As a security guard, don’t cause a panic by over-reporting an “unattended item” as a “suspicious item”.
Here’s a quick way to initially evaluate the item you’ve found so you can report it correctly.
I recommend the acronym H.O.T.
The “H”…
Is the item Hidden?
Usually, but not always, an item is more likely suspicious if it’s hidden.
A backpack on a bench is more of an unattended backpack than a suspicious backpack. (Still report unattended items!)
But notice how a backpack hidden under some bleachers is more suspicious.
The “O”…
Is the item Obviously suspicious?
The backpack on a park bench is an “unattended backpack”, but if it’s got wires sticking out of it leading to a cell phone it’s obviously suspicious!
The “T”…
Is the item Typically in the area?
A gas cylinder on a construction site is kind of typical. They’re used for welding and all sorts of construction task. So maybe it’s just an “unattended gas cylinder”.
But the same gas cylinder near the entrance to a public library is suspicious.
Conclusion
This is just a quick system for an initial evaluation on how to report an item you find. This is not the final determination of if an item is harmless or not!
IMPORTANT:
Always report unattended items you find while working as a security guard even if you don’t initially believe them to be suspicious or dangerous.
Committed to your success,
Larry Kaye,
Private Investigator (Ret.) & #1 Best Selling Author
P.S. – And, of course, don’t miss my special report titled… If You Want To be a Private Investigator Give Up… Unless You Do These Three Things. You can get it right here…
Should you take marketing advice from a crackhead thief for your private investigation or process server business? The answer might surprise you!
Years ago when I worked as a Loss Prevention Officer, I caught a guy stealing Toy Story video tapes. And when I say some, I mean ALL!
He stole every single copy in the store.
I’m not going to pretend like it was an easy apprehension, but after the dust settled, he was a pro and I was a pro so we talked a bit while I processed him for the police.
He told me he sold these $25 or $30 videos for $10 on the street, but he didn’t sell them as videos. He sold them as 10 hours of child care!
He explained to his potential customers that a kid would watch the video over and over and over again. This meant, for a single parent, they could have about 10 hours of time to work on other things or simply to rest!
His Secret
He sold the benefit not the item!
No grown-up really wants a copy of Toy Story (Sorry, Disney and Tom Hanks.) But every parent wants affordable child care! So that’s what this shoplifter sold.
Your Turn
Are you selling your service or the benefit?
For skip tracing do you advertise that you will the skip’s address for your client or do are you selling that the litigation can finally move forward and that means a quicker payday for the law firm!
Sell the resolution. Sell the payday.
How about for process serving?
Are you selling that the papers get delivered or do you sell timely service in a professional manner that reflect well on the law firm and moves the case forward to a resolution?
The Real Secret
This is important… you gotta’ know what your potential client wants! Then make them that promises and keep that promise!
How to Know
Want to learn what your potential clients really want? Ask your current clients!
Also, read the publication that target you potential clients. Maybe the Bar Association newsletter, magazine or blog.
Committed to your success,
Larry Kaye,
Private Investigator, Ret.
& Best Selling Author
P.S. – Want more solid info like this? Then don’t miss my special report titled… If You Want To be a Private Investigator Give Up… Unless You Do These Three Things. You can get it right here…
A flashlight is an essential tool for anyone who works as a private investigator, security guard, process server, loss prevention officer, repo agent, or fugitive recovery.
If you know me, you know that after years of online teaching and preaching, I’m not a fan of “stuff”. I usually refer to these objects as toys.
I believe you carry your almost everything you need in your head. But, yes, you will require some tools and one of the few you need is a flashlight.
1. Power / Brightness
How powerful does the flashlight have to be? How bright does it have to be?
This is measured in lumens.
Don’t be distracted by any other measurement people are tossing at you for flashlights. Brightness really does count. And you don’t need a million lumens most of the time. You just don’t.
Day to day, doing this job, ninety lumens is about where I set the minimum. Ninety lumen and above works for most of us. Don’t go broke buying a flashlight trying to get 100,000 lumens!
Everything I’m talking about here you can get in ten-dollar, twelve-dollar, or sometimes seven-dollar flashlight. Keep it affordable. You’re going to use it a lot, but that doesn’t mean it has to be super expensive.
