Despite what you see on TV, private investigators are not all about car chases and gunfights. The job of a private investigator is actually pretty mundane most of the time. Many successful private investigators spend a lot of time doing background checks in the office. Investigations do involve a considerable amount of surveillance work, but a lot of the work is done online in the office.
As an example of what a typical private investigation is like, say you are working for an employer who wants to find out if one of his employees is cheating on his disability benefits. Rather than spending your time doing physical surveillance, you will divide your time between background research taking photos of his activities.
Private investigation firms have different styles. Some prefer the physical aspect of it. They spend more time trying to get photographic evidence showing that the suspect was doing vigorous physical activity and merely pretending to have an injury. Other firms use online investigation. You could perhaps find online records of the suspect running in marathons and going to sports gyms.
Intelligent private investigations typically involve very little exciting action. And if you don’t have to tail someone, you just don’t. Criminal background searches are every bit as important to private investigations as are photos and physical surveillance. And they are much less work too.
