SEARCHES FROM THE AIR, DIFFERENCES BETWEEN WARRANTS AND SUBPOENAS, DETECTIVES WORKING WITH PRIVATE INVESTIGATORS - EPISODE 006 -
TRANSCRIPT:
This week on the Writer's Detective Bureau. Searches from the air, the difference between warrants and subpoenas, and cops working with private eyes. I'm Adam Richardson, and this is the Writer's Detective Bureau.
Welcome to Episode Number Six of the Writer's Detective Bureau, the podcast dedicated to helping authors and screenwriters write professional quality crime-related fiction.
My friend, Danny R. Smith, is a retired Los Angeles Sheriff's Department homicide detective that just released his second novel. It's called Door to a Dark Room*, which is available now on Amazon* or at his website, dickiefloydnovels.com. Door to a Dark Room* is the second book in the Dickie Floyd Detective Novel series. So you'll also want to check out the first novel, A Good Bunch of Men*, which you can get as an ebook right now for 99¢ on Amazon.
Welcome to Episode Number Six of the Writer's Detective Bureau, the podcast dedicated to helping authors and screenwriters write professional quality crime-related fiction.
My friend, Danny R. Smith, is a retired Los Angeles Sheriff's Department homicide detective that just released his second novel. It's called Door to a Dark Room*, which is available now on Amazon* or at his website, dickiefloydnovels.com. Door to a Dark Room* is the second book in the Dickie Floyd Detective Novel series. So you'll also want to check out the first novel, A Good Bunch of Men*, which you can get as an ebook right now for 99¢ on Amazon.
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Both are fantastic reads! Danny is a great author and a good friend. I'd love it if you check out his books.
I use Patreon to help offset the cost of hosting this podcast and creating the transcripts by having listeners like you support me for as little as $2 per month. If you'd like to learn about how you can set up your own Patreon page, go to writersdetective.com/patreon.
NVG/NOD image on the left, FLIR image on the right, of the same scene.
This week's first question comes from Chris Niles at nileswriter.com.
Chris asks "How does law enforcement go about setting up aerial searches and what would they likely be able to see from the air? How different are rescue operations versus recovery searches, and what variables would make it easier or harder for them to search or find their objectives?" Before I answer this I want to mention that Chris Niles had a pretty big role to play in my deciding to start a podcast. She's part of Sterling & Stone, the folks behind what was the Self-Publishing Podcast and what is now The Story Studio Podcast. My very first podcast experience was talking to Sean Platt, Johnny Truant, and David Wright on the Self-Publishing Podcast a few years ago and I had an absolute blast, but it was all because Chris made that happen. So you guys have her to blame -or excuse me, you have her to thank for me getting into this podcasting thing. So, thanks again Chris for your support.
Now she also knows (which you may know if you followed my writing work prior to my starting this podcast) that back in 2017, I guess it was 2016 or 2017, I transitioned from my 17 year career of being a detective in my 20 plus years of law enforcement to becoming a flying pig. So by that I mean I fly now in police helicopters doing exactly what Chris is asking about. So this is kind of in my wheel house. And this week I'm actually on the road recording this in my hotel room in downtown Portland, Oregon because I've been attending a FLIR operator workshop. Now FLIR is the technology known as forward looking infrared but it's also the name of the company that makes forward looking infrared sensors like the equipment we have on our helicopters.
So FLIR is the technology that allows us to visualize heat. So if you ever saw the movie Predator where that rainbow vision that the Predator has as it is stalking Arnold Schwarzenegger that was a FLIR camera. And that was the FLIR cameras from the 1980s. They've really advanced since then. So using that FLIR image to see heat can be really advantageous. I know from Chris' question when she asked about doing the aerial searches the story she's working on right now is one where the aerial search takes place in the water. Now water is a great opportunity to use that FLIR technology because the water is usually a much cooler temperature than the body of the person bobbing up and down looking to be saved.
In that instance when we're using that FLIR, I personally don't set it to that rainbow Predator vision. I have it more set to where cooler temperatures are closer to black and hotter temperatures are closer to white and then anything in between is on a gray scale. So if I was looking for somebody bobbing up and down in the water I'm expecting to see the water become black and that person to be a bright white spot making it very easy for me to see especially in comparison to trying to pick out somebody bobbing up and down in the water using my naked eye or using a color high definition camera, which is also part of that forward looking infrared. I can switch back and forth between a color high def camera, or using that infrared vision.
