and conducted pre-text home interviews and much more. In our business, it's like law enforcement. The phone rings and there's a person with a problem on the other side, and you never know what it's going to be. We emphasize to our recruits the importance of how they look, how they dress. Appearance means so much in all of our fields, no matter what, where we're working and what we're doing. Trained our recruits on maintaining an open and friendly demeanor, earning trust by actively listening and being discreet when asking questions to obtain information. Sometimes would the people didn't want to tell you that. I've had so many stories that when I've been at somebody's door on other situations and I've just been talking to the person, I felt they had something that could help, and they would be saying no, I don't really know anything. I can't really help you. I don't know this person. I would stand there talking and just asking questions. And overwhelmingly, they would openly say, oh yeah. And they, they would start telling me what to do. If I would've just take, took'em at face value turn and walked away, I wouldn't been able to solve those cases. if you're a private investigator, you have to dress for each situation. You might be in a formal situation where you need a suit and tie, you are up scale casual, maybe just street clothes jeans and a t-shirt or beach scenes. We work a lot of cases where we're on the beach, so you need a bath suit handy and a. A t-shirt or something. And you have to be prepared. Recruits were instructed to keep an emergency bag in their car when they're out working cases in obtaining a change of clothes, like a hat, a jacket, shorts shirts. And then be ready to do a quick change in your car if necessary. If the situation changed on this case you were working prior to the airport security checks. This was back in the old days, we would have some surveillance operations and tails being conducted on a target who would proceed to the airport and going to border plane. This was when you could walk into the airport. We had books with pre-bought tickets that all the person needed to do was put their name in it and destination, and the ticket agent then would would stamp it. And time after time when this happened, they would follow the person into the airport listen to them, be close enough to'em where they could hear where they were going, and then they would buy that one-way ticket in cases where maybe they didn't have the wriite in tickets. They'd use cash or a credit card, and our agents on surveillance needed to be prepared for that. And then after the airport security measures were implemented and the cash buying one-way tickets became more difficult at times. Now it's not so bad, but we had to plan for cases by assessing did this target have the possibility of traveling? Was there anything in the background from client or. Something that might give us direction on that, then we prepare for that accordingly. During our initial interview with the recruit, the goal was to identify their preferences, inners motivations for becoming a private investigator what their passion was. This was important to help the recruit. Focus on an area of investigation, what was suited to their skills and interests, even though they might be doing a lot of different things. But I found in my area, when I left law enforcement and went into private investigation, over time my focus became much on our international operation and counter-terrorism. And that was where my passion was at. So we looked for that to. And find a mentor. We did mentoring for our students and private counseling to help them go through the course and come out of it, A productive private investigator ready to go to work tailing which I'm gonna focus on in this short post requires quick thinking, fast reactions. And boldness little gutsy and not all investigators are suited for tail. Each recruit progresses varying abilities and it was necessary to determine the strongest skill they had. Out of our hundreds of agents we had working for the West Coast detectives over the years I only remember one person that stands out that was a one man. Who could tell anybody Los Angeles and never lose all day. This agent had almost 20 years with LASO, Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, and he was in the drug and organized crime area, and he was following people around all day. He drove a big old four door caddy and he was always right behind the target, no matter the traffic. He'd tell me stories that he'd be over in the left lane of traffic following this organized crime guy. And suddenly he would cut across three lanes and go off a off ramp. He would be right behind him. And later on when we would talk to these subjects, they would find that the guy had no idea that somebody was following him, even though somebody made that bold move across the freeway. And the problem is with tailing in the private sector, unlike the public sector budgets are an issue. And rarely do we have the opportunity to have multiple agents as cities such as losan, Los Angeles has become busier. There was the necessity that we had to have at least two agents for surveillance, and sometimes three or four, depending on the client's budget, in situations where it was essential to maintain contact with the target, such as in a. Child custody case where the parent that had maybe was involved in some sort of dependency or alcohol, drugs or something, and the client said, don't lose them. And they had the financial means. We would've four agents on the ground and A helicopter up for support to assist the ground teams Recruits were trained in tailoring of surveillance in the classroom, the mechanics of it, looking at diagrams, videos. Blackboard presentations. Then they would go in the field with an agent, either on an actual tail or do a training scenario that we'd set up. So they had first firsthand knowledge of what it was really like in the middle of a busy traffic day. And then the first item on our training check list when we had a tail or surveillance coming up. Would to the work on the location where the would begin, and if from the client, any places at the might be to visit or might be going. If a tail was to be commenced at 7:00 AM the agents were required to be on site and ready to proceed at least one hour. Earlier they needed to bring water, food, and any, all the plans for bathroom situations if the tail ex extended over several hours. Next on the checklist was ensure that. Depending on the season and the temperature agents were to wear loose fitting and comfortable clothes and shoes where that wouldn't be a uncomfortable thing if they were sitting in a car for a long period of time. Following that, they were instructed to use a nondescript. Gray or mute, muted power vehicle, not a new one, preferably one a few years old. That would not attract attention in many instances. We would rent cars just a normal standard gray car, sedan of some sort for a tale. I remember when I started out in private investigation, at one point I had this orange Corvette. It was not the card to do tailing with. It was a little bit too noticeable. So we don't use cards like that. Next on our checklist was communication. if it was a single agent tail, they would have a radio and cell phones. And if there was a multiple teams, the lead agent would handle communications with the headquarters. But each agent would have the radio and there would be radio communications for instant communications. And later on, of course, cell phones become a popular thing to have also, but the radio was much quicker to get response from. And then the tailing techniques when traffic