The number 1 source of information for private investigators is (or at least should be) public records.
Florida has one of the most liberal public records laws in the country, yet many investigators, lawyers, police officers, reporters and others who should be tapping into this source are completely missing the boat. In fact, they haven’t just missed the boat – the cruise ship is hosting a huge party for those who profit from public records and that group wasn’t invited.
The law in Florida is pretty simple. Essentially, it says that any document generated or received by a government agency with regard to agency business is a public record. That includes documents, books, maps, audio tapes, video tapes, emails and other computer hosted data. The format is irrelevant.
The best guidebook for understanding Florida’s public records law is the Government-In-The-Sunshine Manual, available for free download from teh Florida Attorney General’s office from this link.
Sometimes getting records you’re entitled to can be a hassle. But, armed with the information in the Sunshine Manual, you can get the records you need.
To read what one Polk County resident is doing with public records, check out IAmTroubleMaker.com
Google is giving away free telephone numbers and free phone calls, nationwide. It’s a great way to make and receive phone calls without giving your REAL phone number out. And, since the Caller ID display will show your Google phone number, the person will not have your true number. You can sign up for your number at www.Google.com/voice. The page indicates it’s only available now by “invitation” and a link is provided to sign up. I got mine right away, but others have had to wait until being notified their number is ready.
Once you receive your Google phone number, log into the account and enter the telephone number that you want incoming calls transferred to. We’ll assume you want to direct incoming calls to your cell phone. When someone calls your Google phone number, your cell phone will ring and the caller will be none the wiser. Their number will show on your Caller ID display, even though the call is coming in via your Google phone number.
If you return the call from your real phone, that number will show on the person’s Caller ID. To have the Google phone number appear instead, you’ll have to call your Google phone number and place an outgoing call through the system. Not quite as simple as dialing direct, but for a free service (and to make calls like James Bond) it’s worth the couple of extra steps.
The only downside to using this method to make “sneaky” phone calls is if you direct the incoming calls to go to your real cell phone. If you do, then your regular voice mail greeting will be heard. If you don’t mind the person knowing who you really are, but just don’t want to give your true number, then this is a good FREE solution. If you’d rather have the return call go straight to the Google phone number voice mail system, you can customize the greeting to be whoever you want to be. Many PI’s use a fictitious name for all pre-text phone calls and use that name in any communication where they do not want to disclose their real name.
If you do not forward calls to another phone number, voice mails left on your Google Voice voice mail system can be forwarded to you as an audio file via email, and the system can transcribe the voice mail into text and send it to your cell phone as a text message.
gDial Pro is a free application for Blackberry, Android and Palm Pre phones that allows you to make outgoing calls from your cell phone and have the Google Voice number appear as the originating number. The application automates the process of logging in to make the call, and makes the process a little easier – and faster.
Did you ever wish when you were calling someone’s cell phone that the call would go straight to their voice mail? Maybe you want to hear the voice mail greeting and figure out who the person is. Or, you need to convey information but aren’t up to engaging in a long conversation. Maybe you don’t want to run the risk of disturbing the person who may be in a meeting. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could pick and choose which of your calls goes straight to their voice mail?
A free service called Sly Dial allows you to do just that – call directly into the person’s voice mail to leave a message. By calling 267 -SlyDial (267.759.3425),you can leave a message in their voice mail without the phone ever ringing. There are a couple of limitations on the Sly Dial. It will not work on “pay as you go” phones, and the message is limited to 90 seconds unless you sign up for the pay Sly Dial service. And, you’ll have to listen to a short commercial before the call is completed. The “new message” indicator will appear on the person’s phone and unless you tell them how you did it, they’ll just think they missed your call.
There are some phones that Sly Dial will not work on. For some reason, it thinks my daughter’s Sprint cell phone is a pre-paid, and the system says it can’t connect to pre-paid phones. But, it did work on other phones I called.
Probably the neatest telephone related invention since cordless phone is Caller ID. Customers were finally able to pick and choose which phone calls they decided to answer and which ones they’d let go to voice mail.
Some folks just won’t answer calls if they don’t recognize the number. Before the days of the national Do Not Call directory, there were a LOT of people who let unrecognized numbers go to voice mail.
The problem for private investigators was getting the person to answer the phone. PI’s didn’t want their cell phone number to show up on a subject’s telephone, and if they called from their office the company name would show on the subject’s call ID display. Then along came Call ID Block so all information could be hidden but that frequently meant the recipient wouldn’t answer the call since it was obvious the caller was trying to hide his/her identify.
That has all changed now with Call ID spoofing services. Companies like Spoofcard.com and Spooftel provide a service where the customer can change the information that shows on the recipients’ Call ID display on their telephone, so the caller can appear to be FedEx, John Doe, the recipient’s mother or anyone else the caller chooses. The name and the number displayed on the recipient’s Call ID can be altered.
Once an account is established with a Call ID Spoofing company, here’s how the process works.
- Log into your account and enter the number you are calling from
- Enter the number you want to call
- Enter the name and telephone number you want to show on the subject’s Call ID display
- Click “Call Now”
The system will call you at the number you entered, then once connected you’ll hear the subject’s phone ringing. When he/she looks at the Call ID display, your number won’t show but the name and number you entered will.