So those are two of the technologies, the high def camera and the FLIR, forward looking infrared. We also have gyro-stabilized binoculars which are just like any other pair of binoculars only with the gyro it removes that vibration of flying around in a helicopter. So it looks pretty stable just like a regular pair of binoculars. And then if it's nighttime we also have night vision goggles. Now the night vision goggles if you've seen any kind of TV footage at night where it's that grainy green and black kind of image those are night vision goggles. If you're a special operator or on a SWAT team instead of calling them NVGs you may refer to them as NODs, N-O-D for night optic device or night observation device but essentially it's the same technology. And for NVG or NOD they're essentially amplifying ambient light. You might use an infrared filter on a flashlight or an infrared light source to kind of act as an invisible flashlight to improve what you're seeing under that night vision goggle but looking out using night vision is a very different technology and a very different experience than using a FLIR which is seeing heat radiation.
So if I'm flying at night I will have night vision goggles, the green and black light amplifying goggles, hanging from the front of my helicopter helmet but on the computer display that's in front of me in the cockpit that's going to be that thermal imaging FLIR camera. So between all of those technologies we will use that to help in our tactics for doing searches. So if it's a rescue operation, part of the question was setting up the aerial searches, we create search patterns whether that's a grid search or a spiral search essentially it is the pattern that we're going to fly as we do this visual search. So that's more common for rescue type operations or recovery efforts. If I'm looking for a bad guy that was just in a pursuit and has foot bailed into a neighborhood that's going to be a different search. That's going to be one where I first set up a perimeter where I have the officers on the ground essentially box this guy into an area and it may be several streets. And then I will do that search using my night vision goggles, binoculars, forward looking infrared. And very often I will coordinate my visual search with the canine team that's coming out to do that track to try to chase this guy through the neighborhood and figure out where he is.
I tend to follow or look just ahead of where that canine is for a couple of reasons. One is because that nose and teeth on the end of that leash are definitely going to be the first thing that finds that bad guy in the backyard. So I'm going to go with that really awesome sensor that eats dog food to make sure that they are safe. And then also to make sure that there's no crossfires, that when they're entering a backyard and they hear something that startles them make sure that's not a cop on the other side of a fence, that kind of thing. So that kind of search of a house to house, yard to yard search is very different than a search and rescue kind of search.
Now for a rescue operation or a recovery effort very often the helicopter that has all the sensors, that is doing the search is not going to be the one that gets called in to do the rescue. So if I'm flying in a law enforcement helicopter that is set up for doing pursuits and chasing bad guys and finding people using all that thermal imagery and all that kind of stuff it's not necessarily the one that is set up for hoist rescues or medevac with paramedics and life support gear onboard. So if I find that person floating in the water I'm going to then call in a rescue helicopter as well. Where we work we have that ability to do that. There are other agencies across the country that will have different resources available but that's the kind of stuff that you can research for where you set your story.
And then of course there are the difference between a rescue operation and a recovery search. By recovery search assuming it's like a shipwreck or a plane went down in the water, that kind of thing where we're not looking for survivors or the time has elapsed so far that surviving that crash is not feasible. We would simply act as the visual search and then for recovery efforts we would call in a boat. Anytime that a life is on the line where somebody needs to be rescued we're going to go in there and do that hoist mission or the other helicopter will go in and do that hoist mission. But for a recovery of a dead body or a recovery of debris like from a debris field of where something happened that's going to be done by boat because we don't want to risk the aircrew's life through the risky hoisting operations when it isn't necessary.
And then the variables that would make it harder or easier for them in searching or finding their objective. In dealing with water obviously anything that's below the water surface we're not going to be able to see unless for some reason that water is really clear and it's not super deep where we would be able to see it visually just using our own naked eye or binoculars. FLIR does not have the ability to see below the surface of the water and if it's nighttime using night vision all I'm going to see is a reflection of the sky. It's just going to be bouncing off, I'm not going to be able to see underneath the water with that regard either.
