Unfortunately, some people bend rules or arrogantly break them. Insubordinate ways may be born out of a false belief that they will never be caught. Sometimes, people don’t believe that rules apply to them. This was true of a case involving a police captain and one of his employees.
For months, rumors floated through the department and the community about the married captain, who was supposedly romantically involved with a married employee from the administrative office. An investigation was not about an extramarital affair. The client was not intent on finding an unfaithful husband. No, if the rumors were proven true, this activity was grounds for termination. Additional gossip accused the love birds of engaging in intimate behavior behind the captain’s closed office door, on city time. Enraged by the rumors, the mayor’s office hired a private investigator to prove or disprove the allegations.
Initially, the investigator interviewed officers and other employees. But fearing for job security, no one substantiated whether there was truth to the rumors. Because private investigators know that many avenues can be taken to arrive at the same truth, this particular investigator conducted a different avenue of investigation, using social media engineering. Social media engineering is used for a variety of reasons including finding people, identifying unknown heirs and fugitive recovery for bail recovery agents. It is definitely a pseudo surveillance and information gathering source for any investigator.
Experienced private investigators become very attune to human behavior. This investigator sought out the captain’s activity on social media but he didn’t say or post much so she spent the majority of her time on the female employee’s Facebook page. Why? Because behaviorally speaking, females post more details and share more photographs on social media than males do. This private investigator’s hunch was correct.
On the Facebook page belonging to a friend of the female employee, the investigator discovered a photograph of the female employee and the captain, attending what appeared to be a pool party. One photo, however, was certainly not enough proof for the mayor’s office, especially when the two people in question were simply seated beside each other. So she continued to investigate.
Again, another photo was discovered. Again, there was no physical contact, however it was obvious that these two people knew they were ignoring city rules. The proof for the case against the love-sick caption was finally delivered through a video clip. While conducting surveillance, the investigator was in the right motel parking lot at just the right time.
A background investigation for employment doesn’t always prevent situations from occurring. When you need professional investigative services, at , we know the various routes to find the truth.
-Brenda McGinley, CEO, All in Investigations, All in Investigations
