The majority of the following questions are asked frequently enough to warrant inclusion on this FAQs page. A few questions are never asked, but were included here so as to allow us the opportunity to address certain issues. The questions and answers are in no real order, and they cover a variety of facets of our investigative services. Not all of them are likely to be relevant to you and your particular needs. The list is, by no means, complete.
writing. While we strive to keep this site updated, you must understand that our policies are "subject to change without notice." If an issue is of particular concern to you, please raise it during the consultation to ensure that our current policy does not differ from the answer given here. In all probability, it does not. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I’d like to set up a time for a consultation; when can we meet? With few exceptions, the initial free consultation with a prospective client is conducted by telephone. This allows us to quickly ascertain whether or not we’ll be able to assist you with your case needs. If we feel that we're unable to assist you, we'll likely direct you to a qualified and experienced professional who can. We’ll meet clients in person when both parties are confident that the case will be assigned. Is this initial telephone consultation confidential? Yes. All consultations, client names, and case specifics are treated as confidential regardless of whether or not we take your case.
them.
Yes – you may call from a blocked line, or any other number of your choosing. The only thing that we ask of you, if you choose to call from a pay phone or from work, is that you ensure that you have the privacy you need to speak openly with us, and that there are minimal distractions at your end. Many detective agencies will not accept incoming calls marked "private." Still - Do I have to tell you who I am when I call? No, we allow potential clientele to remain anonymous during the initial telephone consultation. However, we may ask you for your first name.
No; in fact, we ask that you not give us specific information until we're prepared to take your case. We will not ask for subject names, addresses, or places of employment. However, we will ask for you to describe your relationship to the subject (i.e. "my wife", "my employee" etc.), where in the metro (i.e. "Bloomington", "Blaine", etc.) or state the subject resides or works, and type of employment and work schedule if we feel it's relevant. These latter questions and answers will allow us to more accurately assess your case, and you should be prepared to answer them candidly.
If we don’t believe that it’s legal, we won’t take the case. Some investigators will violate laws out of sheer ignorance (most won’t do so intentionally); their misconduct may expose you to civil liability or criminal charges. Be confident in who you hire. Are you licensed, bonded and insured? Yes. We actually exceed the licensing and insurance requirements as set forth by Minnesota state statutes. You may verify this through the Minnesota Board of Private Detective and Protective Agent Services. NOTE: Some unlicensed individuals and companies actively solicit work in this area. Neither the yellow pages directories, nor on-line hosting companies, require proof of licensure before placing an advertisement or hosting a website that offers private detective services. We suggest that you be extremely wary of agencies outside the state of Minnesota that profess to have agents of theirs working here – very few of these companies have the license required to solicit investigative services here. Can I get some references? We have done work for some of the leading lawyers and largest law firms in the area; “mom and pop” businesses, fortune 500 companies, and fortune 100 companies; county, state and federal government agencies; as well as private parties. Our clientele expect and demand confidentiality, and we are obligated to respect that confidentiality by law. In short, we do not violate client confidentiality to provide references. However, you are encouraged to visit the "Testimonials" page of our site by clicking on the link to the left of this page. We encourage people to confirm the licensure status of any detective agency they’re considering hiring with the state. You might also consider checking with the Better Business Bureau for a history of complaints. Do you require that I have an attorney before accepting the case? No. Provided that we believe that the objectives and means of the investigation and / or surveillance are both legal and ethical – we do not require that you have an attorney. This is a major difference between our company and many other agencies. Of course, we encourage you to seek legal advice from a competent attorney whenever necessary. I have an attorney; will you work with him on my case? Yes. While your attorney may charge you for his or her time to consult with us, our own telephone consultation time with your attorney is provided at no charge. You must identify your attorney, and inform us of his or her interest in speaking with us, prior to their contacting us. Without doing so, we will not acknowledge having a client by your name. If your findings are helpful to my case, are you willing to testify in court? Yes. We have been called upon to testify on many occasions. Do I get a report, or something, telling me what happened – how do I know what occurred? Clients are provided with a written narrative report either postmarked (if mailed), as a PDF document via email, or via fax within 7 business days (usually much sooner) of the completion of the case. Some clients prefer NOT to receive a written report regarding our findings; as such, no written report will be prepared or sent without your expressed consent. That sounds like a long time to wait to find out what happened – can’t I find out sooner? Absolutely. The report is simply the finished work product. We provide our clients with verbal updates while we’re working the case. In fact, we prefer that our clients are partners of ours in the investigation – that they’re available to speak with us while we’re out there working on their behalf. No client of ours has ever received a report from us without our having already spoken to them about the findings. Do you take pictures? We use a variety of formats to document evidence as deemed appropriate for the situation and evidentiary needs of the client. We rely on video when conducting surveillance work. As of the time of this writing, our video is recorded in VHS, 8mm, MiniDV, as well as full digital formats depending on the situation and specific needs of the case (i.e. manned surveillance v unmanned, daylight surveillance v evening, covert recording v overt recording, need for time and date superimposition, extended recording times v short durations, distance to subject etc.) In short, we use the equipment necessary to get the job done. Still photographs are frequently taken from the video images and are oftentimes either e-mailed to our clients in a jpg format, or are incorporated into the final written report, or both. Can you get videotape, or take pictures, inside of places like restaurants and bars without getting caught? We have multiple body-worn (i.e. covert / hidden) video systems at our disposal should the