TEMPEST INVESTIGATIVE AGENCY
Jupiter, Florida
Palm Beach County
Tel: (561) 627-7375
Agency Lic. No: A 1000161
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We Support Palm Beach County
Tempest Investigative Agency
Frequently Asked Questions
The main function of an investigator is to obtain factual, unbiased, information and supply it to the requestor.
Private Investigators assist individuals, businesses, and attorneys by finding and analyzing information. They connect clues to uncover facts about legal, financial, or personal matters. Private Investigators offer many services, including executive, corporate, and celebrity protection; preemployment verification; and individual background investigation profiles. Some investigate computer crimes, such as identity theft, harassing e-mails , and illegal downloading copyrighted material. They also provide assistance in criminal and financial fraud cases, child custody and protection cases, missing persons, and premarital screening. They are also hired to prove/disprove infidelity. Private Investigators may use many methods to determine the facts of a case. Much of their work is done with a computer (recovery of emails and deleted documents). Search of government and private databases. Computers allow Private Investigators to quickly obtain huge amounts of information, such as records of prior arrests, convictions, and civil legal judgements; telephone numbers, information about motor vehicle registration, records of clubs and association memberships; social website profiles and even photographs. Private Investigators also perform various other types of searches and surveillances. They may visit or call an individuals place of employment to verify employment and income. In cases involving missing persons or background checks, investigators interview people to gather as much information as possible about an individual. Sometimes Private Investigators go undercover, pretending to be someone else in order to get information or to observe a subject inconspicuously. The even arrange to be hired by businesses to observe workers for wrongdoing. Most Private Investigators are trained to perform physical surveillance, which may be high tech or low tech. They may observe a site, such as the home of a subject, from an inconspicuous location or a vehicle using photographic and video cameras, binoculars, cellular phones, and GPS systems, to gather information on an individual. Surveillances can be time consuming. In cases that involve fraudulent workers' compensation claims, Private Investigators may carry out long-term covert observation of a person suspected of fraud. If an investigator observes the person performing an activity that contradicts injuries stated in a workers' compensation claim, the investigator would take video or still photographs to document the activity and report it to the client. Private Investigators must be mindful of the law in conducting investigations. They keep up with federal , state, and local legislation, such as privacy law and other legal issues affecting their work. The legality of certain methods may be unclear, and Private Investigators must sometimes make judgement calls in deciding how to properly collect evidence so as not to compromise its admissibility in court. Specialty Types: Computer Forensic Investigators: Specialize in recovering, analyzing, and presenting data from computers for use in investigations or as evidence. They determine the details of intrusion into computers systems, recover data from encrypted or erased files, and recover e-mails and deleted passwords. Legal Investigators: Assist in preparing criminal defenses, locating witnesses, serving legal documents, interviewing police and prospective witnesses, and gathering and reviewing evidence. Legal investigators may also collect information on the parties to litigation, take photographs, testify in court, and assemble evidence and reports for trials. The often work for law firms or lawyers. Corporate Investigators: Conduct internal and external investigation for corporations. In internal, they may investigate drug use in the workplace, ensure that expenses accounts are not abused, or determine employees are not steeling assets, merchandise or information. External investigations attempt to thwart criminal schemes from outside the corporation, such as fraudulent billing by a supplier. Investigators may spend months posing as an employee of the company in order to find misconduct. Financial Misconduct: An investigator may be hired to conduct and develop confidential financial profiles of individuals or companies that are prospective parties to large financial transactions. The investigators are often CPAs who work closely with investment bankers and other accountants. They might also search for assets in order to recover damages awarded by the court in fraud or theft cases. Work Environment: Private Investigators generally work alone, sometimes with others. Some of the work involves confrontations, so the job can be stressful and dangerous. Some situations, such as certain bodyguard assignments for corporations or celebrity clients, call for the Private Investigator to be armed. In most cases, however, a weapon is not necessary, because the purpose of the work is gathering information and not conducting criminal apprehensions or law enforcement. Owners of Private Investigative Agencies have the added stress of having to deal with demanding and sometimes distraught clients. Although considered a dangerous occupation, Private Investigators have a relatively low incident of non-lethal work-related injuries. Most of the work of Private Investigators is learned on the job, depending on the type of employer; in an insurance company a trainee will learn how to recognize insurance fraud, a computer forensic investigator will never stop training due to the ever-changing technologies, a corporate investigator will learn business practices, management structure, and finance-related issues. Employment: For Private Investigator jobs, most employers look for individuals with ingenuity, persistence, and assertiveness. A candidate must not be afraid of confrontation, should communicate well, and be able to think on his/her feet. Good interviewing & interrogation skills are also important and usually are acquired in earlier careers in law enforcement. Private Investigators must be able to present facts in a manner that a jury will believe. Good interviewing & interrogation skills are also important and usually are acquired in earlier careers in law enforcement. Investigators must be able to present facts in a manner that a jury will believe. Significant Points of Being a Private Investigator: Work hours are often irregular and the work can be dangerous About 21% of Private Investigators are self-employed Keen competition is expected for clients From the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Standard Occupational Classification, we find this description for Private Investigators listed under SOC 33-9021: Private Investigators "Gather, analyze, compile and report information regarding individuals or organizations to clients, or detect occurrences of unlawful acts or infractions of rules in private establishment." Code of Ethics At Tempest Investigative Agency we have a unified belief that all work and professional relationships must be of the highest ethical and moral standards. Tempest Investigative Agency shall provide professional and competent services to all clients. This code of ethics constitutes those values agreed to by the employees of TIA. This code is to be honored and practiced as a guideline for all professional activities. We understand and agree to abide by all elements of the code as described above at all times while conducting investigations for Tempest Investigative Agency. The following are some tips to aid you in evaluating which