Weather obviously would play a factor if we're looking for that person bobbing up and down in the water. If they've been in the water long enough where they're hypothermic to the point where their body temperature is very close to the water temperature they're going to be much harder for me to see on the infrared. It would be possible. But those are the kind of variables that can come into play that make things a little bit harder to do. So again you can find Chris at her website nileswriter.com
Chris asks "How does law enforcement go about setting up aerial searches and what would they likely be able to see from the air? How different are rescue operations versus recovery searches, and what variables would make it easier or harder for them to search or find their objectives?" Before I answer this I want to mention that Chris Niles had a pretty big role to play in my deciding to start a podcast. She's part of Sterling & Stone, the folks behind what was the Self-Publishing Podcast and what is now The Story Studio Podcast. My very first podcast experience was talking to Sean Platt, Johnny Truant, and David Wright on the Self-Publishing Podcast a few years ago and I had an absolute blast, but it was all because Chris made that happen. So you guys have her to blame -or excuse me, you have her to thank for me getting into this podcasting thing. So, thanks again Chris for your support.
Now she also knows (which you may know if you followed my writing work prior to my starting this podcast) that back in 2017, I guess it was 2016 or 2017, I transitioned from my 17 year career of being a detective in my 20 plus years of law enforcement to becoming a flying pig. So by that I mean I fly now in police helicopters doing exactly what Chris is asking about. So this is kind of in my wheel house. And this week I'm actually on the road recording this in my hotel room in downtown Portland, Oregon because I've been attending a FLIR operator workshop. Now FLIR is the technology known as forward looking infrared but it's also the name of the company that makes forward looking infrared sensors like the equipment we have on our helicopters.
So FLIR is the technology that allows us to visualize heat. So if you ever saw the movie Predator where that rainbow vision that the Predator has as it is stalking Arnold Schwarzenegger that was a FLIR camera. And that was the FLIR cameras from the 1980s. They've really advanced since then. So using that FLIR image to see heat can be really advantageous. I know from Chris' question when she asked about doing the aerial searches the story she's working on right now is one where the aerial search takes place in the water. Now water is a great opportunity to use that FLIR technology because the water is usually a much cooler temperature than the body of the person bobbing up and down looking to be saved.
In that instance when we're using that FLIR, I personally don't set it to that rainbow Predator vision. I have it more set to where cooler temperatures are closer to black and hotter temperatures are closer to white and then anything in between is on a gray scale. So if I was looking for somebody bobbing up and down in the water I'm expecting to see the water become black and that person to be a bright white spot making it very easy for me to see especially in comparison to trying to pick out somebody bobbing up and down in the water using my naked eye or using a color high definition camera, which is also part of that forward looking infrared. I can switch back and forth between a color high def camera, or using that infrared vision.
So those are two of the technologies, the high def camera and the FLIR, forward looking infrared. We also have gyro-stabilized binoculars which are just like any other pair of binoculars only with the gyro it removes that vibration of flying around in a helicopter. So it looks pretty stable just like a regular pair of binoculars. And then if it's nighttime we also have night vision goggles. Now the night vision goggles if you've seen any kind of TV footage at night where it's that grainy green and black kind of image those are night vision goggles. If you're a special operator or on a SWAT team instead of calling them NVGs you may refer to them as NODs, N-O-D for night optic device or night observation device but essentially it's the same technology. And for NVG or NOD they're essentially amplifying ambient light. You might use an infrared filter on a flashlight or an infrared light source to kind of act as an invisible flashlight to improve what you're seeing under that night vision goggle but looking out using night vision is a very different technology and a very different experience than using a FLIR which is seeing heat radiation.
So if I'm flying at night I will have night vision goggles, the green and black light amplifying goggles, hanging from the front of my helicopter helmet but on the computer display that's in front of me in the cockpit that's going to be that thermal imaging FLIR camera. So between all of those technologies we will use that to help in our tactics for doing searches. So if it's a rescue operation, part of the question was setting up the aerial searches, we create search patterns whether that's a grid search or a spiral search essentially it is the pattern that we're going to fly as we do this visual search. So that's more common for rescue type operations or recovery efforts. If I'm looking for a bad guy that was just in a pursuit and has foot bailed into a neighborhood that's going to be a different search. That's going to be one where I first set up a perimeter where I have the officers on the ground essentially box this guy into an area and it may be several streets. And then I will do that search using my night vision goggles, binoculars, forward looking infrared. And very often I will coordinate my visual search with the canine team that's coming out to do that track to try to chase this guy through the neighborhood and figure out where he is.