2. Batteries
What kind of batteries do you want in a flashlight?
I’ve been in the game long enough that I used to carry that big, long stick of a flashlight that was loaded up with, what, six or eight D-cell batteries.
We all pretended it was just a flashlight, but in a pinch, we’d give someone a smack with it if we had to. Purely in self-defense of course. (Always keep things legal and ethical.)
Nowadays, the batteries can even be rechargeable through a usb-port or by plugging it into a wall. I don’t have a ton of experience with those. I know guys that do, and they love them. I have no problems with that in particular. What little I’ve worked with them rechargables have really worked well for me.
Security Guard Training Note: For my brothers and sisters in security… if you’re using your flashlight a lot every night, rechargeable may be the way to go. Purchasing batteries is very expensive.
For a lot of us private investigators and process servers who use flashlights more intermittently AA batteries is the way to go. Why? If you use a flashlight with AA batteries, when push comes to shove and we’re facing a zombie apocalypse, you can find AA batteries everywhere. Pull them out of a remote control if you have to. If your batteries die, you’ll have a light source, because you’ve chosen a common battery. If you choose those button batteries or something like that, they’re expensive to replace and hard to find in a pinch.
3. Size of Flashlight
For security professionals back in the day, we used to carry those big, huge flashlights. Nowadays, flashlights can be pretty small. I kind of like that.
The flashlight I carry regularly is not very big. (Only about 7 inches long. But… it’s very bright.
It’s got the ninety lumens (plus) that I’m looking for. And it’s got a one-touch button on the back to operate it.
This fits very easily into tactical pants pockets, and even in a back jean pocket if you need to.
I have lost one or two of these over the years carrying them in the back pocket of my jeans, especially the ones that have a little clip on them. I like the pocket clip, but they’ll catch on something and I’ll lose them. But, for ten dollars, you can’t go wrong. Snag two and you’ll have a spare one for when you lose the one you’ve got.
That size of flashlight is really good for security guards. If you’re carrying a flashlight daily, as a private investigator or a process server – and I really believe it’s one of the very few things you need to carry with you on a daily basis for the job – then I like a very thin, pen-like flashlight. Those are generally going to use AAA batteries and I don’t have a problem with that. We’re talking about something you can slip into your jacket pocket. You can carry it around as easily as an ink pen and have readily accessible whenever you’re working.
It’s very important, though, to carry that flashlight. Even when you don’t think you’ll need it. You’d be surprised how often it comes up.
4. Functions
Last but not least, there are all sorts of functions and features on flashlights that are really nifty and fun to have, but it begins to fall into that “toy” category.
The flashlight I carry just has a push on, push off button.
When I press it, I know it going to turn on with a steady, high power beam. When I press it again, I know it’s going to turn off.
I don’t have to worry that it will turn on in a “flashing” mode or low power or red.
Every once in a while, a special function comes in handy. But, honestly, if you need it to flash you can just cover it with your hand, wave it back and forth, or turn it on and off manually on the very rare occasions you’re going to need it. Very rare occasion.
5. Tactical Consideration
For tactical brothers and sisters in security, especially those that carry firearms, a momentary on / momentary off switch is very nice.
You can turn your light on and off at will. That’s because, when you’re holding a flashlight and a firearm at the same time and moving tactically, you want to be able to shut off that light quickly so you’re not illuminating yourself to the bad guy. The you want to turn it back on instantly to illuminate him and his location. A momentary touch switch allows for that.
Personally I work unarmed so I greatly prefer click on / click off. In day-to-day security work, we generally want to turn on the flashlight and not worry about positive pressure on the button to keep it on. Being able to turn it on and knowing it’s going to stay on is valuable to me.
6. Brightness Levels
Some flashlights do have different brightness modes like low, medium, and you can use these to extend the battery life. I don’t really find the need for that. I want, reliably, I push the button once and here’s what happens. No question.
7. Size of Beam
It is a nice feature to be able to focus the beam of light to the size you like to work with and this can change based on the work your doing. Most flashlight seem to have that feature and it’s probably the only “bells and whistles” type of thing I like on a flashlight.
What do you think?
That’s a lot of information about flashlights, but, really, these are the fundamentals. When you learn more about flashlight, keep these things in mind. These are the really important fundamentals.
