Among the most common requests received by the private detective who spoke to Politis are locating people and confirming addresses. Other cases include personal matters, background checks and corporate investigations. Asked whether investigations into infidelity are the most common type of case, the detective says they are frequent, but not as frequent as requests to locate someone.
A trench coat, a dark car parked around the corner, a hidden camera and a chase that ends with the revelation of a well-kept secret. The image of the private detective has been shaped to a large extent by cinema. In reality, however, the job resembles an action film far less and involves much more time spent waiting, cross-checking information, keeping calm and strictly observing the limits of the law.
Politis tracked down and spoke to a woman who has been working in the profession since 2007. For obvious reasons, she asked that her name not be published, but agreed to speak as a private detective and offer a small window into a profession that, by its nature, rarely enters the public domain.
The decision to remain anonymous seems almost fitting. After all, as she says towards the end of the conversation, for someone doing this job, “it is better that people around them do not know”.
With almost two decades in the field, she considers herself one of the more experienced professionals in Cyprus, without claiming to be the longest-serving. That experience has been enough to dispel one basic myth: what a detective needs most is not dramatic action, but “a great deal of patience”.
How do you become a detective?
The first and most important thing, she explains, is obtaining a licence.
“First of all, you have to get the licence,” she stresses.
In Cyprus, private investigation services require a licence from the Chief of Police in order to operate. Private investigation services include, among other things, gathering information about a person’s identity and whereabouts, their home or work address, and their professional or business activities.
According to her, there is no single academic route into the profession. Studies in criminology, knowledge of legislation, security and technology, as well as relevant seminars, can provide important skills.
Some qualities, however, cannot be acquired through a degree alone. Patience, powers of observation, composure and a good knowledge of the law rank highly among the qualities she considers essential.
Demand and competition
There is work, “quite a lot” of it, in fact, she says when asked about demand for her services in Cyprus. She also points out that competition is significant.
Cases are not always what the public imagines. Among the most common requests she receives are locating people and confirming addresses, while there are also personal cases, background checks and corporate investigations.
Asked whether investigations into infidelity are the most common request, the detective says they are frequent, but not as frequent as cases involving locating a person.
What gives away the person being followed
Trench coats, disguises, hidden cameras and endless car chases — the “fantasy” of Sherlock Holmes, in other words. Reality, however, is quite different from what we see on the big and small screens.
The actual work, as the detective describes it, involves much more research, waiting, cross-checking information and preparing reports. This can mean many hours during which, apparently, absolutely nothing happens.
In surveillance work, however, detail matters, and it is detail that can “give away” the person being investigated. Not necessarily because an individual incident proves anything, but because it may form part of a larger pattern.
What appears to matter most during surveillance is consistency in the movements and habits of the person under investigation. Repetition can thus reveal more than a random incident.
Experience does not mean that an investigator can simply rely on a suspicion. What matters is observation, comparing movements and information and, ultimately, documentation.
In a profession centred on other people’s suspicions, the detective themselves cannot afford to take anything for granted without evidence.
Fatal mistakes
But there is also the opposite side: what can give away the detective themselves?
For a professional, haste and a lack of patience can prove decisive mistakes. Getting too close to a target also increases the risk of being noticed.
And yes, it can happen.
“Rarely, but it can,” the private detective says.
When it does, the response is specific and clear: “We avoid confrontation.”
If circumstances require it, the operation may even be abandoned.
Safety comes first
She has never personally found herself in a situation where she was placed in danger because of a case. That does not mean, however, that the profession is always risk-free.
“There are cases where there is a risk,” she says, adding that “safety always comes first”.
When it becomes clear that a situation could get out of hand, the case is reassessed. If it is considered necessary, the Police may be informed.
She explains that there have been isolated instances of cooperation with the relevant authorities.
Telecommunications data
One of the most sensitive areas of modern private investigation is now technology. Mobile phones, computers and digital data can contain crucial information, but this does not mean that a private investigator has unrestricted access to them.
Accessing data on modern devices is technically difficult, she explains. Even more important, however, is the legal aspect, since accessing personal data without lawful authorisation may constitute an illegal act.
This is also where one of the profession’s most important dividing lines lies.
The question is not simply whether information can technically be obtained, but whether it can be obtained lawfully.
From investigation to court
Evidence from a private investigation can also reach a courtroom, subject to certain conditions.
“Provided it has been obtained lawfully and is authentic,” she says, it can be presented.
The investigation, she adds, must be “properly documented” so that it can subsequently be assessed by the court.
It is not enough, therefore, to discover something. The way in which it was obtained, recorded and documented matters just as much.
Among the people who have sought her services have also been individuals known to the wider public. She naturally does not reveal their identities.
When asked whether a client’s public profile changes the way a case is handled, she says that all cases are treated in the same way and always on the basis of the applicable legal framework.
A double life
And while our collective image of the private detective is still usually that of a man, reality is changing.
As she explains, the profession is no longer an exclusively male field, and there are now women who pursue it too.
The most important thing, regardless of gender, she says, is to love the work one chooses.
Because behind the mystery, surveillance and everything people imagine when they hear the word “detective” lies, above all, a job requiring patience, attention to detail and waiting.
And perhaps the paradox is that a good detective has to discover a great deal about other people while keeping as little as possible known about themselves.
So, do the people around them know about the “double life” they lead?
“It is better that they don’t,” she concludes.