I tend to follow or look just ahead of where that canine is for a couple of reasons. One is because that nose and teeth on the end of that leash are definitely going to be the first thing that finds that bad guy in the backyard. So I'm going to go with that really awesome sensor that eats dog food to make sure that they are safe. And then also to make sure that there's no crossfires, that when they're entering a backyard and they hear something that startles them make sure that's not a cop on the other side of a fence, that kind of thing. So that kind of search of a house to house, yard to yard search is very different than a search and rescue kind of search.
Now for a rescue operation or a recovery effort very often the helicopter that has all the sensors, that is doing the search is not going to be the one that gets called in to do the rescue. So if I'm flying in a law enforcement helicopter that is set up for doing pursuits and chasing bad guys and finding people using all that thermal imagery and all that kind of stuff it's not necessarily the one that is set up for hoist rescues or medevac with paramedics and life support gear onboard. So if I find that person floating in the water I'm going to then call in a rescue helicopter as well. Where we work we have that ability to do that. There are other agencies across the country that will have different resources available but that's the kind of stuff that you can research for where you set your story.
And then of course there are the difference between a rescue operation and a recovery search. By recovery search assuming it's like a shipwreck or a plane went down in the water, that kind of thing where we're not looking for survivors or the time has elapsed so far that surviving that crash is not feasible. We would simply act as the visual search and then for recovery efforts we would call in a boat. Anytime that a life is on the line where somebody needs to be rescued we're going to go in there and do that hoist mission or the other helicopter will go in and do that hoist mission. But for a recovery of a dead body or a recovery of debris like from a debris field of where something happened that's going to be done by boat because we don't want to risk the aircrew's life through the risky hoisting operations when it isn't necessary.
And then the variables that would make it harder or easier for them in searching or finding their objective. In dealing with water obviously anything that's below the water surface we're not going to be able to see unless for some reason that water is really clear and it's not super deep where we would be able to see it visually just using our own naked eye or binoculars. FLIR does not have the ability to see below the surface of the water and if it's nighttime using night vision all I'm going to see is a reflection of the sky. It's just going to be bouncing off, I'm not going to be able to see underneath the water with that regard either.
Weather obviously would play a factor if we're looking for that person bobbing up and down in the water. If they've been in the water long enough where they're hypothermic to the point where their body temperature is very close to the water temperature they're going to be much harder for me to see on the infrared. It would be possible. But those are the kind of variables that can come into play that make things a little bit harder to do. So again you can find Chris at her website nileswriter.com
The next question comes from Natasha Bajema and you can find her work at natashabajema.com.
Natasha asks, "What is the difference between a warrant and a subpoena? When does a detective seek one or the other and are there different requirements?" Now I also have Chris Niles from the previous question to thank for introducing me to Natasha. Natasha is a fiction author and she's also an expert on national security issues specializing in weapons of mass destruction, nuclear proliferation, terrorism, and emerging technologies. Now when Chris found out my background and Natasha's background she was like you two guys need to meet because we have a lot in common. Obviously I am not nearly as brilliant as Natasha is but we kind of overlap in some of the casework that we've worked over the years.
Anyway, speaking of being brilliant, Natasha has crowdsourced her fiction through Kickstarter and her first novel is called Bionic Bug and she's currently working with her fans on her second novel called Project Gecko. So be sure to check out her website. That's at natashabajema.com.
But you can also listen to her podcast called The Bionic Bug podcast. So definitely check that out.
In a recent episode we talked about warrants and how I create an affidavit and I swear to those facts and I seek the warrant from the judge and that's usually done as I am preparing, I'm trying to build this investigation to the point of turning it into a legal case. So I'm writing that search warrant for that house to get evidence to then have the ability to arrest this person. Once they're arrested then the court case starts. That's the arraignment and the preliminary hearing and the jury trial. So once the court case starts that very often is when subpoenas start being used rather than search warrants. So in that case where I've done that search warrant for the initial part, we've arrested him and now as I'm learning more, as this case is going on and looking at the evidence and talking to witnesses... let's say I need the phone records of somebody that's key to this investigation. The district attorney can seek a subpoena duces tecum and the spelling for that again will be in the show notes. But we often abbreviate that subpoena duces tecum, it's Latin, to SDT, just the initials. So the DA will issue an SDT to that phone company and essentially it is a court order that compels that third party to provide the evidence to the court.
