​​​​​​Update - 2017 Rocky Mountain Private Investigators Conference

Be sure and register now for the conference - and pre-conference! Details at https://ppiac.wildapricot.org/event-2454623

In the July Facts & Forensics, hosted by GIMG.tv, Dean interviewed long-time friend, Brandon Perron, about his upcoming pre-conference training day for FTER (Forensic Testimonial Evidence Recovery) training and certification. Although we have not taken his training on this, we have others and have provided some for his classes.

Listen online online - http://gimg.tv/031-facts-forensics/#more-888
Take a listen and find out more directly from Brandon - he is excited to be here and it will be a packed and energetic day!  His segment is about 33 mins in and goes for 50 mins to the end). Brandon also talks about a special offer exclusively for PPIAC and NCISS members - but you have to listen to learn what it is!

He also provided me his FTER book when it first came out - a must get (available at the conference or Amazon - http://astore.amazon.com/assoinforeinv-20/detail/0967061512/132-8606438-5097668

What else is on the podcast?
-- Special Offer for Listeners - latest book now available!
"Investigating Death and Serious Bodily Injuries"
-- Conversations with Karen
Karen joins us with two interesting topics of discussion – Is it Homicide or Suicide and Every Contact Leaves a Trace.
-- Special Guest with Dean
Brandon Perron, CCDI, CFI-FTER, returns to talk about FTER (Forensic Testimonial Evidence Recovery) and how he developed it, the importance to investigators, and the training and certification process. He also shares an upcoming opportunity for listeners to take advantage of!
-- Association News
-- Legislative and News of Our Profession
-- Facts & Forensics Sponsors

Be sure and register now for the conference - and pre-conference! Details at https://ppiac.wildapricot.org/event-2454623

Conference Highlights
2017 Rocky Mountain Private Investigators Conference
Join investigators from around the country in participating in world class training at the 2017 Rocky Mountain Private Investigators Conference held in beautiful Denver, Colorado, September 14-16.

Conference is being held in the Denver Marriot Westminster at 7000 Church Ranch Boulevard, Westminster, Colorado 80021

Register now and make your reservations to be part of this world class training event!

2017 Training Topics:

• Ethics in a Changing World - Kitty Hailey
• Junk Science: What attorneys should know about forensic science - Mark Gillespie
• Beyond the CSI Effect: Considering Essential Criteria for Addressing Forensic Evidence in Today's Media-Affected Legal System - Jeff Boxer
• Cultural Considerations to Russian Investigations - Anastasiya Bolton
  
• Private Investigators & The Dirty Little Secret of Sub-Contracting: Insurance Fraud Investigations - Richard Brooks
• Ethics for Investigators - JP Moore
• Unlocked Doors and Digital Footprints - Andy Kindred
• Diagnostic & Prescriptive Approach to Judgement Enforcement - Joe Dickerson

For hotel reservations - Hotel Reservations 
Download the schedule of events - Schedule
Become a sponsor or Vendor - Sponsor Application

Brandon Perron - Forensic Interviewing: FTER Certification Class
Don't miss out on this excellent opportunity to receive certification in forensic testimonial evidence recovery!  
Register NOW! 2017 Rocky Mountain Private Investigators Conference
 
Pricing/Conference Information:
3 Day Includes Brandon Perron: PPIAC/NCISS/PSACO $375
3 Day Includes Brandon Perron: Non-members $425

2 Day Conference only: PPIAC/NCISS/PSACO $200
2 Day Conference only: Non-members $275

Brandon Perron only: PPIAC/NCISS/PSACO $175
Brandon Perron only: Non-members $275

Single day conference only: $150

The Denver Marriott Wesminster has reserved a rate of $161 per night for the PPIAC.  You can make your reservation here.

Every Contact Leaves a Trace
Recently friends and colleagues ‘across the pond’ – Phil and Yin Johnson of JJ Associates International (www.jjassociatesinternational.com) – shared a video on social media, entitled “Every contact leaves a trace” by John Sutherland at TEDxLondon (https://youtu.be/ibl3M4dTF2U). Mr. Sutherland is a Metro London Police officer and shares experiences we have practiced during the nearly 30-year course of our agency – truly, every contact does leave a trace and we will look for them. Most people think of forensic trace evidence; however, this was a concept of our long before we were involved in forensics.
 
