We have earned it and we deserve it - a view by Warren Mallard
We thank Warren Mallard - Managing Director, Lyonswood Investigations & Forensic Group for his article. With every Tom, Dick and Harry becoming an investigation college these days, this is relevant reading.
"The time is ripe for the investigation industry to come of age, to stand tall and be proud of it's achievements in encouraging the State Governments to assist our industry in bringing about mandatory competency standards, more stringent fidelity checks and with it a greater perception of integrity within the community. What was the reason the industry went down this path in the first place? It certainly wasn't to appease the Governments of the day. I believe it was to allow us to rise above the media generated public perceptions and so we could advance our industry and elevate it to where it belongs, to the position of a complimentary and effective investigative resource. If we do not seize upon it now, I fear the efforts of those who gave their time selflessly to bring these changes about will be lost.
Over the last three years I have observed with a great amount of concern, the proliferation of Recognised Training Organisations (R.T.O.'s) that have appeared in NSW, Victoria and Queensland owing to the competency requirements of State investigation legislation and whilst at the same time noticing a steep decline in what has been traditionally the core work of private investigators, personal injury insurance investigations. This imbalance does not necessarily affect me as I do very little insurance work these days and concentrate upon corporate, criminal and domestic investigations. I believe these fields of investigation have barely been tapped into owing to the fact that the investigation industry as whole hasn't had to because of the abundance of insurance related work and because it hasn't realized the potential in these fields, nor has it promoted them to the consumer who find themselves much less able these days to get assistance from law enforcement agencies.
I regularly discuss trends in the investigation industry with my learned colleagues and it is blatantly obvious from their and my own observations and communications that the supply of accredited private investigator human resources being generated by the Investigation RTO's is far outstripping the present demands. As if to add fuel to the fire, I am advised that participants in these approved courses can under certain circumstances obtain Government Funding to an amount of $4000.00 to assist them through the process of accreditation. The catch being that only a fraction of this amount is paid in advance, the balance only being paid when the Government funded participant obtains long term employment in that profession. Here is where the subject problem rests.
I am passionate about my profession and the industry in which I work and I don't believe many industry members that have contributed more than myself to promote the investigation industry, is diverse services and the need for competency standards. However, for the past two years I have been bombarded by disappointed and disgruntled wannabe investigators who have obtained their qualifications and who have been unsuccessful in securing work in the investigation industry. On an average I would receive between six to ten inquiries a week, not only from persons who are yet to undertake their first investigation but also from competent long serving investigators who are starving because there isn't enough work to go around. What also concerns me is that almost all of these applicants have not been given the truth about the imbalance of resources when compared to the available work. Those who approach me and research the industry before they embark upon a committed career in it are left in no doubt about the current situation but at the same time I try to promote the industry so that they are not totally turned against it.
Many Licensed Private Investigators left the investigation industry because they were not prepared to undertake the Recognition Of Prior Learning (R.P.L.) competency test and some I fear, however would not be concerned about their departure, have left because they were not prepared to allow the police to finger print them. Some also left because of
the unreasonable constraints placed upon Larger Principal Investigation Companies by their Insurer clients in terms of what can and cannot be charged despite the fact that many of the charges were traditionally accepted and genuine overheads and those that ought to have been able to be charged. Some have left because post 9/11 there has been a greater need in both the public and private sectors for skilled investigators and because these positions were attractive owing to the fact that the salary packages being offered were inclusive of superannuation and holiday pay. To most investigators these are extravagant luxuries compared to what they have traditionally experienced from week to week to make ends meet due to the fluctuating fortunes of the industry dictated by changes to legislation, the inadequacies and mal administration of State Government funded insurance Schemes and incompetence of those that run them and the greed of the share holder, profit driven insurers.
There are also those who operated in remote areas where they could only rely upon personal injury insurance investigations and who generally only worked part time as investigators, supplementing their income with other unrelated work.
It would be interesting to obtain the figures of the licensing records held by the three eastern State CAPI (Commercial and Private Inquiry Agent) registers and ascertain just how many Private Inquiry Agents there are in each of the States and then survey them to ascertain just how many are actually using the license they hold to derive the major part of their income or even a fraction of it from that profession. I venture to say that there would be fewer that 2000 private investigators in NSW that derive the major part of their income from the investigation industry. I also believe that there are most probably about 5000 licensed private investigators in the State of NSW at the present time, such numbers being elevated with every word I type as they are churned out of the RTO's that are more than willing to take their fees and perhaps wittingly or unwittingly give them false hope. Certainly you won't get any complaints from the State Governments as they too reap a now much inflated licensing fee harvest at the expense of persons who verily believe there is tremendous opportunity for them in a new and exciting career. I have no problems with RTO's making a dollar however I do if they are not honest about the prospects of work. To give hope and then have it swept away only serves the industry in a negative way. Perhaps the RTO's themselves have reason to blame the very industry it strives to serve by virtue of its silence about what it does well, the business of gathering evidence and preparation of that evidence into cogent, succinct and admissible briefs for use in establishing a prima facie case and bringing of offenders to justice. It's kind of a chicken and egg situation really.
