Surveillances: When in the Country, Don’t Be a City Slicker

Sounds obvious, doesn’t it?  When conducting a surveillance in the country, don’t act like a city slicker.  But if you’re a citified PI who rarely, if ever, conducts rural surveillances, maybe you’re unaware that dressing in jeans, a flannel shirt and boots only goes so far if you’re also driving a spanking-clean pick-up.  Same applies if you’re a writer writing a PI-character doing a surveillance in the country — some of these tips might come in handy in your story.

Today, we’re sharing a few of our slides from a recent presentation we made at the Pikes Peak Writers Conference on Surveillance 101.

Rural Surveillances: Don’t Look Like a City Slicker

How to Not Blend in on Surveillance

On the other hand, if you’re writing a humorous character, make him/her not blend in!

Win a $10 Amazon Gift Certificate: Check out contest by clicking here.

Have a great week, Writing PIs

Related articles

• Surveillance Rule Number 1: Blend In (writingpis.wordpress.com)

Military Justice, Historical Research and Contest to Win a $10 Amazon Gift Certificate

Shaun Kaufman and Colleen Collins, the Writing PIs

Today at Guns, Gams, and Gumshoes we have a smattering of links to share, from Shaun Kaufman‘s educational article on military justice to tips for historical research.  Last, there’s a fun contest running through June 4, 2012 where the lucky winner gets a $10 Amazon gift certificate!

“Remembering Military Justice” by Shaun Kaufman

This article outlines key differences between civilian and military criminal defense. To read, click here.

Historical Research Tips

Below are some articles on researching history — handy info for writers, researchers and those interested in investigating people and events in the past. To read an article, click on the link.

Tips from a PI: Historical Research Sites for Your Stories by Colleen Collins

State Historical Society of North Dakota: Research Tips for Beginners

History Detectives: Historical Research Checklist

From Guns, Gams, and Gumshoes: Historical Research Links

Win a $10 Amazon Gift Certificate!

Today through June 4, 2012, Mrs. Mommy Booknerd’s Book Reviews is running a contest for The Zen Man by author-private investigator (and Guns, Gams, and Gumshoes’s co-author) Colleen Collins.  For more information on how to enter the contest, click link below (hint: if you post a comment to this Guns, Gams, and Gumshoes’s blog, you get bonus points!):

Contest: Win a $10 Amazon gift certificate

Have a great week, Writing PIs

Private Eye News: From Training Programs to Gadgets

 

Some news items related to private eyes, both the real-life variety and those in fiction. Click on links below to read more:

Top 25 Private Investigation Training and Education programs from PINow.com:  http://www.pinow.com/articles/1115/top-25-private-investigator-training-education-2012

Got a client who needs home security? Easy-to-install, night-vision home security video camera that requires no software installation. Plus it’s relatively cheap. Check out Dropcam.

The Guns, Gams, and Gumshoes’s PIs will be teaching “Surveillance 101″ and “Finding Missing Persons 101″ at the Pike’s Peak Writers Conference April 20-22.

News item about former PI-turned-chef who claims O.J. really didn’t do it: “Private investigator releases book claiming he has evidence O.J. Simpson didn’t do it”

April 3 news blurb about our own Guns, Gams, and Gumshoe’s Colleen Collins: Kindle Nation Daily Bargain Book Alert: Colleen Collins’ THE ZEN MAN is Our eBook of the Day at just 99 Cents, with 4.2 Stars on 8 Reviews, and Here’s a Free Sample! http://bit.ly/HbFZvX 

A guide to what data mining is, how it works, and why it’s important: “Everything You Wanted to Know About Data Mining But Were Afraid to Ask”

Have a great week, Writing PIs

Related articles

• Private Investigators and Murder Cases (writingpis.wordpress.com)
• Excerpt from How Do Private Eyes Do That?: How PIs Are Used in Cases Where DNA Evidence Is Employed (writingpis.wordpress.com)
• Going for the Best: When Private Investigators Hire Other Private Investigators (writingpis.wordpress.com)
• Answering Writers’ Questions: What Records Can PIs Legally Obtain? (writingpis.wordpress.com)
• Answering Writer’s Question: Are PIs and Cops Compatible? (writingpis.wordpress.com)

Private Eye Stories That Get It Right

Today we’re looking at a few writers who nail private investigations in their stories.

