#3 of 6 Things a PI Won't Tell You

#3 We rarely find that smoking gun.  Brian Willingham

Brian says, “You’ve seen it before.  That smoking-gun piece of evidence that cracks the case wide open. It’s usually right after the commercial break and just before the top of the hour.  The smoking gun makes for great TV, but it doesn’t come up all that often in real life"

Sensationalist at its best the very moment the smoking gun is revealed right after the commercial break and of course the lead up to the scene right before the commercial.  There is no such thing as sensationalism when a PI finds evidence although it can certainly feel exhilarating.  

 In 1999 I found the smoking gun that put a five time convicted criminal away for fifteen years.  In my case it was almost, but not quite, handed to me on silver platter but in this particular case I had to work hard to piece it all together as there were many fragments that had been interspersed throughout the crime spree.  

A Private investigator is typically hired by the family of the victim in the majority of cases because they feel the police are not doing enough to try to solve the case but PI's also work beside law enforcement and it's not always because they won't do enough but because they can't and for various reasons.  In my case I led the investigation with the support of the police.  They certainly came in handy when after the smoking-gun was found to arrest the perpetrator and that is something I was not able to do although it would have been my pleasure to slap the cuffs on him.  There are things a PI can do that law enforcement cannot and vice versa.  Here is a wonderful article that I couldn’t have written better myself that describes the difference between law enforcement and a PI or PD (Private Detective).  

Brian is right when he says it is not often that the smoking gun is found and that is why many of the trial cases in the judicial system are built on circumstantial evidence and in many cases will put an innocent person behind bars. 

I will talk more about innocent people behind bars another time because I feel it needs to be addressed to the point where it can help improve the judicial system that citizen are supposed to trust.  I certainly do not.  Do you?

 

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