Another way that subpoenas are used, this is really common in federal cases, is where there is a federal grand jury impaneled. And a grand jury is its own independent investigative body. They can investigate anything they want. At the local level like a local grand jury often that's investigating the way government is doing their operations and like if the jail needs improvement they can make those kind of inquests if you will. But they can also do criminal investigations. On the federal side they also have that ability but they are used so often there's almost always a federal grand jury impaneled that as a special agent for a federal agency I can go to and lay out just like I lay out the facts of a case to a judge in an affidavit for a search warrant, that federal agent will lay out those facts to the grand jury and then the grand jury can decide whether to issue a subpoena compelling that third party to provide that evidence. So that's one of the ways that an FBI agent will get phone records. Rather than going to a federal judge and trying to get a warrant they'll go before a federal grand jury and get a subpoena.
And one of the reasons that the grand jury is used is because the proceedings, those investigations are secret. And when I say secret I don't mean like classified secret or top secret, that kind of thing. But I mean that just like a jury's deliberation in a jury trial is secret, we don't get to learn what the discussion was behind closed doors. The same thing for the grand jury testimony holds. So the defense attorneys will not know that a grand jury has been impaneled to discuss this case that is pending. And again a subpoena is a court order like a warrant. But it's one that can be used by the attorneys involved in the case and it can be the defense attorney as well. So a defense attorney or a prosecutor can use subpoena power to subpoena a person or compel a person to come to court to testify. So those are the ways that subpoenas are used. So generally speaking the detective uses the warrant route and when they need something for a case that's already been filed they usually go to the prosecutor and the prosecutor is the one who seeks that subpoena or issues that subpoena. Thanks for the question Natasha.
Natasha asks, "What is the difference between a warrant and a subpoena? When does a detective seek one or the other and are there different requirements?" Now I also have Chris Niles from the previous question to thank for introducing me to Natasha. Natasha is a fiction author and she's also an expert on national security issues specializing in weapons of mass destruction, nuclear proliferation, terrorism, and emerging technologies. Now when Chris found out my background and Natasha's background she was like you two guys need to meet because we have a lot in common. Obviously I am not nearly as brilliant as Natasha is but we kind of overlap in some of the casework that we've worked over the years.
Anyway, speaking of being brilliant, Natasha has crowdsourced her fiction through Kickstarter and her first novel is called Bionic Bug and she's currently working with her fans on her second novel called Project Gecko. So be sure to check out her website. That's at natashabajema.com.
But you can also listen to her podcast called The Bionic Bug podcast. So definitely check that out.
In a recent episode we talked about warrants and how I create an affidavit and I swear to those facts and I seek the warrant from the judge and that's usually done as I am preparing, I'm trying to build this investigation to the point of turning it into a legal case. So I'm writing that search warrant for that house to get evidence to then have the ability to arrest this person. Once they're arrested then the court case starts. That's the arraignment and the preliminary hearing and the jury trial. So once the court case starts that very often is when subpoenas start being used rather than search warrants. So in that case where I've done that search warrant for the initial part, we've arrested him and now as I'm learning more, as this case is going on and looking at the evidence and talking to witnesses... let's say I need the phone records of somebody that's key to this investigation. The district attorney can seek a subpoena duces tecum and the spelling for that again will be in the show notes. But we often abbreviate that subpoena duces tecum, it's Latin, to SDT, just the initials. So the DA will issue an SDT to that phone company and essentially it is a court order that compels that third party to provide the evidence to the court.
Another way that subpoenas are used, this is really common in federal cases, is where there is a federal grand jury impaneled. And a grand jury is its own independent investigative body. They can investigate anything they want. At the local level like a local grand jury often that's investigating the way government is doing their operations and like if the jail needs improvement they can make those kind of inquests if you will. But they can also do criminal investigations. On the federal side they also have that ability but they are used so often there's almost always a federal grand jury impaneled that as a special agent for a federal agency I can go to and lay out just like I lay out the facts of a case to a judge in an affidavit for a search warrant, that federal agent will lay out those facts to the grand jury and then the grand jury can decide whether to issue a subpoena compelling that third party to provide that evidence. So that's one of the ways that an FBI agent will get phone records. Rather than going to a federal judge and trying to get a warrant they'll go before a federal grand jury and get a subpoena.
