Private Investigator Course, BTEC Level 3
Many people work across the various disciplines within the security industry and Private Investigation services is most definitely a growth area. With the economy still in bad shape many companies are looking at more and more ways to cut out their losses as well as increasing their profit, anything to make the bottom line better during these challenging times. To this end more and more companies are calling on the services of Private Investigators to help them with their problems. We have found that clients approach us from all walks of like, big and small companies alike, even those with their own internal investigations department as these are often staffed by untrained people who are just fulfilling a role.
What activities could a Private Investigator expect to be involved with?
The role is so varied that this is difficult to answer but you could most certainly be involved with:
- Statement taking
- Accident reports
- Locus Reports
- Surveillance (Physical)
- Surveillance (Technical)
- Process Serving
- Preliminary investigations/research (OSINT)
In order for some of these examples of the work that you carry out to be successful you will have to conduct some sort of preliminary investigations, a research phase so that your client is advised fully prior to authorising some potentially expensive surveillance without the need or much chance of success. Given the massive growth of the internet never before has Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) been so important to investigations. Peoples lifestyles are now played out to the world in places such as FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn and more so naturally we show all our students ways in which information from these sites can be legally obtained, information that could make or break an investigation. You must remember that just because you pay for information it does not mean that this information is illegal, far from it - look at areas such as the electoral role, the information attracts a fee but it is totally legal. Having knowledge in this area is vital if you wish to become a proficient investigator. We find that most people find this phase of the course extremely interesting and invaluable for their future.
What does the course cover?
The Private Investigator course is based around the Surveillance course as we believe that this gives potential Private Investigators the best base from which to grow their own agency. Further to the surveillance course students will also cover:
- Process serving
- Law & legislation
- Open source intelligence gathering (OSINT)
- Locus reporting
- Setting up an agency
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