Tips from a Private Investigator V

Improvisation and Private Investigation

Working as a private investigator in Indonesia requires many skills – patience, tenacity and great observation to name but a few.

Not many people would realise that good acting skills are also a great asset. One particular aspect of acting is improvising in a difficult and unpredicted situation.

A private investigator just never knows what will happen next. You could be on a stakeout, sitting in a car, and nothing happens for a few hours. All of a sudden a security man is tapping hard on your window and your heart skips a beat.

At a moment’s notice you have to wind down the window and often (although you are prepared as much as possible) have to improvise.

Two of my colleagues came back from a case just last week. They (a man and a woman) had followed someone into a hotel. The target was making his way to a room down a small corridor when suddenly he turned around and headed straight towards them. What did they do? Their response was not prepared and they acted spontaneously and improvised – they held each other like lovers.

Last month I was on a case in Western Sumatera. Our target was a senior CEO and often had with him a driver and a small group of people who seemed to be some kind of minders.

We had had a succesful ten days of surveillance and then one day it seemed we were “burnt” (this is private investigator language for when the target suspects being followed).

We were out in the street and the target had entered an office complex leaving his driver outside.

I noticed the driver looking at us. Perhaps over the ten days he had noticed us before, after all it was a very small town and we were not from there.

About 15 minutes later we saw four men and the driver coming towards us. My partner told me to stay calm and relax.

Two men stood behind us and three were in front asking questions about why we were in the town and what we were doing. They seemed initially quite aggressive.

As a private investigator we always prepare cover stories for a range of scenarios for every case. But it is impossible to prepare for every situation that may happen or for every question that might be fired at you.

The key is to be prepared as much as possible but also to stay very calm and relaxed.

Even with preparation, improviation, to some degree, is needed. From my experience as a private investigator here are some tips on improvisation:

Improvising Tips

1.     Confidence. 

You don’t want to seem shy and unconfident. You must display confidence. When you’re confident, anything can be done. When you’re not confident, you feel limited.

 2.     Energy.

You must try and be full of energy. This will make you feel relaxed and anyone speaking to you will think you have nothing to hide.

 3.     Focus. 

It is important not to lose concentration on the conversation. Equally important you should focus on the scene around you, and be aware for any possible dangers.

 4.     Listen and watch.

You need to listen very carefully to what is being asked.That way you can react correctly to what they are saying. You must try and “be” the character you’re improvising. You must also watch for any non-verbal signals. This will help you pick up on anger, disbelief, sympathy etc. Then you can react accordingly.

 5.     Stick to your story. 

If you establish one line of story, stay with it. Never change or you will almost certainly be caught out.

6.     Eye contact. 

Without eye contact people will soon pick up that there is something wrong with any story your are telling.

 7.     Agression.

No, never become aggressive or over-assertive unless you absolutely need to or you are cornered and threatened.

Notes from a Private Investigator II

No. It is not a title of the great book Life of Pi. It’s Life as a PI – a Private Investigator. As we know, the first and probably the founding father of the private investigation agency and detective services in Indonesia is BEPIA – Bali Eye Private Investigation Agency.

BEPIA then soon opened IPIA – Indonesia Private Investigation Agency. BEPIA or IPIA were the first and probably the founding fathers of private investigation agencies and detective services in Indonesia.

Before I joined I kept asking myself  where do they get their workers? Who could be a private investigator and/or a detective? Should they be majoring in something special like criminology?  What special skills do they have?

These questions stuck in my head.

IPIA and BEPIA have agents with degrese in Criminology or with police backgrounds but formal qualifications aside there are some major characteristics one must have to become a professional private investigator or detective.

• Intuition
• Patience
• Dedication
• Loyalty
• Communicating skills
• Data processing abilities
• Knowledge of law

If you want to be the man on the field such as working on a surveillance, you better have a great intuition and patience (you try sitting in a car for 10 hours). If you want to work behind the desk, you better be good with data processing, have a wide knowledge of law, and also great communication skills as you will interact with lots of clients from different backgrounds.

Above all, the most important point is dedication, patience and loyalty. A great dedication and patience to finish your job.  To do it great and get an excellence result. A huge loyalty is needed in being a private investigator or a detective as you will be keeping someone’s secrets. Huge secrets.

BEPIA works on cases with the utmost professionalism and dedication, the CEO who is also the Director of Investigations holds an international qualification in Private Investigation.