What is ‘Every Contact Leaves a Trace’? This is a theory first developed by Edmund Locard – the first c criminalist and founder of the first crime lab in Lyon, France. Locard theorized that all persons leave something at the scene, and take something from the scene.  This transfer of evidence connects the two. This is the foundation of our books, articles and presentations all over the country on legal and forensic investigation. This concept applies to every aspect of life – personal and professional. In writing, we share that just writing and reading the text is an example of the contact and leaving a trace. The same in our lectures. When we share information with an audience – such as this commentary or our newsletters – information is shared back – just like forensic trace evidence. Connections are made. From client meetings and informal lunches and get togethers, to family time. We all share and learn. Mr. Sutherland discusses this same concept – adapting Locard’s theory to all investigations and personal life experiences.
 
In our expert consultations of personal injury, negligence and death in civil, criminal and probate litigation we look for the connections of scenes to victims to perpetrators to instruments of injury, to injuries and full circle. Connections are made through direct and circumstantial evidence – as small as trace evidence and as large as vehicles and buildings.

In our legal investigations of the same nature, we are connecting witnesses through their statements of what they saw, heard, felt, tasted and smelled – or didn’t. Multiple interactions with other persons, some events possible caught on video or audio – are all demonstrations of Locard’s theory. The elements of a crime or civil negligence are supported or answered, strengthened and mitigated through this process.
 
Locard’s theory is simple – every contact does leave a trace. As investigators, it is our responsibility to find those elements and make those connections for our clients. The application reaches across our lives as professionals, students, teachers, parents and mentors. From observations to investigations, this is how we better both our investigations and ourselves.
 
To learn more about the application of Locard’s theory in professional investigations, find our articles at www.deathcasereview.com/afi-llc-articles.html

Data Protection – Lessons Learned and Shared
 
Before 2012 we had one physical backup setup through our network server. Had we still had that in place this year, we would have lost almost 25,000 files of almost 300,000 (almost 10% of our files); about 45GB of data from our 551GB. This happened in Dean’s trip to Washington DC, the end of March this year (2017), for the National Council of Investigation and Security Services. After his return from that trip, we left for the World Association of Detectives meeting in Florida. There was no time to manually recover these.
 
In late 2012 we decided to do some traveling by RV and began to plan for that – space and functionality were a premium, and we would be working the entire time of our travels, which lasted until early 2015. Just prior to this we began using individual external hard drives for our data. The original purpose of using external hard drives was to make the transition from an old PC to a new PC easier with our files. For the new PC it was simply a matter of installing and updating the programs and applications, then plugging in the external hard drive with all the data and files mapped to the applications. The transition could be done with minimal down time. This also made business travel easier – instead of copying necessary files to a flash drive, we could simply take a laptop and the external drive – working without interruption. But, cloud back up did not include external drives, and that was a problem. As a result, we would copy all important files to the PC hard drive weekly for cloud back up through Carbonite. That was time consuming, but necessary.
 
In early 2012 Carbonite began to also include external hard drives – if you chose a personal account, and not the business account. This still makes no sense – not including external drives in a multi-computer business account – so be sure and choose your cloud backup plan carefully to ensure it includes all devices and files. We have looked at many – Carbonite was the best in process and also the most cost-effective, a win-win; others simply did not compare.
 
In addition to the external hard drives and Carbonite backup, we took the following steps:

• Personal desktop PCs would not work due to space and limited power (RVs have a 20 to 50-amp limit; desktop PCs, or laser printers will trip the circuits). We went to fully functional laptops with smaller footprints and smaller internal hard drives – used only for installed programs and applications.
• Inkjet printer with scanning. Faxing was not necessary, as we have long used an email based faxing service (below).
• Expanded our DropBox accounts to include automatic backup of our phone photographs and videos, and some redundant backup of active case files and client sharing. We also changed our accounting backup files to DropBox. DropBox is also backed up to our external hard drives – this creates a full cycle of redundancy for very important files.