Steve Hamilton, Misery Bay. In this short paragraph, he captures how it sometimes feels on stationary surveillances when you’ve been sitting and staring for a long, long time:

Another hour passed. The sun tried to come out for a few seconds, but the clouds reassembled and then it was a normal Michigan sky again. Cars went by, one by one, kicking up slush. I stayed where I was, feeling like I was slipping into some sort of trance, but always with one eye on the side-view mirror.

George Pelecanos, The Cut. Sometimes we think that if we say we’re private investigators, the person will refuse to talk to us, so we’ll simply say we’re investigators or legal investigators…omitting the word “private” can keep the conversation warm.  However, we’re careful not to lie about our work, and if asked who we’re working for, we’re upfront that we’re working on behalf of the defense.

In the below dialogue, the PI, Lucas, is looking for potential interviews on a case. Lucas speaks first.

“Look, I don’t mean to bother you, but I’m looking into a theft on this block.”

“You police?”

“I’m an investigator,” said Lucas. It didn’t answer the question exactly, and it wasn’t a lie.

Don Winslow, The Gentlemen’s Hour. Winslow is a former private investigator , so no surprise he nails the PI profession in his writing. The below excerpt, where the PI brainstorms case strategy, legal aspects and the legal players with the attorney, hit home with us. Often we work closely with defense attorneys on case/investigative strategies and issues — this type of “brainstorming” relationship is due to our backgrounds (before returning to the practice of law, one of us was a former criminal defense attorney) and also our established attorney-PI relationships that have been built over time where both sides have proven track records and mutual respect.

In this passage, the attorney-client, Petra, is speaking to the PI, Boone. Corey is the defendant whose family has retained Petra. The first line is Petra’s.

“I’m not sure it’s a viable defense anyway,” she says. “But it’s worth looking into. Where else do you want to take it?”

Boone starts off with where he can’t take it. He can’t talk to Trevor Bodin or the Knowles brothers because their lawyers know that their interests conflict with Corey’s and won’t let the interviews happen. Those kids, smarter than Corey, started making their deals right in the police interview rooms. The best they can hope for is that Alan takes a chunk or two off the rest of the crew’s credibility during cross-exam, but that’s about it. So that’s no good. But he can run down more info on the Rockpile Crew and the “gang” issue, find out what they were all about.

Boone sums all that up for Petra, and then says, “If Corey takes that attitude into a trial, Mary Lou will ride it to a max sentence.”

Have a great week, Writing PIs

Related articles

• Answering Writer’s Question: Are PIs and Cops Compatible? (writingpis.wordpress.com)
• Private Investigators and Murder Cases (writingpis.wordpress.com)
• Answering Writers’ Questions About Private Investigators Investigating Kidnappings (writingpis.wordpress.com)
• Answering Writers’ Questions: What Records Can PIs Legally Obtain? (writingpis.wordpress.com)
• Excerpt from How Do Private Eyes Do That?: How PIs Are Used in Cases Where DNA Evidence Is Employed (writingpis.wordpress.com)

Did Google Maps Steer You Wrong? Try a Crowdsourced Map!

Have you ever followed instructions from Google Maps or another electronic map service that tells you to turn right on the next street…but there’s no street to turn down?

Some map services, like Waze, have incorporated people’s feedback (“Hey, just wanted you to know there’s no road where the map told me to turn”) to correct and add mapping in their utilities. The result? Crowdsourced maps! A huge benefit of these services is that these traffic and mapping services are more consistently reflecting the real-time landscape.

Check out these crowd-sourced mapping services, all of which are free:

Waze: This community-based map and traffic service began as Freemap in Tel Aviv in 2006. It now claims more than 14 million drivers worldwide. Waze claims that 45,000 of its users are dedicated map editors and 5,000 are regional managers who ensure maps’ accuracy. Download to your iPhone, Android, Blackberry or Nokia. Site shows latest user reports that show traffic jams, accidents, even where law enforcement has set up speed traps.

OpenStreetMap: This service more closely follows the Wikipedia model, and in fact calls itself the “free Wiki world map.” Anyone can use the maps, and anyone can create and edit the maps.

