Being A Private Investigator Isn’t Like The Movies

Being a private investigator isn’t like the glamorous gumshoes we see in the movies. Most private investigators do not carry guns, and very few actually solve murders or get the beautiful blonde in the end. Despite what we’ve seen on TV and the movies and read in detective novels, being a private investigator really involves brains more than bullets and skill more than luck. A private investigator is usually licensed by the state and the city in which he does business. A private investigator is a professional who is hired to find information, sometimes working for a lawyer to gather information to defend clients in criminal cases or to support the position of either a plaintiff or defendant in a civil legal matter. Sometimes the lawyer will have a private investigator on staff, and at other times the private investigator will be hired on an as needed basis. Insurance companies often keep a private investigator on retainer to investigate accidents involving the insured, or to perform routine investigation relating to the death of an insured. Often a private investigator will be hired to help establish paternity using forensic DNA testing, and often

times operators of polygraph machines, or lie detectors will carry a private investigator license. Still the romance of the private investigator stays with us. Many of us read novels about Mike Hammer or Sherlock Holmes growing up. Others watched the adventures of private investigator Nero Wolf or saw the movie Murder On The Orient Express about Belgian private investigator Hercule Poiroit. Younger readers enjoy the adventures of female private investigator Kinsey Milhone in the novel G Is For Gumshoe or African American private investigator Easy Rollins in the book Devil In A Blue Dress. But in real life the private investigator bears little resemblance to his literary cousins.