 
Backup, Backup, Backup!
Just like the three rules of real estate, these are the three rules of protecting your work product! Having a good, reliable and redundant backup protocol will do more than ensure the integrity of your data, it will also guide you in becoming more paperless and improve efficiency.
 
Start With Paperless
Our agency began going paperless at a time when there were multiple different file types to scan (the only option to digitize files) and save to – ‘alacrity’ files were the first kind, and we still have those files – dating back to at least 1996. For years the standard has been PDF, Portable Document Format. Just as it states – PDF is a universal file format, and the read only programs are free to download; and creating a PDF is simple through several methods.
 
We do keep store receipts, mostly for warranties and possible returns or refunds – receipts for a year take up a very small envelope with our tax folder. All other records are saved, converted or scanned to PDF – if it cannot be saved or converted, such as an online document, it is scanned. Every personal and business file is done so. Those are stored on our personal hard drives, a universal hard drive, and in Carbonite; some on two cloud platforms – Carbonite and DropBox. You simply can’t back up paper files stored in a cabinet – potentially loss to a natural disaster, mold or simply aging.
 
Develop Your Backup Plan
Once you have started the paperless process – and it takes a plan and consistency to become easier and routine – its time to develop your backup plan. The larger your office and case work, the more planning. Our plan is based on just the two of us.
 
As previously mentioned, using the DropBox application, all DropBox files are also synced to our external hard drives. This gives our most important files automated and redundant backup. What’s on DropBox is on our external drives, and what is on our external drives is on Carbonite. Even if we don’t take our external drives in our travels, we have options.
 
What needs backed up? Everything! What needs redundant back up? Active case files and accounting files should top the list. Inactive case files can be saved to a separate, preferably offsite, external backup drive. Some recommend having a new external backup drive every year.
 
Once the process is setup, most is automated through syncing. So long as you work from a drive that is constantly backed up, you do not have to manually do so. But, do check your backups often – failures happen. Also, external hard drives can and do fail – and can be user caused to fail.
 
Its More Than Backup – Its Instant File Access
As a mobile society, and profession, we need instant access to current files. A cloud backup service, such as Carbonite, lets you restore lost or corrupted files via online access. This same service also provides the ability to access files remotely, without having a remote service on your office PC or copying to a laptop or flash drive for travel. In 1996 Dean was innovative in having wireless access from any location – he could instantly access and share information for and with clients within minutes – not hours or days. Today, probably every professional has this capability from their smart phone; 20 years ago this was not possible without some creativity. So started our agency’s ability to stay ahead through technology.
 
Of course, most of this is reliant on having Internet access – through wi-fi or a mobile hotspot – and these are not always available, or secure. We strongly recommend working from physical files from a hard drive or flash drive; and relying on a cloud service in an emergency.
 
Our Recent Lessons
Are your files safe?
 
Anything can happen at any time - to you or your files. Our files are hours - weeks to months - of our time intensive work for clients. Without them reports are unwritten, hours and expenses not invoiced, and business can come to a halt. Losing files can cost hours and days of time in recovery – time itself which is lost and unrecoverable. If any investigator is no longer able to work a file – temporary due to a planned vacation or unexpected injury, possibly planned retirement or unplanned termination – the files still need to be available.
 
This commentary, which we hope you find useful, started from recent experiences – what could have been potentially devastating. The files we lost, which we introduced in this commentary as a series of numbers, were all current case files. Our accounting files were safe. Losing active case files was not good. How did this happen? Although we are uncertain – a series of events lead us to the conclusion that Dean did not ‘Safely Remove’ his working external hard drive from the laptop.
 
In flight to the NCISS meeting, Dean was working on current case reports – one in particular with a deadline; a very important expert case report of about 30 pages, which was a completed draft on the plane. Once at the hotel, when it was time to print and begin the proofing process, the case file folder was gone from the drive. Soon it became apparent many files were missing, and none were redundant saved to DropBox. Several files were recovered from Carbonite and also the laptop recovery process for the draft report (FYI – have your Word documents auto-saved every two minutes).
 