And one of the reasons that the grand jury is used is because the proceedings, those investigations are secret. And when I say secret I don't mean like classified secret or top secret, that kind of thing. But I mean that just like a jury's deliberation in a jury trial is secret, we don't get to learn what the discussion was behind closed doors. The same thing for the grand jury testimony holds. So the defense attorneys will not know that a grand jury has been impaneled to discuss this case that is pending. And again a subpoena is a court order like a warrant. But it's one that can be used by the attorneys involved in the case and it can be the defense attorney as well. So a defense attorney or a prosecutor can use subpoena power to subpoena a person or compel a person to come to court to testify. So those are the ways that subpoenas are used. So generally speaking the detective uses the warrant route and when they need something for a case that's already been filed they usually go to the prosecutor and the prosecutor is the one who seeks that subpoena or issues that subpoena. Thanks for the question Natasha.
And for this week's third question Richard Phillips asks "So many crime stories involve private investigators or amateur sleuths who are fortunate enough to have some connection to a police department, be it through friends and family or even his old colleagues. I started to wonder what the relationship is like between cops and PIs. Is there animosity or professional courtesy? Are the police legally compelled to work with PIs? Is there case information that is legally available to a licensed private detective that would not be available to an amateur?"
Well Richard, like anything it really depends upon the person, that specific PI of course and that specific police officer or police detective. The friends and family, colleagues, old colleagues trope is certainly well worn. That's why I call it a trope I suppose. But very often as far as the PI industry goes many of them are former cops. And it's just a way to make money in retirement or it's a skill set that after leaving the department early on in their career where they didn't necessarily retire and were forced out for one reason or another it's a way for them to still use that skill set to make money.
Now whether there's animosity or professional courtesy a lot of times that has to do with the case that they're working. A private investigator is essentially a detective for hire. They're not working for the police department; they're working for whomever is giving them the money. So that could be a spouse who suspects their significant other of cheating on them so they're looking for evidence in a potential divorce proceeding. Or it could be the defense attorney in a criminal case and they're using that private investigator as their own personal investigator essentially a defense investigator much like the prosecutor uses the police department or the prosecutor uses their own in-house investigators. Here in California we have district attorney investigators which are actual peace officers, they're actual cops, have a badge, a gun, powers of arrest, all that stuff. But their job is to essentially conduct follow up investigation for cases that are already being prosecuted by the DA's office.
So if the private investigator is working for a defense attorney in a criminal matter it's very likely that the police will not have anything to do with that private eye because they're essentially the adversary in that court case. Their goal is to have that defendant be found not guilty. Usually the goal of that private eye is to uncover exculpatory evidence that then gives the jury that reasonable doubt that we talked about in a previous episode where the prosecutor needs to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that this person is guilty of this crime. All the defense attorney wants is to raise that reasonable doubt flag. And so the PI that's working for that criminal defense attorney that is their goal is to find anything they can present evidence wise. Whether that's a witness statement or something as legitimate as exculpatory video evidence that shows that this could not possibly be the person that is actually guilty.
Depending upon the goals of the PI will definitely determine whether there's much animosity there. The cops generally are not compelled to work with PIs. We certainly do not reveal investigative information to private investigators. There are essentially no reasons to do so. And our criminal investigations are confidential.
However we will talk to PIs but it's going to be a one way street. If the PIs have uncovered evidence they think is beneficial for the police to know maybe because it helps their case, so be it. So if that private eye is watching the cheating spouse and they learn that the cheating spouse is also dealing drugs and the PI comes forward "Here's evidence of the cheating spouse doing drugs." Well it's going to be great for the divorce proceedings to know that he was arrested as a result of being a drug dealer or whatever it is. But we receiving that information aren't going to then bring that PI into our case. So it is a one way street. We will take the information from the PIs but we're not going to give anything to them for a variety of reasons. There's a lot of information in a criminal investigation that we need to control for just the safety of the people involved. Witnesses they divulge secrets to the cops that they don't want anyone else to know that they said anything. So we can't then give that to a private investigator who is working for a private party and disclose anything like that. So that's just one example as to why we don't share information with private investigators.
