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Venue
of Experience:
Our experience in both these
areas has been restricted to North America and in most cases, due to
economics, limited to Michigan and its environs.
Objectives of
Background Investigations:
Clients' have various
motivations for conducting background investigations on
individuals. The most common reasons include pre-employment
screening of job applicants and background investigations on
insurance claimants suspected of fraud. In other cases, our
clients are considering going into business with; investing with; or
contracting with a person and wants to insure this prospective
business associate is reputable. Some prestigious law firms
conduct basic background checks on prospective clients to confirm
that these potential customers do not have ties with organized crime
or other associations which would reflect adversely on the
firm. Additionally, many attorneys use this service for
checking the credentials, qualifications and background of an
opposing expert witness. While it would seem to make good
sense to conduct background investigations on prospective spouses,
regardless or the TV newsmagazine hypes, this is rare in the
business and we have never had such a request. We never
conduct background investigations for individuals who do not have an
obvious legitimate interest in the subject.
Types of Background
Investigations:
These investigations vary
from basic inexpensive on line data base searches to confirm an
individual's identity, to extensive operations verifying in
comprehensive detail the career histories, associations and assets
of the subject. When individuals have previously lived in
other states or countries, we handle the research in those
localities with the assistance of associate investigators in those
areas. Today's data base search capabilities make these
investigations much more economical than a decade ago. Our
research never becomes excessive or intrusive, since liability
exposure can be created by going too far beyond reasonable and
acceptable investigation standards, even when all the research
conducted is in compliance with applicable law.
Objectives of
Undercover Operations:
The term undercover has many
meanings, but in most cases this is an operation where an
investigator is hired in at a client's facility as a regular worker
and reports on activity observed. These operations are also
frequently termed internal surveys. In many cases these
investigations are inspired by problems or perceived problems.
Thefts, pilferage, equipment abuse, drugs, morale problems, sabotage
and allegations of racism, favoritism or sexual harassment are often
reasons clients contract for undercover work. However, it is
probably more common for clients to run undercover operations
periodically and use the information developed as a management and
control aid. Many businesses contract for an undercover
operation on an annual basis, just like they conduct annual audits
and periodic inventories. The theory here is that its much
easier to eliminate problems in their early stages of development,
than to later try to cope with situations which have grown to become
serious problems. False rumors which adversely effect morale,
for instance, can easily be dispelled by the client in a circumspect
manner. Often, too, undercover investigators learn of
exposures which have been overlooked |
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