Rogue private eye that breaks the law and gets in the way of a police investigation is a tired storyline in TV and movies. It is such a common trope that it may have you thinking that this is the relationship that private investigators and police have in real life. But that couldn’t be further from the truth! In reality, PI’s are often a valuable asset used by police forces to assist in their investigations. Here are some of the ways police investigations can get further faster with the help of private investigators.

They Can Help Find Persons of Interest

A large part of any investigation is finding and talking to persons of interest. It takes a lot of time, and it takes skill to get people to open to you, especially when they worry that doing so could get them in trouble. Which is exactly why it is difficult for police officers to get persons of interest to tell them what they want to know. At Lobb Investigations, our investigators are trained interviewers. They can make people feel at ease and comfortable opening up to them. Thus, they can gain information that can contribute to the investigation.

They Can Help Collect Evidence

Jumping off the last point, private investigators can assist police investigations by gathering evidence for them. Police forces can have suspicions and receive anonymous tips all day long, but you cannot do anything about that without sufficient evidence. In addition to evidence gathered via interviews, PI’s can also produce video and photo evidence as well. And because private investigators are not bound by the same laws that police investigations are, they can often go further in obtaining that evidence. That’s not to say that private investigators are above the law by any means. If evidence is obtained by means of breaking the law, that evidence will not be admissible in court. But there are certainly laws that apply to police investigations that do not hold weight over private investigations.

They Can Provide An Extra Set of Hands

And sometimes police forces hire private investigators simply because they are overwhelmed with the volume of cases on their desk. Private investigators can lighten the load by serving warrants, gathering evidence, and locating persons of interest while the police department follows up on cases that are more of a priority.