In our industry, those of us who are really out there doing it in security and investigations, we’ve each got the flashlight we like and we know that we’re right about it! 🙂 So, please, share with me any comments, ideas or suggestions. And while there’s twenty-five plus years of experience that goes into my evaluation about what makes a good flashlight, I really want to hear from you as well.
I love to learn new things too!
Committed to your success and safety
Larry Kaye,
Private Investigator (Ret.) & #1 Best Selling Author
P.S. – For Bouncers and Doormen… you may want a flashlight with ultraviolet (UV) light for checking I.D.s. But, of course, there are really all sorts of specialty consideration in the security and investigations profession.
P.P.S. – And, of course, don’t miss my special report titled… If You Want To be a Private Investigator Give Up… Unless You Do These Three Things. You can get it right here…
This week I’m going to share with you the two essential parts of a pretext call. If you’re making pretext calls over the phone you need both of these elements.
1. You need the magic number.
You need to know what phone number to call in order to get the information you want.
2. You need to be able to speak the language of the person, entity, company or business you’re calling, whatever it might be.
For Example…
A classic example is if you’re going to pretext a cable company to get the address for an account holder. Maybe he’s a a skip you’re looking for. Maybe you’ve got to serve process on him. Whatever. The reason doesn’t mater as long as it’s legal and ethical.
Who do you call at the cable company and what terminology do you use? You have to have both of these just right.
The Phone Number
If you’re calling and posing as a Line Repair Tech out in the field, you’ve got to call the right number. If you call “customer service”, they’re going to wonder why you’re calling them rather than the Tech Support number. Maybe you can still make this work. Maybe you can ease a reason into your pretext. Heck, it’s easy enough to do, but why not just call the right proper phone number in the first place!
The Right Language or Terminology
But, you also have to “speak the language”. If you ask for “the subscriber’s address”, that may not be language that they’re used to hearing. Why are you asking that? If you ask for “the service address”, that might be what they’re looking for, or vice-versa. Using the right language tell the person you’re calling that you are who you say you are and you’re authorized to the information your asking for!
You need both the number to call and the language. This goes for any phone pretext.
If you’re trying to pretext the subscription department of a periodical, you’ve still got to have the right phone number and the right language.
WARNING
Here’s a great reason for not using pretexts. Your client won’t allow it!
You’ll find this especially if you’re working for law firms. They don’t necessarily want you showing up in court, and under cross-examination having it come out how you located this person.
Your client may not want pretext because it seems pretty sketchy when it comes out in testimony in court.
So, how do you avoid pretext? How do you get information without it?
An Alternative
If you need to get information, but you’re not good at pretexts, not comfortable with pretexts, don’t want to use a pretext, or you’re client won’t authorize the use of pretexting, I have an alternate source for you.
If you know me, public records are the key to solving the “no pretext problem”.
OSINT, Open-Source Intelligence, is out there. You can get all sorts of information. Within OSINT there is this specialty niche of public records.
It couldn’t be simpler! It couldn’t be easier if you need information on a person start searching public records like deeds, marriage records, traffic citations, etc.
My favorite source to talk about – and I’ve talked it to death – is police runs and police records. All sorts of things are easily accessible to you. No pretext. No lie. You don’t have to be sneaky about it.
Now, I’m not a lawyer, but you’ll find public records are usually admissible in court. And it’s not going to seem as sneaky or scummy to a jury way you might be perceived getting information through a pretext.
I do have my Public Records Mini-Course and I’m just so tickled with it because public records have served me so well over the years.
Public Records have made me so much money and gotten me so much information where other investigators hit a dead-end!
Nowadays, with the social media, people can be pretty darn good at finding their own information. Even your potential clients! But when they come to a dead-end or the subject of the investigation doesn’t have a social media account (or it hasn’t used it in years!), that’s when you can switch over to public records and you’re going to seem psychic to your client, because you’re going to get all sorts of information that eluded everybody else!
P.S. – Don’t miss my special report, If You Want to be a Private Investigator Give Up… Unless you Do These Three Things. You can get it for free right here…
P.P.S.- This is huge but super easy to miss…
Never do a pretext if your client prohibits it.
This can easy cost you a lucrative law firm client. If they say, “No pretext”, then don’t do it. Eventually, they’ll find out!
