Week 4: Surveillance

25 February 2008 9:00-5:00 This week: 8 hrs. Total: 32.5 hrs.

I have begun to fall into a routine of working in the office in the morning, then going into the field for the afternoon. This week, I got the opportunity to go out into the field and do some surveillance with Mr. Bob Estes. It was a domestic case with a somebody suing their neighbor for apparently no good reason. The plumber was there though, so there wasn’t much action, as the guy stayed at home with the plumber.

The ‘politics’ in the office are pretty straightforward, as far as I can tell. Kurt has most of the investigation experience and heads up the technical aspects of the business, and appears to be the head field investigator, although he rarely does surveillance or anything like that. Sandy heads up the administrative side of the business, and manages the ‘reportflow’ as I am calling it, which is the process that a case goes through, from assignment to the final report going out to the client. The power is mostly vested in Kurt and Sandy, in their respective roles, although everybody more or less just does their job and the relationships are symbiotic.