INRIX: Another service whose ad claims it puts “the power of the world’s largest driving community into the palm of your hand with real-time alerts, traffic forecasting, information about accidents, police and other events.”

Have a great week, Writing PIs

Related articles

• Crowds create Wikipedia-style maps of the world (seattlepi.com)
• Get turn-by-turn directions and crowdsourced traffic information with Waze [Daily Freeware] (redferret.net)
• The Online Map Wars (technologyreview.in)
• Google Maps Losing Market Share (rev2.org)
• Apple Tells Google Maps To Take A Hike (googleexposed.wordpress.com)

Answering Writer’s Question: Are PIs and Cops Compatible?

Today we answer a writer’s question — one that a lot of writers ask, actually — about PIs and law enforcement.

Writer’s Question: I just read a book where the police detective and the private eye kept sparring before developing a friendship. Are cops and PIs like that in the real world, too?

Guns, Gams, and Gumshoes’s Answer: We see that same kind of PI-cop conflict all the time in books, TV shows and movies, too. In reality, most real-life PI-cop relationships are characterized by professional distance and unemotional exchanges.

Many PIs have law enforcement backgrounds

We’re saying most here. A majority of PIs have law enforcement backgrounds, and with the agencies with whom they worked, they typically maintain a more collegial relationship. Do these former law enforcement PIs get perks — such as inside information, tips, and access to law enforcement databases — from their former agencies (which is also often depicted in books and film)? No. Although there are friendly exchanges and social invitations exchanged, neither party wants to be seen as improperly advancing information and displaying favoritism to law enforcement officers (LEOs).

Here at Guns, Gams, and Gumshoes, we work with various PIs who are former LEOs. Generally speaking, we have found their life experience to cause their investigations to slant toward law enforcement and prosecution. While they work for defense lawyers, they still think like law enforcement officers.

Former-LEO PIs often have years of experience on the streets with tough, violent people

Meaning, a former LEO PI might have unsubstantiated bias against their criminal defense clients. In all fairness, this bias is the product of years on the street with tough, violent, and often dishonest people — easy to see how a former-LEO PI might have developed opinions about the ethics of accused individuals.

To balance this point of view, former LEO PIs are also best situated to know how current police can make mistakes in their investigation procedures, such as Constitutional propriety and evidentiary processing. These PIs are best able to advise defense lawyers about how to attack the integrity of a police investigation.

The Guns, Gams, and Gumshoes PIs have a unique situation in their neighborhood. A few blocks over is a coffee shop owned and run by a local police detective (he works the small coffee shop during his off hours). We like to hang out at the coffee shop and jaw about cases, both past and current. Add to the mix that one of us is also a criminal defense attorney, there have been some lively conversations and a lot of good-natured teasing about our various roles.

To be clear, we never discuss shared cases. However, both the police detective and us get valuable information about the how-tos, whys, and the end results of investigations. In this particular relationship, all three of us step outside of our professional roles and transcend our rivalries.

Postscript: Our detective friend is planning on retiring in the next few years and is thinking about becoming a PI. We’ve invited him to join our agency. He’s invited us to take over his coffee shop.

When the Amazing Race Reality Show Called and Invited Us to Audition

We’re used to strange phone calls. So when a woman called a few months ago, claiming to be a casting directory for the Amazing Race reality show and asked us to audition, we were polite, hung up, then looked at each other and said, “Crank call.”

Although why someone would go to all the trouble to introduce herself as the casting director of Amazing Race, explain how she found us (from the July 2011 interview with us at Westword magazine: For These Married Denver Detectives, Truth Is More Fun Than Fiction), how the show was seeking a married-PI team to participate in the next Amazing Race show, and how they’d love for us to send them an audition tape, like yesterday, as this was a last-minute casting idea…well, it seemed like a lot of trouble to pretext all that into one crank call.

So we did what any private investigator would do: We did a background check on the caller.  Guess what? She really was a casting director in L.A.

We Took the Bait

We called her back. She did the spiel again (how she found us, how this was a last-minute casting idea, the show was wrapping up its casting but one of the producers got a last-minute idea that a PI-married-team would be a great addition, and would we create an audition tape ASAP? Like maybe even that very day?).

