Jennifer Mellon on the Skills Needed to be a Private Investigator

Jennifer Mellon is a private investigator who works for the company Trustify, alongside her partner Danny Boice. Trustify is a company which is looking to offer the very best private investigators to their clients through an affordable and highly efficient service and they have some of the finest private investigators in the business working for them. When speaking with both Jennifer and Danny recently I wanted to ask them what kind of skills a private investigator needs. This is a job which interests many and if you fall into that bracket, these are the skills that you will need in order to be an excellent private investigator.

Surveillance Skills

A great deal of the job of a private investigator involves watching people and performing surveillance. This could be because a suspicious husband wants you to check if their wife is being faithful, it could be an estranged parent asking you to check if the other parent is looking after the kids properly or it could even be to watch over a person of interest to support a legal case. In order to do this well you need to be able to find positions where you are able to watch what is going on, without being seen or arising suspicion.

Networking

In the world of a private investigator, information is the most powerful tool in their arsenal and you must know how and where to get it. Much information can of course be obtained by looking through public records or online resources but in many cases a private investigator will have a collection of individuals in key places, who they trust to give them information. In order to gain information like this you must have created relationships to build a solid network of contacts who you can rely on.

Interview Skills

Private investigators often need to carry out interviews with people in order to find out more infraction and this means that you need to be comfortable in an interview situation and know how to speak to people in order to get the information that you need. For example there may be a person who had an accident in the street that wasn’t their fault and they are looking to pursue a claim. In situations such as this witnesses are rarely ready to come forward and so it is often the role of a PI to find them and interview them to find out what they saw, in order to support the claim of the client.

Law Abiding

Private investigators are not allowed to break the law and they must know and understand the rule of law in order to perform their tasks in a law abiding way. Much of what a private investigator does could appear to be illegal but it never is and this is why you must understand the law, in order to stay under it.

Do you have the skills to perform this kind of role?