Upon returning home, and before leaving for the WAD meeting the next day, Carbonite was contacted to recover the files. Carbonite offers an additional service of sending any files on a physical external hard drive. Depending on the subscription type, there may be a fee. The drive is either returned, or can be purchased. Files can be recovered from as far back as 30 days, including files deleted or altered. For us, we chose to have the full backup on a physical drive delivered and restored; we also kept the drive to make sure we have all files. From this, we compared files and learned the extent of our data loss, introduced in this article. We have fully, and quickly, fully recovered 100% of our files without any loss to the data. We did lose a few hours in doing so; however, our protocols saved not only data – but time.
 
Additional Lessons
As careful and experienced as we are over the last two decades of data backup and recovery, a few hard lessons were learned. The following suggestions are not automatic with cloud services – you must set them up specifically to do so. Pay close attention to what is backed up and synced.

• When you travel and use a different computer from your desktop, first save all of your files directly to the computer and then copy them to the external drive for safe backup.
• Flash drives are temporary and portable – they do not backup to a cloud service, external hard drives can be designated to and should be.
• Make sure all case and accounting files are first on a secure cloud service (such as DropBox) that syncs to and from your PC external hard drive.
• Make sure your external hard drive is included in our cloud backup service (such as Carbonite).

 
Other Time Savers
Time is money! Visit this article on our blog at www.deathcasereview.com/afi-llc-blog/time-is-money-multi-tasking-is-time-recovered!

• DropBox - http://dropbox.privateinvestigations.org
• Right Inbox for Gmail - www.rightinbox.com
• Desktop Texting - www.MySMS.com
• Ring Central Faxing - http://fax.privateinvestigations.org
• Ring Central VOIP - http://ringcentral.privateinvestigations.org
• Toll-Free Numbers - http://kall8.privateinvestigations.org  (PIs - contact our office for more uses)
• Split View - www.splitview.com

 
Conclusion
We hope our experiences – good and recently bad – help you improve your productivity, back up protocols, and being paperless; these all lead to more efficiency in your work and improve productivity. Doing so frees up more personal and productive – billable – time.
 
If you have any questions on these processes – and any suggestions to improve them – please contact us any time. We love to hear, and learn, from our friends and colleagues.

​​
"We speak for the deceased.  To them we owe the truth."  AFI-LLC intro video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgsvtbSk8fg
​
-----
Dean A. Beers, CLI, CCDI and Karen S. Beers, BSW, CCDI
Board Chairman / Past President, National Council of Investigation & Security Services (www.NCISS.org)
Colorado Licensed Private Investigators (PI2.050 and PI2.019)
Cheyenne WY Licensed Private Investigators & Security (31146)
Board Certified Legal Investigator / Expert Consultant (national)
Board Certified Criminal Defense Investigators
Certified in Medicolegal Death Investigations / former Deputy Coroners

Associates in Forensic Investigations, LLC
A Rocky Mountain West Agency
Expert Consultants and Legal Investigators
Personal Injury, Negligence & Death in Civil, Criminal and Probate Litigation

www.DeathCaseReview.com ~ beersda@DeathCaseReview.com
CO - (970) 480-7793 Office / TXT and (970) 480-7794 Fax
WY - (307) 222-0136 Office / TXT and (307) 222-0138 Fax
'Quaero Indicium' - To Find The Evidence

Keep informed - visit and 'Like' us on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/4N6Associates and our agency blog at www.MedicolegalPI.com
Listen to Facts & Forensics at www.GIMG.tv
On-Demand Distance Learning at www.InvestigativeCourses.com

Dean A. Beers, CLI, CCDI and Karen S. Beers, BSW, CCDI are both Certified Criminal Defense Investigators, and Certified in Medicolegal Death Investigations to include as forensic autopsy assistants; together they co-developed 'Death Investigation for Private Investigators' distance learning and continuing education at www.MedicolegalDeathInvestigations.com.  Dean is a Certified Legal Investigator and formed their agency in 1987 with focus on general investigations, as well as individual locates, backgrounds and assets & liabilities.  Karen began in 1996, gaining knowledge and experience in the same areas.  Since 2008 they have primarily provided legal investigations and expert consultations in personal injury, negligence and death in civil, criminal and probate litigation.