conditions allow agents were advised to maintain a loose tail and driving the lane adjacent to the target's car, either to the left or right, whichever might be appropriate. And we try to avoid giving away a full view of the vehicle. Yeah, they might see the front of a car, but it's more hard to identify it. We didn't want them to get a full look at our car, seeing what type it was, color it was, and who was driving it. Now, when traffic was congested. We instructed our agents to tighten the tail and if necessary, stay direct behind the target to avoid being boxed in if the, target made a right turn or a left turn, or whatever they might be doing. Now we, we train the agents to assume that, it, that it, in rare cases, would a tail that we were tailing be looking if someone wants to follow it unless they were professional or had some reason to expect surveillance. we have had cases that the client. Told the person in an emotional exchange, oh, I'm gonna have you follow it. But they forgot to tell us that early in my career, I realized that it was my own fear, making me feel conspicuous. I swore that car behind them, that person was looking through the mirror and they saw me there and they knew that I was following them. That's not the case. And we would train our agents so they didn't have to go through what I went through early on. And that they're not being watched, they're not being alerted in any way. And they stay on the targets tail. Early in my career, I realized that my own fear made me feel conspicuous. I would be behind this car and I would swear they were looking in the mirror right at me, and they knew I was there. But interviews with multiple suspects later revealed they didn't have any idea that they were being tailed. So we trained our recruits to follow techniques for spotting a tail if they were being followed. Also first make three right turns back to where your starting point was to see if someone is following you. Another method is pulling over and looking at the rear view mirror to check for suspicious cars. Somebody that might swerve to the curb real fast about a few cars back and be there waiting. And then sit there a few minutes and before driving off, observe if there's any familiar vehicles following. You. Watch your rear view mirror mirrors you pull out and if you see a car. Three or four cars back parked on the side of the street, suddenly pull out and follow you. And they pulled in there when you stopped. Pretty good sign. Somebody's trying to follow you. Agents are taught to remain calm, yet alert when, traffic positions them beside the target. They have no way to avoid it. It just happened. They shouldn't be looking over at the car or the target. They just looked like they're interested in driving in traffic and keep driving. And if it's a multiple tail, then one of the other parallel cars or car further back would pick up and do the tail. If it was a situation where it was a one person tail, the agent should go on and then make a right and try to come back and pick up the party if possible. But in most cases, unless it was just something highly critical, usually we would tell the agent, if you think you've been blown. They have identified a tail drop off, and then we'll pick it up another day. We won't blow it. By having the person really know and determine that they were were being tailed. We also tell the recruits and all of our agents, if you're driving in a tail surveillance situation, you are on the move. You should be a block out in front of that car. Watch it for that stoplight coming up. A lot of people will run yellows They're aggressive drivers. Some drivers are aggressive and fast. We usually know that before we start an assignment. But if you have that situation you need to be behind them. In this case, not over to The side and be watching for something they might do.'cause many times they won't turn on signal. But try to be anticipating if they're going to make a right turn on you, you are ready to back off some, but also make a right dislike and be a casual car followed even if some, another car or two had to get in between you and them. And, but being aware, alert and you've gotta be a quick thinker. You've gotta be an aggressive driver. Now, I won't tell you all the situations that I've been in and some moves I made that woo probably be kosher. If I was still wearing a uniform, I would probably give myself a ticket. And, but, make a move in a car on a surveillance that you're on a tail that might cause a hazard that might jeopardize on the traffic. If you have to lose the person in that kind of a situation, then you just have to do it. But then if that happens, try to swing around scan the areas, drive around the areas, pre notice by the client, where the person might be going. Then don't give up justly and say, oh I blew it. I lost them. Stay out there. Keep looking. And many times we'll find that I've had this happen also. And a lot of our agents, they would pick the person back up going by live on the side street and they would be back on them again on the tail. Advanced work and comprehensive client information often help helps us re locate and if, again, if that ha is temporarily lost, don't give up and. Keep searching that area before you call and say, Hey I lost them. Be persistent. Be aggressive. Stay with it. This might work out really positive for you. Agents should recognize if their target detects a tail by several different things. If you a target car, suddenly that car turns down a side street and pulls over and stops. Just continue driving. Let another agent take over if we were in a multiple agent. Also be looking at your re mirror if you can, to see if the person's looking at you or maybe they're looking down at a map or texting or something else. Try to determine that if you're a one person tail, and then if you go up the street, find a place that you could pull over and park. And be doing something in your car to see if the person comes on by you and then doesn't pull up beside you and say, Hey, why are you following me? We have had that occur occasionally, a time or two. Then you can re pick up the tail, but if you think the target the text, the tail, and there isn't any way to. Reinstate it and you're just a one agent tail like I said before drop it off. We'll pick it up another day. Tailing is an art combined with experience. If the recruit likes a fast-paced day and is ready for the unexpected and has the skills they learned from their training ready for use tailing will define the recruit as ready for the real world of a private investigator because if you can go out on a real tail and stay with the car around city traffic, you're ready to do most anything. I appreciate your comments and questions. Please leave them on any of the platforms or email me directly at p little pi777@gmail.com. Also, if you have a situation in your family or business and you wonder, could a private investigator really help me? I've had so many people tell me I wished I'd known you two or three years ago when I had this problem. I didn't know a private eye could help. So if you have that. Send it to me in a summary to my email, plittlepi777@gmail.com I will review it and I will get back to you with possible solutions. Remember, you could make a difference in your community. When you get proactive, find out what the problems are with crime G, what's going on in your streets, like criminals being let out by permissive prosecutors. Check it out. Find it out. Then let your voice be heard in whatever form you have or can communicate in. Together we can make a difference. Until next time, be safe. May God bless you, your family, and may God bless America.