Investigative Techniques, Surveillance, and Case Management
Investigative-technique questions test planning, lawful surveillance, and disciplined case management. The examiner wants to see that you can choose a method that produces usable evidence without committing a tort or a crime.
Intake and planning
- Put the engagement in writing: scope, authorized techniques, budget, reporting cadence, and grounds for termination. Confirm the client has a legitimate legal interest in the subject - a parent locating a minor child differs from an ex-partner tracking a former spouse.
- Build a case plan with objectives, timeline, and legal limits identified in advance: no entry, no pretext calls to financial institutions, no database queries without a permissible purpose.
Surveillance
- Static and mobile surveillance require complete logs: time, location, weather, lighting, distance, equipment, and identities. Record negative time as carefully as activity.
- Public vantage points are generally lawful; curtilage, windows, and trespass are not. Louisiana's privacy clause and intrusion tort reach aggressive observation even where the Fourth Amendment would not.
- GPS installation requires the consent of the vehicle's owner - usually the client. Installing on a third party's car invites criminal and civil exposure.
- Drone work is a commercial operation under FAA Part 107; Louisiana also restricts unmanned aircraft use over private property.
- Pretext calls may not impersonate law enforcement or induce protected records; obtaining financial or phone records by deception is a federal crime.
Case management
- One file per matter, an evidence log, contemporaneous notes, a retention policy, a litigation hold, and dated client updates.
Worked example
A divorce client wants proof of adultery. Louisiana permits fault-based divorce, but the proof must be lawful. The plan: mobile and static surveillance from public property, documentation of times and addresses, receipts and publicly available records obtained for a permissible purpose, and a factual report. The client is told in writing what will not be done.
Traps
- Reporting only positive hits and discarding the empty hours.
- Destroying rough notes after typing the report.
- Letting the client direct tactics at the scene.