Vicki Lutz is a Colorado licensed attorney and court recognized expert on domestic violence. In a special guest segment of Facts & Forensics at www.GIMG.tv, Vicki shared some valuable information for investigators. Here is a summary of our conversation – be sure and listen to the full podcast for anecdotes and actual case stories!
 
What does a PI need to do to prepare for a consultation with a domestic violence expert?
FIRST: Learn the facts of the case, e.g., is this a criminal defense case where the allegation is that the children were in the room as dad beat up mom and she’s now charged with failure to protect.
 
SECOND: Know what the person who has hired you wants you to learn, e.g., in this failure to protect case, was the mother shielding the children or using the children as HER shield and why?
 
THIRD: Ask your attorney what the foundations are for the expert’s testimony, e.g., does the expert need to explain why it is that this mother stayed so long with her abuser …BECAUSE if a jury doesn’t understand the victim’s reasoning, the jury is likely to believe that the abuse couldn’t have been that bad or she would have left, and THEN the jury may just not believe her AT ALL.
 
FOURTH: Read up on “domestic violence.” I googled “What a private investigator should know about domestic violence” and found useful insights and tips. Remember that domestic violence is a pattern of abuse where an intimate or past intimate partner uses coercive control to gain power over his partner; the way the abuser exercises control is through verbal, emotional, physical, sexual, economic, and litigation abuse. Abusers stalk, belittle, manipulate, and use the children, for example, to “keep their partners in line.”
 
FIFTH: Document everything with videos, photos – especially of any injuries-, quote people’s words rather than paraphrase, if you can. Speak with family and friends, asap. Track the abuser’s comings and goings and history, especially of former intimate relationships; abusers usually don’t have only one victim to their credit.
 
What mistakes does a PI need to avoid in their investigation specific to cases involving domestic violence and where they will be talking to witnesses and perhaps the reporting victim?
1.       Communicating victim-blaming to the victim: don’t ask why didn’t you leave? Maybe say, “I’ve read about why people stay with a partner who does not treat them well: love, children, finances, embarrassment, religion, culture, fear, … there are many reasons. Can you talk me through how you have felt about staying and leaving? I’m sure you have a lot of concerns”
MORALE OF THAT STORY IS: SHE’LL CLAM UP IF YOU PUSH HER INTO A CORNER DEFENDING HER ABUSER.
 
2.       Ignoring discovery rules: ask your employer, an attorney usually, if he or she wants ANYTHING in writing, how much, and “how,” e.g., via email, OR just scribbled notes and oral info only.
I GUARANTEE YOUR ATTORNEY DOES NOT WANT YOUR VERSION OF WAR AND PEACE BECAUSE IT WILL BE DISCOVERABLE.
 
3.       Failure to get information on all types of abuse: I had a client in a termination of paternity case who had received a letter from the child’s father (who was in prison for manslaughter). The letter included the wish that she follow in her mother’s footsteps. Her FATHER had KILLED HER MOTHER.
MORALE OF THAT STORY IS: VERBAL ABUSE, HEARTS AND FLOWERS, INTERMITTENT REINFORCEMENT ARE PART OF A COURSE OF CONDUCT THAT CAN HEP PROVE THE ABUSER’S INTENT.
 
4.       Leaving the investigation till the last minute
 
5.       Believing there are two sides to every story: that is what the batterer expects you to believe. Don’t be his accomplice. If you must engage in that presumption, I will tell you the two sides I have seen: one is reality and the other is fiction.
 
What would be the top three myths of domestic violence?
1.       It’s safer for a battered woman to leave than to stay.
FACT: Of battered women who are killed 1/2 to 3/4s of them had left.
 
2.       Women batter men as much as men batter women.
FACT: 85% to 95% of victims are battered women or men in single-sex relationships.
 
3.       Substance abuse or mental illness cause domestic violence.
FACT: Substance abusers who complete a 90-day AA program come out sober batterers. And batterers have no higher rate of mental illness than non-batterers.
 
What do you enjoy most about working with domestic violence and victims…
It’s a chance to move the needle just a little ways toward fostering healthier relationships and, most importantly, a next generation of children who don’t get hung up on whether men and women are equal – they just ACCEPT THAT FACT AND ACT ACCORDINGLY.

