Have you ever wished you could spy on your spouse for a day or plant a camera in your home to watch the babysitter? You might have thought you were taking things a little too far, but private investigators use these and many other tactics to uncover secrets in people’s professional and personal lives. While PIs have been around for decades, their assistance is becoming more and more popular, as problems like fraudulence in the workplace, cheating spouses, child mistreatment and corporate corruption become increasingly common. Additionally, technologies like online dating throw new curveballs into the dating scene; many people prudently request a background check before getting involved with someone they first met on a computer screen. If you are curious about the work PIs do or are thinking about hiring one yourself, read on to ensure you’ll find one who is credible, reliable, experienced and honest.

Contrary to popular belief, the work of a private investigator rarely unfolds like an episode of Jerry Springer or Cheaters. Speedy results during an investigation are rare. In fact, the decision to hire a PI may be as important to your future as which doctor you choose, because a poor investigation may lead you to false conclusions. By the time a person finds himself in a PI’s office, he is typically overwrought with emotion, and clear decision-making can be complicated. So, much like a private investigator, conducting extensive research about the PI firm you’re thinking of hiring is essential.

“This is a profession in which there is tremendous diversity and areas of specialization, so it is essential for anyone seeking a professional investigator to do their homework,” says John Villines, who has been at the helm of the private investigation firm John C. Villines Group for nearly 30 years. He’s also the current Chairman of the Georgia Board of Private Detectives and Security Agencies, appointed by Governor Sonny Perdue.

This homework could entail anything from verifying that the firm is licensed and insured to checking with the Georgia Board of Private Detectives and Security Agencies to see if a complaint has ever been filed against it, says Christopher Kirk, head of Georgia Investigation Specialists and Atlanta chapter chairman of the Georgia Association of Professional Private Investigators. You might also ask about the investigators’ work history, experience and training. “Ask for professional references,” he says. “Ask to make contact with a past or current client of the firm.” Lastly, he says, ask if they belong to any professional associations. “PI firms with active professional affiliations are held to a higher degree of ethics and accountability.”

Perhaps the most basic question you are asking yourself is, “Do I really need to hire a PI or am I just letting my imagination run away with me?” That’s one of those soul searchers only you can answer. But, there’s something of a “rule of thumb” among private investigators that says if you actually make the phone call to a private investigator because, say, you think your spouse is having an affair, you probably already know the truth and you just want someone else to verify it. Of course, innuendo and intuition won’t hold up in court and you probably only have one shot at getting the evidence you need.

A couple of facts: Private investigators don’t carry little lock-picking tools sets and break into homes and offices. They don’t steal documents from files or wiretap phones. If someone claiming to be a PI says they do, you want nothing to do with them. You need someone who will legally obtain the information you’re seeking. “Tools and techniques used in our industry to locate people and retrieve information have been and are under fire,” Kirk says, “so it would not be unbelievable for an investigator to say, ‘I can’t legally obtain that information.’ If you feel the PI firm is stringing you along for more money, I recommend asking for a case summary and to physically show you what they’ve done for you and how they charged you for it.”

When working with a private investigator, communication and honesty are of the utmost importance. “Trust is essential,” says Holly Hunter, owner of Hunter Investigations, an Alpharetta-based PI firm. She does get a few jokes about her name, but that’s about the only comparison anyone makes between her and the actress of the same name. “If you’re seeking a divorce, you’re entrusting the most intimate details of your life to a private investigator,” she says. “You’re trusting the investigator to act lawfully. You’re also trusting the investigator to do everything he or she can to obtain the information you need and has been truthful with you about their activity. That trust can’t be broken.”

Hunter, an unassuming, blue-eyed, blonde mother of three is an Atlanta native who looks like she would spend most of her days running errands for her family and volunteering at her church–which she does, in addition to her work as a PI.
Her daily schedule usually involves high-tech information gathering and low-profile surveillance.

“Depending on the case scenario, it tends to be a lot of courthouse records-searching and computer-related document and fact checking,” Hunter says. “In most cases, I first establish a ‘big picture’ of what I’m looking at and looking for. I access as many sources as I can in order to get some kind of an understanding of the history and habits of the person I’m investigating–the Subject.”

Sometimes that means visits to courthouse records offices, and sometimes that means canvassing the Subject’s known haunts. Hunter’s quiet demeanor allows her to waltz in and out of situations and strike up conversations by either chatting up unsuspecting female interviewees or spreading a hint of “Southern charm” on male targets. Before long, she obtains the information she needs and, like a Navy Seal, has left the area without leaving so much as a footprint.

But often, once a history is compiled, the nitty-gritty work of surveillance is just beginning; a time- and patience-consuming necessity of the business that can be as exciting as watching grass grow.

“One of my first cases was a surveillance,” Hunter recalls. “I was watching the Subject, in this case a woman, who was meeting her boyfriend for sex and to do drugs. I had been hired to document her activity. The evidence was to be used to prove she was an unfit mother and acting in a fashion that was detrimental to the well-being of her children. She and her husband were already divorced, but he was taking her back to court to get custody of the children because of her drug-using lifestyle.”

She admitted the case was, at times, boring–it involved hours and hours of sitting, watching and waiting, followed by a few minutes of activity. But that’s often the only way of striking “pay dirt.”

“Yes, I got her,” Hunter smiles when she recalls documenting the Subject’s illicit activity.

Such post-divorce cases are common nowadays. Women still receive custody of the children in most cases simply because most men don’t want to take care of their children, but more and more the fathers are seeking custody when they believe their ex-wife’s activity or lifestyle may endanger the children…and the courts are responding. There are cases in North Atlanta, and across Georgia, of men getting custody of the children–even child support and alimony payments from their ex-wives.

But the goal of a professional private investigator is not to “score” the kids or “bust” the cheating spouse–it’s to seek the truth, wherever that may lead. No private investigator worth his or her salt will ever guarantee the client that magic piece of evidence that will cinch the case, such as photos of the affair. They will, however, promise to seek the truth…even if the truth isn’t what the client wants to hear.

Randy Wyles is a journalist and private investigator who was one of the private investigators involved in the investigation of the murder of Atlanta socialite Lita Sullivan, a murder her estranged husband Jim Sullivan was convicted of arranging.