A number of the major mobile phone service providers offer “family locator” products which give parents the ability to see the real time location of their child on interactive maps they can view on the computer or smart phone. Parents can also define locations or areas, and receive updates when their children arrive at or depart from those locations, or enter/exit pre-set boundaries. Verizon and Sprint each offer “family locator” products, which cost between $5 and $10 a month, and are easy to set up, use and maintain.

The concerns that keep parents awake at night haven’t really changed all that much over the years, since moms and dads across the country still worry about how fast their kids are driving, who they’re talking to and hanging out with, and the simplest but probably most important one of all: where exactly they are. And frankly, the dangers children face haven’t changed all that much either, save for one BIG one that popped up about 15 years ago: the information super highway, a.k.a. the internet. The good news is that while the primary fears of parents and dangers to children haven’t changed much, technology now gives parents a number of solutions to help them. Parents contact me quite frequently, seeking advice on solutions to help them with monitoring their children in three main areas:

1. Driving
2. Internet
3. Location

I’ll cover each of the topics in separate blog posts over the next few weeks, starting with…

DRIVING:

The risks associated with teenagers driving are obvious, namely that as inexperienced drivers, they are far more prone to be involved in accidents than adults with more years of driving experience. In fact, car crashes are the leading cause of death among 15-20 year olds in the USA, so parents’ concern in this area is understandable and justified. Fortunately, the same GPS tracking technology we use in infidelity-related cases enables parents to monitor their children’s driving remotely.

In a nutshell, the parents hook up a small device (size ranges from a pack of gum to a pack of cigarettes) to the vehicle the teen will be driving. The device is constantly communicating with GPS satellites and records the vehicle’s speed and location. There are a number of products available in this space, and the more advanced solutions can be set up to automatically email, SMS or call parents if the teen is speeding or has ventured some place they shouldn’t be going. Some even enable parents to remotely sound an alarm, flash lights, or honk the car horn if they get an email that their child is currently doing 95mph in a 25mph zone. Brickhouse Security offers a number of products, including this GPS tracking device which is small but has a lot of great features.

Check back soon for my next blog post on tracking children’s online activity…

1.  The private investigator is anonymous to the subject.

One of the main reasons most people hire a PI is because they know they are likely to be recognized and caught if they try to do the work themselves. If you are trying to follow your cheating spouse, it is almost certain that he will recognize your car or spot you, and your cover will be blown. Not only will this result in embarrassment for you or suspicion by him, but it will jeopardize the entire case. If your spouse now believes you are suspicious of his behavior, he will be more cautious in the future, making it more difficult to catch him.

2.  Private investigators can legally conduct surveillance.

Clients often mistakenly believe they can follow their spouse and use any evidence found in subsequent court testimony. However, in Connecticut for example, your spouse or significant other can have you arrested for stalking if you are following them. If you are charged with stalking, any evidence you find would’ve been obtained illegally and could be inadmissible in court. Only the police and private investigators are exempt from this law and legally allowed to follow individuals and record their activities.

3.  Private investigators are skilled at investigative work.

Being a private investigator requires many skills beyond knowing how to drive and take photos. If you’ve ever tried following a friend’s car to a restaurant, for example, you know how easy it is to lose them on the highway or at a traffic light – and this is when they want you to follow them! So imagine trying to follow someone who doesn’t want to be followed, you may not know the intended destination, and you’re trying to avoid being obvious and getting caught. A private investigator has to be not only constantly aware of a subject’s every move, but also able to anticipate likely actions. Because moving surveillance is so difficult, it is sometimes recommended for multiple agents to be on the case at the same time or, at the very least, for a private investigator to change attire or even vehicles during a surveillance case. 

Besides being surveillance experts, private investigators must master many technologies. They need to know how to use overt and covert cameras, install and download surveillance software, keystroke loggers and GPS trackers, perform counter surveillance, retrieve deleted computer files, find elusive background information online, and much more. Above everything, they know which investigative technique is best to use when and how to handle themselves if their cover is blown, to avoid jeopardizing the case. 

4.  Private investigators know the law.

Gathering evidence is of little use if it’s not admissible in court or, even worse, if the activity is illegal and lands you in jail. A private investigator knows what is and isn’t legal and the proper way to gather evidence in order for it to be admissible in court. For example, you can place a GPS tracker on your spouse’s vehicle as long as the vehicle is registered in your name or is intended for use by the family. This usually means you cannot place a GPS tracking device on your girlfriend or boyfriend’s car. The same law applies to installing surveillance software on a computer. In a situation where a client wants to perform an activity that is illegal, a professional private investigator will know of and suggest an alternate solution which is legal.

5.  Surveillance is time-consuming.

Surveillance is often time-consuming and, to the surprise of many, can be very boring. In an average surveillance case, a private investigator might spend an entire evening sitting in a vehicle watching a building door for a subject to emerge. It is unlikely that the first time you conduct surveillance on a subject, that person commits the very activity you were hired to catch. More often than not, a private investigator will need to conduct surveillance on multiple occasions in order to catch someone in the act. It’s just the nature of the work. Most clients have a full-time job or other responsibilities preventing them from spending large quantities of time following their spouse or significant other.

In cases where the client is able to identify a primary third party suspect and/or pinpoint specific, regularly scheduled activities that are suspicious (for example, the spouse practices with a bowling league every Monday night and always comes home smelling like perfume), we typically recommend a surveillance schedule that will provide the best opportunity to gather useful evidence. However, in cases where the client simply has general suspicions or “feels” something is amiss, but has no idea who their spouse is cheating with, nor when or where the infidelity might be taking place, we may recommend starting with a GPS tracking solution.

A GPS tracker enables Bluevision to gather detailed information of the cheating spouse’s driving activity. The GPS tracking device is attached to the cheating spouse’s vehicle, and the vehicular activity is continuously logged while the equipment is actively in service. Typically we recommend attaching the device for 5-7 days in order to capture as much data as possible about the vehicle’s travels. The device logs the vehicle speed and routes travelled, the locations at which the vehicle stops, and the duration of the travels and stops. Depending on the type of GPS tracker used, the data gathered is either reviewed in real time or downloaded and analyzed by a Bluevision private investigator.

Bluevision reviews the data gathered by the GPS tracker to find suspicious travel patterns and vehicle stops. This enables us to schedule surveillance so that the private investigator is in position on days and at times that provide the best opportunity to catch the cheating spouse in the act. It also shows locations at which agents can take position, reducing the risk of losing the subject during moving surveillance. Optimal surveillance scheduling is very important to the client because the service is typically billed on an hourly basis in blocks of time. To provide the best value to the client, we try to limit the time that the agent is sitting idle. Ultimately the result is cost savings to our clients, who benefit from a reduction in the surveillance hours required to capture the evidence they need.

For more information about the GPS tracking solution Bluevision offers, visit the GPS tracking section of our website.

Patrick Troy on "Connecticut Style"

I was recently on WTNH Channel 8’s new show, “Connecticut Style”. I explained different tech gadgets that private investigators use for surveillance: a GPS tracker, computer keystroke logger, portable hard drive to install surveillance software, and digital voice recorder. I’ll describe these gadgets in detail in future posts.