Vicki also shared her related article "A Guide to Domestic Violence
Expert Testimony in Colorado", published in The Trial Lawyer official publication of the Colorado Trial Lawyers Association in November 2016 - < download here >

On March 28th NCISS  held annual elections of Officers and Directors. Dean’s term as President came to a close and he was elected by the Board to be Board Chairman for the next year. His term was busy and productive, thanks to the teamwork and individual commitment of each officer and director in their duties. Success was achieved everyone, Together We’re Better! It has been an honor and privilege for Dean to serve the members of NCISS, and also the investigative and security professions.
 
Dean also returned to Colorado having been honored with NCISS’s highest honor, the Duffy Award (www.nciss.org/awards). The recipient is chosen by a committee of the six most recent recipients.

This was a great honor for Dean, and quite a surprise. As a recipient, he credits the teamwork and accomplishments of the Executive Council, Board and support of members. Last year (2016) Dean was honored to be the recipient of the second most coveted award, The Wunder Award. Like the Duffy Award, the recipient of this award is also determined by a committee of the six most recent recipients. In 2012, as a Regional Director, Dean was the first recipient of the Vinson Award.

After receiving the award, it was realized that Dean is also the only member to receive all three awards (Past President Vince Ruffolo had received the Duffy Award and Wunder Award, and posthumously the 2nd Vinson Award in 2013).

In presenting the award, past recipient Maria Landry gave the following description:
This year's recipient epitomizes those traits [description below]. He is an unabashed, natural leader who has leaped into the breach to the lead the Council and has at the same time has assumed many tasks necessary for the communication to our members. He is a tireless worker for NCISS and also a past Board Chairman of PPIAC (CO) and also Governor of the Americas for the World Association of Detectives. Something that has been noted about this person is he has the greatest respect for our military and veterans. If he encounters someone in uniform or a veterans, he always thanks them for their service. It is my honor to present this year's Duffy Award to Dean Beers of Colorado.

Named for our first President, John J. Duffy of Davenport, Iowa, founder of Per Mar Security Services, the "Duffy" is the Council’s highest honor. The award is presented every other year to an NCISS regular member, “who by their specific deeds and accomplishments has exhibited the highest standards of conduct and service to the private investigation and security service industries.”
In alternate years the “Duffy” is awarded to a person or entity outside the regular membership, who for their specific service, heroism or other exemplary deed is being honored by the Council.
For a list of past recipients, please click on the  John J. Duffy Memorial Achievement Award

The Wayne J. Wunder Memorial Award is given annually in memory of the late Wayne J. Wunder, security pioneer and founder of Continental Secret Service in Toledo, Ohio. The award recognizes exceptional contributions to NCISS by members who characteristically are not in the forefront in terms of recognition.
For a list of past recipients, please click on the Wayne J. Wunder Memorial Award

See also - www.deathcasereview.com/afi-llc-blog/special-announcement-dean-beers-elected-nciss-president-2016-2017

The Vinson Award has been presented annually since 2012 to an elected Director, Committee Chair, or other member in recognition of outstanding leadership, dedication, and service to the National Council of Investigation and Security Services, in memory of Joseph D. Vinson, Sr. and in appreciation for service to the Council of other Vinson executives.  This award was created for the Executive Council (NCISS Officers) to select the recipient, and has been intended for someone not on the Executive Council.
For a list of past recipients, please click on the Vinson Award

See also - www.deathcasereview.com/afi-llc-blog/dean-beers-honored-by-nciss-with-first-vinson-award

Time is Money - Multi-Tasking is Time Recovered!
 
Time, education, training and experience are the key to the success of every professional - and professional investigators are one of the unique professions for this - together with attorneys, doctors, accountants and others.
 
We strive for more education and training, each passing day is another day of experience.  However, time is a commodity which is a constant - it passes and renews each day.  Time is never shorter or longer - unless we waste it or creatively make time our partner. Our time is either productive or not; billable or not.
 
Over the last 29 years we have seen many time-savers come and go.  Some save time, others seem to take more time.  From templates to texting, for better or for worse, technology is with us and impacts us 24/7. When Dean started the agency, in 1987, he had an answering machine which notified a beeper and then he used payphones or courtesy phones to return calls from the field. Later would come a fax and text paging - then email, followed by cell phones and mobile computing. By 1995 a complete mobile office as needed and Dean had mobile technology before law enforcement. From late 2012 through early 2015, while traveling in our RV, we learned how to be more mobile, more paperless, and more creative with our time.
 