Bali Eye Private Investigation Agency (BEPIA) along with our sister agency Indonesia Private Investigation Agency (IPIA) are fully registered Private Investigation Agencies offering private detective and private investigator services to the Private and Business sectors throughout Indonesia and South East Asia.

Tips from a Private Investigator II

Often you may have a gut feeling that you have a cheating partner; and that leads to a burning desire to find out if you are right or wrong. A Private Investigator can help you find the truth.

After talking with  several private investigators, and after working on over 200 suspected cheating partner related cases BEPIA  offers this brief summary of the top ten clues to tell if s/he is a cheating partner.

Number Ten:

Your partner is paying more attention to the way he or she dresses. Maybe s/he is changing styles, buying new clothes, working out.

It may be a mid-life crisis. They may just have decided to change the way they look as it makes them feel happier.

But be careful, such actions are often a sign someone is cheating. Getting all dressed up and working out may be for   someone new.

Number Nine:

Your partner is taking more money from the bank and spending more than usual, but they never have anything to show for it.

There could of course be many reasons aE” a gambling habit, an illness in the family that your partner has not told you about.

Remember though having an affair, hotel rooms, dinners out, weekends away, is not cheap.

Number Eight:

There’s a change in your sex life … there might be less or more.

But often what waves the red flag is when your partner wants to try out new things.

Number Seven:

Has there been a change in the way you communicate with each other?

Sometimes a cheating partner may start a fight on purpose so s/he can leave the house – a good excuse to go and meet the other person.

Number Six:

Work: Your partner is working a lot of sudden overtime but you can never reach them on the phone.

Number Five:

Your partner is always going out for work meetings, but every time you try to reach him or her they are is not where they are supposed to be. This could be a good reason to be suspicious.

Number Four:

Remember when your partner used to be happy and relaxed, enjoying time with you and/or the family?

This contentment has been replaced with restlessness and a desire to be anywhere except with the family.

Number Three:

Your partner starts to pick more of your faults out.

A cheating partner does have a conscience and finding fault with you can be a way for your partner for justifying the cheating.

Number Two:

This is the opposite of finding faults aE” being even more loving towards you.

This is usually at the start of the infidelity, and a way for the cheating partner to ease their guilt.

Number One:

The phone … when your partner is on the phone and you enter the room all of a sudden your partner lowers his or her voice or even leaves the room to finish the conversation.

Maybe the phone has a passcode and your partner refuses to share the code.

If you do get into the phone you notice that all the call histories and SMS messages have been deleted.

This could be someone covering their tracks.

So what do you do if all the evidence points to what you feared the most?

Even though the truth is painful it can be better than to live with a lie.

Our suggestion is as a first step you talk to your partner, and try and get the truth that way. At that point you can decide to work it out, maybe by talking to a counsellor, or you can decide to end the relationship.

Bali Eye Private Investigation Agency (BEPIA) along with our sister agency Indonesia Private Investigation Agency (IPIA) are fully registered Private Investigation Agencies offering private detective and private investigator services to the Private and Business sectors throughout Indonesia and South East Asia.

Tips from a Private Investigator I

Hiring a private investigator or detective is a big step. You will need to share your secrets or concerns to strangers. You surely want one who can keep all those issues confidential. There are quite a few private investigation agencies and detective services in Indonesia right now, and you might want to know which will get your job done. Whether the one you’re hiring now is the right one for you or not.

It’s not about the money.

Lots of people say that. But the truth is, it is often really about the money. Some people choose to hire an investigator or detective with the cheaper budget. While cheaper, sometimes, they may not get your job done. It is not that unusual anymore and unfortunately IPIA and BEPIA are seeing in an increase of clients that turn to us after giving their money to a PI who does very little, does not give full and transparent reports, or just disappears.

Be careful if the price is cheap. Remember there is truth in “you get what you pay for”. You will be spending your money on nothing if you choose the cheapest option. For example, an agency estimated its budget at 20 million rupiah for 7 days work. While another agency only costs you 5 million rupiah for 7 days work. Be smart. Think for yourself. To do a surveillance a PI has quite a lot of expenses – they might need to rent a car (it often is better to use different cars on different days), to pay salaries of two or three people plus perdiem, the petrol, the toll gates, etc etc etc. Would 5 million cover 7 days work? NO.

BEPIA – Bali Eye Private Investigation Agency is transparent with its budget so the client won’t need to be afraid of spending their money on nothing. BEPIA – a branch of Indonesia Private Investigation Agency, has existed in Indonesia since 2008. Serving approximately 200 cases on many different backgrounds.