Very often in the stories that you see where information is being shared, where they're calling in a favor, that's more often the need of the author or the writer to create that ability for that PI to learn who has that license plate where they have the friend run the license plate in the computer, that kind of thing. That's something that is actually a crime. And if it's a former cop that's tasking their old partner with doing that yeah it's possible that it happens in real life but that currently working cop really is taking their career in their hands because it is a crime to do that. Especially when there are legal ways for a private investigator or anybody else to get that information through other means. Whether that's going down to the Department of Motor Vehicles and submitting a formal request or using a paid database like Lexis-Nexis or TLOxp.
For that third part of the question as far as what case information is legally available to a licensed private detective that would not be available to an amateur. It wouldn't necessarily be case information from the police department but they would as a private investigator be able to get an account with some of these data broker type websites where you pay for access to information. Now those kind of web sites are also Web sites that law enforcement uses. Debt collection agencies use them. Insurance companies use them as part of their investigations. But that's all information that, essentially it's mailing list information.
So the next time you're at the shopping mall and you see the giveaway for the new car where you fill out a 3x5 card with your name, phone number, address and e-mail it goes into the bin to see if you win. But all of that information is being turned into a mailing list which is worth money to data brokers like that because they can sell that information. So that's where a lot of that information comes from. And by being a private detective you have the ability to get that. And a lot of that same information can be found by paying for the background check or that person finder things you'll see as ads when you run somebody's name in Google, but usually the level of information that you're going to get through those databases are much deeper than what just a general person in the public could get by spending the money through one of those web sites. Thank you very much for the question Richard.
And if you have a question that you would like me to answer on an upcoming episode be sure to go to writersdetective.com/podcast and submit your question there.
Well Richard, like anything it really depends upon the person, that specific PI of course and that specific police officer or police detective. The friends and family, colleagues, old colleagues trope is certainly well worn. That's why I call it a trope I suppose. But very often as far as the PI industry goes many of them are former cops. And it's just a way to make money in retirement or it's a skill set that after leaving the department early on in their career where they didn't necessarily retire and were forced out for one reason or another it's a way for them to still use that skill set to make money.
Now whether there's animosity or professional courtesy a lot of times that has to do with the case that they're working. A private investigator is essentially a detective for hire. They're not working for the police department; they're working for whomever is giving them the money. So that could be a spouse who suspects their significant other of cheating on them so they're looking for evidence in a potential divorce proceeding. Or it could be the defense attorney in a criminal case and they're using that private investigator as their own personal investigator essentially a defense investigator much like the prosecutor uses the police department or the prosecutor uses their own in-house investigators. Here in California we have district attorney investigators which are actual peace officers, they're actual cops, have a badge, a gun, powers of arrest, all that stuff. But their job is to essentially conduct follow up investigation for cases that are already being prosecuted by the DA's office.
So if the private investigator is working for a defense attorney in a criminal matter it's very likely that the police will not have anything to do with that private eye because they're essentially the adversary in that court case. Their goal is to have that defendant be found not guilty. Usually the goal of that private eye is to uncover exculpatory evidence that then gives the jury that reasonable doubt that we talked about in a previous episode where the prosecutor needs to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that this person is guilty of this crime. All the defense attorney wants is to raise that reasonable doubt flag. And so the PI that's working for that criminal defense attorney that is their goal is to find anything they can present evidence wise. Whether that's a witness statement or something as legitimate as exculpatory video evidence that shows that this could not possibly be the person that is actually guilty.
Depending upon the goals of the PI will definitely determine whether there's much animosity there. The cops generally are not compelled to work with PIs. We certainly do not reveal investigative information to private investigators. There are essentially no reasons to do so. And our criminal investigations are confidential.
However we will talk to PIs but it's going to be a one way street. If the PIs have uncovered evidence they think is beneficial for the police to know maybe because it helps their case, so be it. So if that private eye is watching the cheating spouse and they learn that the cheating spouse is also dealing drugs and the PI comes forward "Here's evidence of the cheating spouse doing drugs." Well it's going to be great for the divorce proceedings to know that he was arrested as a result of being a drug dealer or whatever it is. But we receiving that information aren't going to then bring that PI into our case. So it is a one way street. We will take the information from the PIs but we're not going to give anything to them for a variety of reasons. There's a lot of information in a criminal investigation that we need to control for just the safety of the people involved. Witnesses they divulge secrets to the cops that they don't want anyone else to know that they said anything. So we can't then give that to a private investigator who is working for a private party and disclose anything like that. So that's just one example as to why we don't share information with private investigators.