What have we done to be more efficient?  The right combinations of smart phones and laptops with the functionality of a desktop PC, with the right programs and apps, are the key.  In an RV there is simply no room for storing unneeded equipment, supplies and documents. Learning from experiences with traveling to conferences, we embraced ‘the cloud’.  It can be hard to send emails and faxes if you’re suddenly without online access or are driving a 32’ RV.  Be prepared. Adapt. Our agency uses several, for example:
- Synched cloud storage;
- Use of email filters for 'email triage';
- Use of templates in communications;
- Scheduled, delayed and recurring email;
- Desktop / Smartphone synched and scheduled texting;
- Scheduled, delayed and recurring social media;
- Online fax send and receive - including scheduled and delayed;
- Online scheduling; and
- Multiple monitors or split screen views.
 
Not only are we professional investigators running a busy agency, we are also heavily involved in multiple associations (Dean is on multiple boards and committees and Karen is the Administrative Manager for the World Association of Detectives) - like you we have personal lives. Two things we have done to make our business more efficient in time and cost is using an external drive and being paperless. 
 
In recent years the external drives, now no moving parts and now Solid State Drives (SSD) are very reliable - they are the same as PC internal drives. Using an external drive is easier for backup, travel, or upgrading a PC - new computers only need the programs installed and mapped to the existing hard drive. What used to take a weekend to change and upgrade a computer system now takes a few hours. The original reason to use external drives was networking office computers to share files efficiently. If configured correctly, another benefit is protection from data loss if your computer should go down. Let’s face it - if your computer goes down for hours to days, which is productive time and information lost. If your computer goes down, swap the hard drive to another computer and you’re up and running.  You do have a spare laptop or did keep one of the PCs you replaced - right?
 
Being paperless became easier with scanning and saving files as PDFs. Everything is scanned or saved as PDF or other graphic file. Paperless also makes transferring files to clients easier, and because most other businesses are also paperless, our efforts also save them time. Paperless saves on time and expenses in multiple ways. We do many expert consultation cases - thousands of pages of discovery to review. For mobility, having an external drive is much easier than a box of files when you travel or are working from the field. Indexing, sorting and searching PDF files is much easier than searching page after page by hand.  Its not foolproof, but its helpful.
 
Once you tackle and embrace the use of external drives and being paperless, the transition to other means of improving your time and multi-tasking is easier.
 
- Synched Cloud Storage
The first USB flashdrive was from Sony and was a maximum of 32MB.  At the time it was the easiest way to transfer files between computers. External drives were big and expensive. Recordable DVDs were used for backup. Then came cloud storage - a place to send and archive files. Over the next several years came sharing and using cloud storage as an external drive replacement.
 
Now cloud storage varies, but commonly includes automatic computer backup, automatic computer to cloud file synching, proxy drives, secure file sharing, automatic backup of programs, automatic backup of phone apps and photos - the list goes on with ones needs and imagination.
 
We use DropBox for most of our file archiving, storage and transfer. Our phone apps, photographs and videos instantly send to DropBox. We also use DropBox as a backup for our travels or storing files to synch as we travel. There are other options, such as One Drive. Its mostly a matter of personal need and preference.
 
- Use of Email Filters for 'Email Triage'
Without going into issues of security - web based email is essential. Long gone, for us, are the days of transferring email from one PC to another using a program - such as Outlook. Web-based email has many functions, and continually grows with functionality. One is having access 24/7 any time you have online access, emails pushed to your mobile devices, and integrated apps. Dean prefers Gmail and Karen prefers Yahoo. Emails can also be one of the most time-consuming, and wasteful, needs of the day.
 
If your device is setup to alert you with every email, you will be looking at your PC or device by the minute. Turn off alerts and look at emails only when the need dictates. Some will look only at 10am and 3pm, others every half-hour or hour, others just whenever. Overnight your mailbox might have dozens of emails, some spam or needing no attention, and others needing attention but missed or delayed. