Top Five Myths Related to Private Detectives and Investigator

by Sanjeev Kumar Private Detective Agency in Delhi

A private detective, also called a private investigator or private eye (often abbreviated to PI) is a person who is hired by someone to undertake investigation related work. A private investigator can work in a very varied field. A private detective can be hired by any individual for personal works like pre matrimonial investigations or screening, post marriage investigation, extra marital affair investigation, drug abuse by children or spouse, property investigation, criminal investigation, background analysis check etc. A PI can also be hired for corporate investigations, intellectual property right investigation, employee verification, due diligence, debugging and sweeping exercises etc. There are also detectives who specialize in some specific forms of investigations like insurance investigation, banking investigation, forensic, cybercrime related, data theft investigations etc.

The carrier of a PI is full of adventure, amusement, mirth, delight and is never monotonous in nature. It is a very entertaining profession, if one enjoys the life in it. However, due to its charming nature a lot of Hollywood and Bollywood fictional movies have been produced on detectives. The fictional movies have given a definite color to mysterious private investigator.

Here are the top 5 myths of a private detectives -

· Myth#1 :- The general appearance and nature of private detective – Generally the public perception about a private detective is a rain coat and hat wearing cigar smoker, who always wear sunglasses and uses a cane. However, none of it is close to reality and it is a work of fiction only. A PI should always look very common and normal in appearance so that, he can mix up in public without being busted or exposed. A private investigator will never do anything silly, which can blow away the cover. Often the operation carried out by private detective are very discrete and had to be carried out covertly. Due to a series of James Bond movies, people carry the perception that a PI is a sex starved individual who always like to have multiple sexual partners and always try to seduce women. People also think that private detective are rogue in nature and are not compassionate or kind, but PI is like any other human being.

· Myth#2 :- Private investigators are martial artist and their life is full of action – Unfortunately unlike a thriller movie, most of the detective, day is not filled with fight or action sequel or high speed car chase. An investigator may spend a major portion of his time, gathering and collecting information, which may be used later in court of law. This might include some monotonous work like sitting at a static position for hours together to collect evidences or typing lengthy reports for the perusal of clients or court.

· Myth#3 :- PI’s have similar authority to police and can take law in his hand – Detectives, like any other citizen is also subject to the law. Before doing the work, the detective has to ensure that he doesn’t crosses the fine line of legal vs. Illegal. They cannot take law into their hands and have to ensure that the privacy of a person is not encroached upon while conducting investigations. They cannot break law, hit someone, hack any computer or do any other illegal thing.

· Myth#4 :- Detection and investigation is a very easy work – The work of a private detective requires highly skilled person with a very high degree of experience. To detect something which is not very obvious is not at all an easy task, sometimes the private detective may have to work as an undercover agent or do very manual task like working as a peon, security guard etc. to extract an information. While following someone a safe distance has to be maintained to avoid getting detective. A naive person or in experienced detective can either be easily spotted while following someone or can miss the concerned subject if he tries to maintain a safe distance.

· Myth#5 :- PI’s often blackmail people or give the evidences to opposite party – The job of a private detective is a white collar job, they are not extortionist or blackmailers. Although there are black ships in every profession but no matter how rogue a private detective is, he will never approach the other party. Often client has to give their confidential information, so the fear of misuse is always there in the mind of client. Then also to avoid any hustle later on, it is advisable to hire a reputed detective agency for work.

A private detective work may not be extortionist shown in movies and fiction but it is a well paid profession and one can take the profession if he has liking towards it. The most successful private detective is always male and it is completely a male dominated sphere of work, however, off let there are certain ladies also who are making a mark albeit none of them have ever touched the heights to which their male counterpart have gone.