When someone is “missing” a good place to check is the county jail. The problem is which jail to check. Polk county is surrounded by Pasco, Sumter, Osceola, Orange, Lake, Highlands, Hardee and Manatee counties. A Polk county resident could be arrested just across the county line and end up in any one of those jails.
Of course, this missing person could get arrested in any of the other counties in the state as well. That’s where VINElink (Victim Information and Notification Everyday) comes in.
Here’s how VINElink describes their service: “Florida VINELink is an online resource that allows you to search for information regarding an offender in custody of the Florida Department of Corrections and any of the 62 participating Florida County Jails. This free, confidential service offers Floridians the ability to register and be notified, by Phone, E-Mail, or TTY, about changes in the custody status of inmates within Florida’s 62 participating County Jails and the Florida Department of Corrections.”
If you’re searching for Paxton Quigley and heard he was arrested, just enter his name and let VINElink search the 62 county jail population databases for you. If you find him and want to be notified when he gets out of jail, click on the magnifying glass icon beside the person’s name, enter the phone number or email address you want to use to be notified and you’re done!
You can search other states too. North Dakota and Kansas do not participate, and only some counties in Arizona, Georgia, Massachusetts, Maine, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire and West Virginia are on-line. But, statewide searching is available for the other 40 states.
It seems the city of Winter Haven needs a refresher course on releasing public records.
There is no greater source of information for investigators – and the public, for that matter – than public records. Florida’s public records law (Chapter 119, FS) not only covers documents created or received during the course of official business, but includes all papers, letters, maps, books, tapes, photographs, films, sound recordings, data processing software, or other material, regardless of the physical form, characteristics, or means of transmission. Unless there is a statutory exemption, the information is available for inspection or photocopying by anyone.
Over the past few decades, I’ve used public records – and only public records – to locate tens of millions of dollars in assets, track down missing people, destroy the credibility of witnesses and a long list of other really fun things.
Last week, a client from out of state asked me to verify if an individual was still living at a particular address in Winter Haven. I drove by at night a couple of times and found the residence dark and no vehicles outside. The next logical step seemed to be to check water usage for the residence and see if it had dropped off in the past few months. If the toilet is no longer being flushed, he may be gone.
I visited the utility department and made the request for information the same way I have for a couple of decades. This time, there was a wrinkle. “We can’t release personal information unless you have the person’ s Social Security Number”. Huh? You want me to give you a person’s Social Security Number before you’ll release personal information? I couldn’t follow the logic on that one. I wasn’t asking for “personal information” just a plain ol’ public record. The fact is, Chapter 119 does not permit any government agency from withholding public records by predicating the release on some arbitrary rule the agency makes up. Not only is there nothing in the statute that permits the city of Winter Haven to refuse to release information without the requestor providing a Social Security Number, but it’s a Misdemeanor of the 2nd degree to willfully withhold the information.
“Want to see something juicy? Spokeo searches deep within 48 major social networks
to find truly mouth-watering news about friends and coworkers.“
This is what Spokeo claims to do and it actually does it pretty well. There is a limited free account available, or a pay account if you want to do more digging and check more email addresses for activity.
Once you sign up, Spokeo loads your address book and begins searching. Within minutes, I learned a friend of mine has a Pandora Radio account and likes to listen to Gypsy Kings. Another friend added the book Uncovering the Sixties: The Life and Times of the Underground Press to his Amazon account. And, I know he did it on May 4, 2009. And I found a video on my daughter’s Myspace account that she took with her phone of one of her friends goofing off at work. Probably not a good idea for that to be posted. When I showed her how easily I found it, and told her how quickly an employer could find it, she quickly took it down.
I checked my own email address to see what’s out there about me. I’ll save you the trouble. I listen to the Allman Brothers, Crosby, Stills and Nash, The Black Crowes and many others on Pandora, I updated my Linkedin profile on October 5th, 2009, new information was posted at Ancestory.com on May 14, 2008, and on April 19, 2004 I added the book Handmade Houses: A Guide to the Woodbutcher’s Art to my Amazon wish list.
So – the next time you post something on one of the networks Spokeo monitors, make sure it’s not something you want the whole world to know.
Yea. I know. I’m a little late to the blogging thing. But, that’s sometimes how I roll. I’m still working on an old-fashioned print newsletter for clients that I may or may not ever get around to publishing. I would just do a newsletter I could email, but then I have to ask everyone if it’s OK to send it to them via email and that would be a pain, so I figured a blog is the best way to pass along some tidbits. That way, those who are interested can check when they want!
So, what purpose do I see for this blog? Primarily I’ll use it as a means to keep clients updated on things like:
- New and cool things in the investigative industry including equipment that they may find beneficial in certain situations
- Sources of information so clients can do some of their own “investigative work”
- News stories that clients may find helpful
We have an interesting mix of clients including law firms, businesses, government entities and the public at large. So, what some clients may find beneficial, others may have no interest in. So, for that reason, I’ll try to find a little something for everyone.
This will be an occasional blog. I may go a month or more without adding anything new, or may get on a roll and post fairly often. But, hey….it’s free to check and you may find something that will make a situation you encounter a little easier to resolve.