subject of the investigation enter an establishment and there’s a need to document the activity therein. Few investigators have this equipment; they will either report how long the subject remained inside (without any indication as to what occurred therein), or will enter the establishment to observe activity for the sake of their report, but be unable to document it. Do I get a copy of the videotape when you’re done? Yes – our clients are provided a copy of the videotape in either VHS or DVD formats. The DVDs can be played on virtually any consumer grade DVD player, as well as on your desk or laptop computer using various Windows based programs such as Windows Media Player, Power DVD, etc. The original recording, like photographs, remains the property of the company. I've noticed that people shown in the images on this website are unidentifiable; can I assume that you’ll do a better job of getting videotape for me? The images contained on this website, most of which are stills taken from video recordings, are not part of a “best of” collection of ours. They were chosen for inclusion on this web site specifically because the subjects are unidentifiable. In some cases, we’ve found it necessary to further reduce image quality so as to increase downloading speed and protect the identity of the individual shown. All images were taken by, and belong to, Blue Heron Investigations ; none are commercially available stock photographs. Some aspects of my case will involve acquiring information outside the state of Minnesota; will you be able to help? Yes. We have a network of detectives to call upon – not only nationally, but internationally as well. We can assist you with your case needs outside the state of Minnesota provided that the case originates here. We do not offer investigative services where neither the client nor the subject is associated with Minnesota in some capacity. What are some of the primary differences between Blue Heron Investigations and some of the others? 1) We are locally owned and operated. We are not a national firm that proclaims to have agents here. 2) When we need assistance on a case, we call upon other licensed detectives who have extensive experience. We do not employ, or train, employees to work your case. 3) We offer personalized service. We work one on one with our clients. You are a person to us, not a case number. In fact, we don’t even assign case numbers to our files. 4) We are committed to the profession – it is all that we do. We do not provide investigative services around our “regular job”, and there is nobody working here that is supplementing his or her pension income. 5) We are a detective agency, not a security guard company that dabbles in investigations on the side. What’s your schedule looking like – when can you work this? Because of the nature of our work, our schedule changes daily – sometimes hourly. Even if we were to tell you on Tuesday afternoon that our Thursday evening is open, that may change within minutes of ending our consultation with you. We cannot schedule services, or keep dates open, for prospective clientele until a retainer or scheduling deposit is paid. The best way to ensure speedy service is to retain our services as soon as you’ve decided to move forward with assigning the case. In general, our in depth background checks begin within a day or two of accepting the case and are finished within the week. Surveillance is usually scheduled a week out, TSCM (Technical Surveillance Counter Measures) services are oftentimes conducted within 48 hours, and skip tracing (locating missing people) are begun, but not finished, within 24 hours of accepting the assignment. These are general guidelines only. We don’t recommend that you equate “speedy service” with competence. There are investigators who have nothing to do – they can work your case immediately; we’d ask, “Why don’t they have anything to do?” Other agencies employ unlicensed “investigator trainees” that are usually available to do the job. In this latter case, we’d ask, “Do I want my case worked by somebody’s unlicensed, inexperienced, “investigator trainee”?”
it? Virtually all surveillance needs to be conducted when the time is right to conduct it – not when it conveniently fits the investigator's schedule. We work with our clients to formulate a "plan of action" that all can agree is likely to be productive. Other cases, like background checks or missing persons cases, are worked when and how we deem it appropriate to work them. What is an “investigator trainee?” It’s a term that some investigators use to describe the inexperienced, unlicensed, employees of other agencies. It is not intended to be a derogatory term; we all have to learn new skills sometime. These "investigator trainees" are usually the ones to work cases at undesirable times - they are the ones out there working cases at 2:00 a.m., on weekends, or throughout the night - not the guy you spoke to on the telephone who impressed you with his credentials.
What is your minimum retainer? We don’t have minimum retainers. Our retainers are based on projected costs of your particular case, whether it be $75.00 or $7,500.00. Be aware that some detectives have been known to quote clients low retainer amounts as a means of acquiring the case, despite the fact that their own hourly rates and billing practices will not allow for them to meet their clients' objectives within the constraints of the retainer. These agencies will then either pull off the case prematurely, or require additional payment from you to continue; we consider this a deceptive practice. Our retainers are based on projected costs to get the job done; we'd suggest that you compare projected costs, not retainers, when comparing agencies.
We wish we could, but the nature of investigative work is such that we can not offer a guarantee except to make a serious effort toward meeting your stated objectives. We do this by employing procedures either known or believed to have a high probability of success. If you find another agency offering guaranteed results, you'll probably find an asterick next to the guarantee directing you to the disclaimers. What if I hire you, but you don’t find anything – Do I still have to pay? Yes. When you hire a detective agency, you are paying for the time spent on your behalf – not for specific answers. For example – while you may believe that your husband is having an affair, that doesn't make it so. We have no control over his activities while under surveillance. The same may be true for a background check; while you may retain our services to check for crimes and civil matters pertaining to an individual, there is no guarantee that a record exists. Most of our clients do not feel cheated that they paid for a service but didn’t “get the goods.” To them, they got what they paid for – answers to their questions (i.e., no affair, no criminal or civil records, etc.)
price match guarantee? The best service provider is rarely the one with the lowest price. While our own research indicates that our prices are exceptionally fair, given our experience and the services we provide, you may find that we aren’t the lowest priced detective agency in town; we don’t strive to be. We’d rather offer a better service, and be better equipped to do the job, than offer a low price guarantee or senior |