Very often in the stories that you see where information is being shared, where they're calling in a favor, that's more often the need of the author or the writer to create that ability for that PI to learn who has that license plate where they have the friend run the license plate in the computer, that kind of thing. That's something that is actually a crime. And if it's a former cop that's tasking their old partner with doing that yeah it's possible that it happens in real life but that currently working cop really is taking their career in their hands because it is a crime to do that. Especially when there are legal ways for a private investigator or anybody else to get that information through other means. Whether that's going down to the Department of Motor Vehicles and submitting a formal request or using a paid database like Lexis-Nexis or TLOxp.
For that third part of the question as far as what case information is legally available to a licensed private detective that would not be available to an amateur. It wouldn't necessarily be case information from the police department but they would as a private investigator be able to get an account with some of these data broker type websites where you pay for access to information. Now those kind of web sites are also Web sites that law enforcement uses. Debt collection agencies use them. Insurance companies use them as part of their investigations. But that's all information that, essentially it's mailing list information.
So the next time you're at the shopping mall and you see the giveaway for the new car where you fill out a 3x5 card with your name, phone number, address and e-mail it goes into the bin to see if you win. But all of that information is being turned into a mailing list which is worth money to data brokers like that because they can sell that information. So that's where a lot of that information comes from. And by being a private detective you have the ability to get that. And a lot of that same information can be found by paying for the background check or that person finder things you'll see as ads when you run somebody's name in Google, but usually the level of information that you're going to get through those databases are much deeper than what just a general person in the public could get by spending the money through one of those web sites. Thank you very much for the question Richard.
And if you have a question that you would like me to answer on an upcoming episode be sure to go to writersdetective.com/podcast and submit your question there.
Real quick. I've seen ads over the last few years about the Grammarly app*, but as an author-in-progress, I felt my grammar and spelling were slightly above par, so I never really gave Grammarly much thought. A few weeks ago on a whim, I installed Grammarly’s free extension for Google Chrome, and I have to admit I really like it. When I'm in the Writer's Detective Group on Facebook (that you guys really need to join,) Grammarly natively highlights spelling errors and grammar suggestions without being a distraction. Now, let me tell you, there's nothing worse than writing a typo-filled post in a group of writers because you hear about it immediately. The only way I can beat you guys to the punch in finding typos is by having Grammarly installed.
If you'd like to check Grammarly* out for yourself, visit writersdetectivebureau.com/grammarly. Also, be sure to join the Writer’s Detective Facebook Group. I have links to both in the show notes, which you can find at writersdetective.com/5.
If you'd like to check Grammarly* out for yourself, visit writersdetectivebureau.com/grammarly. Also, be sure to join the Writer’s Detective Facebook Group. I have links to both in the show notes, which you can find at writersdetective.com/5.
Thanks for listening to this episode of the Writer's Detective Bureau podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, please be sure to subscribe. If you belong to a writer's group in person or online, I would love it if you'd share this podcast. This podcast is created for you so don't be shy and submit your crime fiction questions or just say "Hello" at writersdetective.com/podcast.
Thanks again for listening. Write well.
Thanks again for listening. Write well.
EPISODE LINKS:
- Author: Chris Niles - nileswriter.com
- Smarter Artist Creators and just hilarious awesomeness: Sterling & Stone
- Podcast: The Story Studio Podcast (by Sterling & Stone)
- Podcast: Self-Publishing Podcast (by Sterling & Stone)
- Podcast: Story Shop podcast (by Sterling & Stone)
- Author: Natasha Bajema - natashabajema.com
- Author: Danny R. Smith - dickiefloydnovels.com
- Patreon* - Create your own Patreon page to let your supporters give you money for your creations.
- Support the Writer's Detective Bureau through Patreon for as little as $2/month.
- FLIR - One of several companies that build Forward Looking Infrared sensors
- Lexis-Nexis - Data broker
- TLOxp - Data broker
- Grammarly* - The free spelling and grammar checker. (I use the free Google Chrome extension.)
- Writer's Detective Facebook Group - Join us!
- Submit your own questions to the Writer's Detective Bureau podcast.
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- Joan Raymond Writing and Design - joanraymondwriting.com
- Guy Alton
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