We said we’d think about it. She said she’d send us an application, and oh-by-the-way, we should think about all the cool prizes participants on the show can win…like cars and vacations.

Cool Prizes, But Dumb Idea?

We hung up and talked. We’d never seen the Amazing Race show so we researched it on the Internet.  Wow, she was right…people won cool prizes…and they trekked all over the world doing ridiculous things and getting into conflicts with each other that millions of people witnessed.

We told each other it’d be dumb to do the show. We couldn’t afford to take off for an entire month, could we? But then…wouldn’t it be nice to win a new car. No, no, dumb idea to do the show. But what if we won the million-dollar grand prize?

We’re Ready for Our Close-Ups, Mr. DeMille

We packed up our video equipment and headed out to shoot our audition tape. It took us HOURS to do one 10-minute tape. Why? Because we kept laughing and had to stop shooting. The casting director had emailed us things they’d like to see in the video, and we were doing our darndest to accommodate their requests, but we kept forgetting what it was we were supposed to say, or we said it wrong, or we looked at each other and thought we looked pretty silly. But finally, we finished the audition tape.

We Bared Our Souls in Writing

Then we had to each fill out a 14-page application. Jeez, this was becoming a full day of being Hollywood hopefuls, but we dutifully answered reams of questions such as:

What famous person reminds you of your teammate?

Colleen’s answer: Russell Brand

Shaun’s answer: Katy Perry

What famous person reminds you of yourself?

Colleen’s answer: Meryl Streep

Shaun’s answer: Moses.

What is your biggest pet peeve about your partner?

Colleen’s answer: Mott the Hoople.

Shaun’s answer: She doesn’t like to listen to loud ’70s rock and roll all the time.

Do you speak or read any foreign languages?

Colleen’s answer: A little French.

Shaun’s answer: Barely speak bar-room Spanish.

And the Winner Is…

Within 24 hours, the Amazing Race casting director had our tape, our signed waivers, and 28 pages worth of answers.

And we never heard from her again. Couldn’t believe they didn’t snap us up after those insightful, intriguing answers on those questionnaires.

However, the reporter who did the Westword article loved that we’d been invited to audition by Amazing Race. She talked to her editor, who asked if we’d forward them our audition tape so they could post it along with our interview.

Uh, no thanks. A tape of us running around in fedoras (yes, we wore fedoras in our audition tape), saying all kinds of Amazing Race things about ourselves (yes, we’d love to trek all over the world and eat bugs), and barely suppressing laughter is not what we wanted on the Internet.

Although we sometimes look at that audition tape and laugh at one of the silliest, and fun-est, days we ever spent together.

And no, we’re not going to post that video tape — like ever — here on Guns, Gams, and Gumshoes.

Have a great weekend, Writing PI

Related articles

• Two Huge Surprises For The Last Team To Arrive On ‘The Amazing Race’ (huffingtonpost.com)
• ‘The Amazing Race 20′ video: Brandon & Rachel say they’re ‘done’ (examiner.com)
• Top 5 most useful languages to know…..for the Amazing Race (want2speakspanish.wordpress.com)
• ‘The Amazing Race’ comes in Vietnam (lookatvietnam.com)

He Said, She Said: Pros and Cons of Being Married to Your PI Partner

At Guns, Gams, and Gumshoes, we’re a couple of PIs who also write…and are also married to each other. This can be great…and sometimes challenging. Today we’ll each answer “what are the pros and cons” of being a married PI team.

Shaun’s Pros

• You really know your partner, there’s no learning curve.
• During those times when you have to improvise or pretext, you can cue your partner and pick up their cues, which makes what you’re trying to accomplish believeable and effective.
• There’s no need to inform your work partner of demands or troubles in your personal life because she knows!

Shaun’s Cons

First of all, I’m a brave man for being the first to answer this question, but I’ve been granted absolute immunity. Here’s my cons:

• You can’t bullshit your partner about anything, and there’s no hiding behind your moods.
• Whereas other households might have two spouses with independent revenue streams, the married-PI couple is often working the same job. If that client’s check bounces, it can hit us hard.
• Chasing cheating spouses can be deleterious to one’s libido. After a night of watching spouses cheat, I’m not always in the mood if you get my drift.