Palm Beach private investigator to work with: Make sure they have a license, it's the LAW! Under the State of Florida regulations, Chapter 493, the following applies: The Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Division of Licensing, licenses and regulates the private investigative industry in accordance with Florida Statutes. Private investigators and private investigative agencies serve in positions of trust. Untrained and unlicensed persons or businesses, or persons not of good moral character, are a threat to the public safety and welfare. The private investigative industry is regulated to ensure the interests of the public are adequately served and protected. This information has been made available to inform Florida citizens about licensing requirements. A private investigator is any individual or agency who, for consideration, advertises as providing or performs the following activities. Individuals or agencies providing or advertising as providing these services for consideration must be licensed. Read more official information about the Florida Private Investigator Industry HERE. A Private investigator should be able to produce a copy of such a license immediately for you. Beware of some companies who offer background investigations, but give you nothing more than database searches of old public records. That may be enough to get you what you need, but if you need to be sure that the information is accurate, contact a licensed Florida private investigator. Should you need to the check the validity of a Florida private investigator's license, go to the State of Florida private investigator license search HERE. You can also check the validity of a Florida private investigative agency license HERE. You can check Tempest Investigative Agency's license number while you are there. Just fill in: A 1000161 A professional private investigator shouldn't give you "attitude". As a professional private investigator, they should be good tempered, analytical problem solvers, and be primarily "at your service". You should notice the difference almost immediately when talking with them on the telephone or in person. Dealing with some private investigators can be as stressful as the main reason you've ask them for help. This doesn't necessarily mean that you won't get a good product at the end of an investigation, but who needs to pay for stress and anxiety. Do you need to meet with the P.I.? It's not necessary if you are only looking for document research such as Palm Beach court records, but a good private investigator, with experience, should not undertake an investigation without meeting a client first. As stated above, a private investigator serves the public trust, and as such, a private investigator should not undertake an investigation when doing so may violate public trust, such as conducting a surveillance for a client who's intentions are to gain information in order to harass someone. Always get a contract. Like any other service, you should get a contract that indicates what you are hiring the Palm Beach private investigator for, and what you will get in return. If they cannot or will not present you with a contract, hang up the phone or leave the consultation. Experience. Some private investigators have little or no experience conducting investigations. There are those who have retired from a law enforcement, such as police officers, or a military career (soldiers), and decide that being a “private investigator” would be action packed and exciting. They enroll in some Private Detective school and after two months, they become a licensed Florida private investigator. Does that mean that they are qualified to investigate your case? Not necessarily! It is important that you know the qualifications and experience of the Jupiter private investigator that will be working on your case. The more experienced the investigator, the greater the likelihood that your desired results will be achieved. A professional investigator's experience is not based on how many investigations they've conducted, but rather how many successful investigations they've conducted. It a matter of methodology, which is based in good training and extensive "trial and error" leading to perfection. They should be experienced surveillance experts, which by the way, federal agents are experts in surveillance and conducting background investigations, as well as protective services. The "book" on these items was written federally, as you can imagine, due to reasons of national security of each these functions. Insurance or being bonded. Florida State law does NOT require that a private investigator be insured to conduct any of the functions under the regulations. Having insurance for "Errors and Omissions" is somewhat standard in today's world of ineffective, untrained and unprofessional individuals. And as a last note - you get what you pay for. Nothing further needed. Tempest Investigative Agency is owned and managed by a former federal agent. If you would like to review his background, just go HERE. Private Investigation Fees (How They Work) In most cases, a private investigator will charge a service fee based on a general formula, e.g. + Investigative Base Fee (per hour or day) X Time Expended + Expenses = Total Cost As a fictitious example, let's look at the process we took with Jane, who found the Tempest Investigative Agency website, filled out the contact form to request an investigation into suspicions of a cheating spouse. After receiving Jane's email request, we contacted her to arrange a meeting at a semi-private location for our FREE CONSULTATION. During our consultation with Jane, she told us, in detail, about her cheating spouse suspicions. We then asked some additional questions. We informed Jane that within her description of the circumstances, there were several of the "common signs of infidelity". We told her that we would accept the case. We told Jane what our general strategy would be to investigate her suspicions. She was informed that in this type of case, a minimum of five days to two weeks, possibly up to a month (all dependent upon her spouse's habits), would be required to perform an effective investigation. Jane acknowledged the timeline. We told Jane that during our investigation, we would periodically inform her of our status, and that at the conclusion of our investigation, we would provide her with a detailed investigative report, as well as an itemized billing list. We informed Jane that at anytime during the investigation, we would supply her with a current billing total, and that she could terminate our investigative services at any time, for any reason. The accumulation of our fees would end at the time she requested a termination of investigative services. Otherwise, our fees would continue until the conclusion of our investigation. We then explained how our investigative fees worked, using the above formula, and informed her that a Service Retainer Deposit would be required. Jane accepted the verbal terms and we presented a documented Investigative Service Contract for her review and signature. After the Investigative Service Contract was signed, and the Service Retainer Deposit was given to us, we gave Jane our private number and she departed, awaiting the results of our investigation. At the conclusion of our spousal infidelity investigation, we gathered conclusive photographic evidence to prove that Jane's spouse was, in fact, having an affair. We contacted Jane to schedule a meeting and provide her with our final investigative report and billing. We compiled our total fees, based on the formula above, to the following, non-itemized, example: Investigative Base Fee: $90.00 per hour Investigative Time: X 22 hours $ 1980.00 Expenses: +$ 340.00 Total: $ 2320.00 That summarizes how OUR fees are calculated. There are several variables, such as the type of services performed. |