I, having traded continuously for 25 years, need to draw upon competent and keen investigators from time to time, however I believe with the numbers already qualified and holding licenses, if we pulled the pin on training courses right at this moment, the industry could comfortably draw down upon the existing glut for almost ten years.
What is the purpose of my message? I believe that there needs to be some truth being circulated by the investigation industry about the opportunities that exist or don't exist so that young up and coming wannabees are not stripped of their savings on the promise of false hope. The investigators being trained that I regularly speak with are advising me that the RTO's are certainly not doing this.
What is the future for the investigation industry and what can we as members do to promote it so that these trained individuals are not wasted and poisoned against the very industry they thought would provide them an income and interesting occupation?
It's easy, in NSW alone there is a shortfall of 4,500 police and they are leaving faster than they can recruit them. This shortfall coincides with a glut in the private investigation industry. I am not suggesting that the training of each individual private investigator and police person is comparable, its not. I am not suggesting that private investigators have powers of arrest or search and entry, this would be ridiculous. What I am suggesting is that there are fields of expertise that the private investigation industry has a proud reputation in such as the gathering of evidence and the compilation of briefs of evidence and it is these very fields of expertise that can provide support to existing law enforcement agencies and alleviate the already exhausted and under resourced police.
I believe there is a future for the investigation industry but that this future on present attitudes and lack of individual promotion and creativity when it comes to new markets, is a long way down the track. The Golden Goose of insurance generated investigation work is gone. If you wait for another clutch of golden eggs to be laid your species will surely perish. I am increasingly amazed at investigators who promulgate the myth that it will all return, it won't, at least not from the insurance industry. There are however many the avenues of work to fill the void but they won't come knocking on your doors, you have to actively promote them and at the same time promote the investigation industry as a whole. We are after all Government Licensed persons of Good Fame and Character; persons who enforce laws just like other law enforcement agencies. The Security Industry is licensed just like we are, they have a police register just like we do, so why then has the security industry grown with such rapidity and we have shrunken to but a mere shadow of our former selves? Crime has not decreased but the pro rata proportion of police to the population has, hence an opportunity is created for the Investigation industry and the Governments to mutually benefit.
The answer is simple, the security industry actively promoted their services to the public and private sectors. Where do you think the state police forces would be today without the security industry? I can tell you that on present numbers, the State Governments would be building gaols quicker than a bricklayer in Beirut. Take 50,000 private security persons out of the equation and wait for the explosion in crime. The State Police forces are in a shambles just open a newspaper any day of the week and read about it. Tens of thousands of victims are turned away every year because the police don't have the resources nor the training nor retention rates to deal with crime. If there isn't an opportunity for the investigation industry here to take away some of the workload of the police, to work with the police, to share information that promotes law enforcement and a reduction in crime, solve a greater proportion of crime and act as a deterrent to crime, then there never will be one.
Yet another example of an opportunity going begging is the Federal Child Support Agency which at the moment does little to assist the victim parents who are starved of funds by belligerent non custodial former partners except to monitor their Tax File numbers and deduct funds via garnishee from those or via retention of a tax refund due to them at the end of the financial year. What about the countless victims who suffer at the hands of their devious former parent partners who not only deprive their children of a decent life style/existence but also work for cash in hand and don't pay income tax either? I get calls about this type of crime every week. The victim custodial parents can least afford the services of a private investigator so all of us tax paying workers support these victims whilst the offending non-custodial parents thumb their noses at the inability and absence of vision within the public sector establishment. I know for a fact that the CSA tells its victim custodial parents when they complain that they are not receiving child support payments and that they believe their non custodial former partner is working for cash in hand, "when you find out where he is working tell us and we will investigate". The cost of private investigation to Centrelink in the detection of fraud has been proven to be a most effective way to control and reduce fraud and there is absolutely no reason to believe that fraud within the CSA would not have the same effect upon it with proper private sector investigation.
We have to get the message out there to both the Governments and the Private Sector that we can do the job and do it well. We have already proven via Centrelink, The Workplace Surveillance Act and other outsourced Government Department investigation work that we are a capable, trustworthy and competent alternate investigative and law enforcement profession. Pick up your pens and write to the respective State and Federal Attorneys General and Ministers for Police and tell them of our reputation and capability, sooner or later they will listen particularly if it saves money, reduces crime and frees up already overstretched resources.
The sooner we take this proactive approach, then the sooner we can with any honesty promote people into our wonderful and effective investigation industry and turn the fortunes of our industry around as a whole. Let us not yet fill the investigation courses with people coerced with false hope only to burden them with a large bill at the end that they thought would be reimbursed by the government or returned by the prospect of employment but for the void we currently suffer as an industry as a whole. Let's give our industry a shot in the arm and move it forward so that we are again begging for resources as it was in the past. Let's get what we deserve before it's too late."
Warren Mallard - Managing Director
Lyonswood Investigations & Forensic Group
204 Lyons Road, Drummoyne NSW 2047
http://www.investigators.net.au
+61 (0) 2 9819-6833 F +61 (0) 2 9819-6300
DX 21007 Drummoyne