Colleen’s Pros

• Sometimes being a husband-and-wife PI team gets us the case. For example, a client thinks his wife will be meeting her paramour at a swanky restaurant — we can easily fit into that scenario as another couple dining in that restaurant, even being romantic together, versus a PI sitting alone at a table.
• Shaun’s a big-picture person, I’m a detailed person. Together, we get a good snapshot of a case.
• Shaun trained a lot of PIs over the years in his attorney practice, so if I’m working a new type of case, I get the benefit of working side-by-side with a mentor (or having one on call).

Colleen’s Cons

• It’s that big-picture thing. Sometimes I don’t understand how he glosses over the details.
• We’ve had clients who think two-for-the-price-of-one. No, just because we’re married doesn’t mean we each get paid half-price.
• When we’re both in the field, there’s no one to call at home to let the dogs out.

Other news this week

Shaun and Colleen’s nonfiction ebook How to Write a Dick: A Guide for Writing Fictional Sleuths from a Couple of Real-Life Sleuths is on sale March 23-24, 2013, for 99 cents (regularly $5.99).  Amazon provides free apps for easy downloading to your browser, PC or Mac computer, and a bunch of mobile devices.

To download, click here or click the book cover to your left.  Remember, Sunday, March 24, is last day it’s on sale.

Related articles

• Answering Writers’ Questions: What Records Can PIs Legally Obtain? (writingpis.wordpress.com)
• Private Investigators and Murder Cases (writingpis.wordpress.com)
• PIs and Cases: Attempted Murder, Smalltown Cop, Infidelity (writingpis.wordpress.com)
• Answering Writers’ Questions about Human Trafficking and Exotic Animal Trafficking (writingpis.wordpress.com)
• Answering Writers’ Questions About Private Investigators Investigating Kidnappings (writingpis.wordpress.com)
• Tracking People: Google, Social Media and Surveillance (writingpis.wordpress.com)
• Excerpt from How Do Private Eyes Do That?: How PIs Are Used in Cases Where DNA Evidence Is Employed (writingpis.wordpress.com)

iPhone Apps for Private Investigators

We finally ditched our dumb phones in 2011 and got smart ones, as in iPhones. Now that we have ‘em, we can’t believe why we waited so long. Besides being able to check directions, look up phone numbers, research databases and more on the fly, we’ve also become enamoured of a few apps.

For the iPhone

Flashlight. There’s a number of flashlight apps. The one we use is simply called “Flashlight.” Big off/on button that fills the screen, easy to switch it on. We’ve carried flashlights with us since we opened our investigation agency yea many years ago, but we’re always losing flashlights, plus they’re cumbersome to carry, and if you’re not on top of the battery situation you can find — surprise! — you’re stuck in the dark with a weak-lighted or dead flashlight. But with this handy app, which was .99, we can now light up at any time.

TurboScan. Again, there’s a bunch of scan apps. We chose this one because reviews were good. And it is good. After taking a pix of a document, you can adjust the parameters (shorten, lengthen, add width) to encompass the entire doc. Haven’t figured out how to email the doc directly yet, but it’s easy to store a doc scan on the iPhone “Camera Roll” and email that image. We used to feel smart carting a remote scanner, which was heavy and clunky, into courthouses to scan file docs…now we just use TurboScan on our iPhones. $1.99.

VoiceRecorderHD. With this app, we can record witness interviews with our iPhones, link it to Dropbox (another app we’re fond of) for file transfer or instead connect the iPhone to our Mac and download the voice file that way. $1.99.

Lumin. Sometimes you gotta read the fine print…and sometimes you gotta read the fine print in the dark. Lumin works like a magnifying glass…lets you read the fine print, even capture the image so you can zoom in on a part of it for closer inspection, and if you’re in dim or no lighting, Lumin also provides a light for viewing. Cool. $1.99.

For the iPad

Evernote. We’re digging Evernote on our iPad, but still learning how to manipulate it on our iPhones (some apps just seem too large for an iPhone, y’know?). But on the iPad, this app is a winner. One of the Guns, Gams, and Gumshoes PIs now carries her iPad to all witness interviews and uses Evernote to take notes, pictures, voice recordings…then sends the report immediately afterward to the attorney-client. You can use the free version or upgrade for a nominal fee (something like $1.99). We went for the upgrade.

There you have it. Our current 4 favorite apps for the iPhone, and one winner for the iPad.

Have a great week, Writing PIs

Like private eye mysteries with thrills, humor and romance? Check out The Zen Man, a 21-st Nick and Nora mystery, now available on Kindle and Nook. Only .99 through January 18.

Related articles

• What Features of the New iPad Will Come to the iPhone? (iphone.appstorm.net)
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Tips for Writers Writing Sleuths: Tracking Missing Persons

How a Sleuth Might Track a Missing Person

by Colleen Collins, originally printed in Novelists Inc. January 2012 newsletter NINK

A large percentage of a real-life and fictional PIs’ work involves, to an extent, finding persons whose location is unknown to the PI. For example, a person might be actively avoiding being found, such as a debtor who does not want to be served with a lawsuit. This person might come and go at odd hours or start shimmying in and out a back window instead of using the front door of her residence.

Sometimes the missing person case is more complex, such as a parent who has abducted his child and fled the jurisdiction. In such scenarios, people are more deliberate in their efforts, typically travel farther and attempt to cover their tracks more thoroughly.

If you’re writing a story with a PI or sleuth, your character might be hired to locate someone. A few techniques for finding a person whose location is unknown include:

• Searching databases that contain public records. There are numerous online public records that anyone can search, such as:
  • County assessors’ sites have lists of owners of real property. If the person was not the owner of the residence, you’ll find out who is.  That owner/landlord might have information about the person’s current whereabouts or know someone who does.
  • Privately owned cemeteries and mortuaries maintain burial permits, funeral service registers, funeral and memorial arrangements, obituaries, intermediate orders and perpetual care arrangements. For example, if the missing person recently attended a funeral, a PI can find names of friends and relatives through some of these records.
• Interviewing past and current neighbors as well as relatives, past and current landlords, co-workers and known associates.
• Searching the Internet using Google and other search engines for blogs, images, news and so forth. You’d be surprised what you can find by simply typing a telephone number into the Google browser, for example.
• Looking up bride/groom’s names if there’s been a recent wedding, or one is in the works: Wedding Channel.  Often, photos and lists of guests are also posted.
• Checking Internet communities and social networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin. We once located a missing person who was on the run, but she still found time to log into her MySpace account and blog away. One search engine that searches dozens of social networking sites with each lookup is Socialmention.
• Conducting surveillances at locations where the subject has been known to hang out, from bars to exercise clubs to softball games.

There are entire books written on the subject of finding missing persons – if you’re writing a story with a missing-person plot, considering purchasing a recent book on the topic. PIstore.com offers a wide variety of books on different investigative specializations.

There are also organizations whose websites offer help with networking, services and resources to find people who are missing – below are several of these sites:

• Let’s Bring Them Home: National missing adults program, partnered with Discovery Channel
• NamUs: National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, a clearing house for missing persons and unidentified decedent records
• National Center for Missing & Exploited Children:  Leading non-profit organization in the U.S. working with law enforcement to address issues involving missing and exploited children.

If your fictional sleuth specializes in missing persons, think about the following character traits:

• How tenacious is your character? This kind of research can be time-consuming, detailed, frustrating, with lots of dead-ends before finding a clue.
• Is your sleuth a people person? Because most likely he’ll be talking to a number of people and trying to, in the course of their conversations, pull the nuggets of information he needs.
• What kind of tools does your sleuth use? Does she have access to a computer, proprietary databases, an adequate vehicle to conduct surveillance?  Is he knowledgeable conducting research in public libraries, courthouses and the like?
• Does your sleuth incorporate all of the tools of the PI trade in her search, including trash hits at recently vacated residences for signs as to where the missing party might have been headed?
• Does your sleuth like putting together jigsaw puzzles? Because that’s what locating missing persons is like — assembling varied pieces of information from disparate sources to get, finally, a clear picture.

Have a good week, Writing PIs

Like private eye mysteries with thrills, humor and romance? Check out The Zen Man, a 21-st Nick and Nora mystery, now available on Kindle, Nook, and Smashwords.

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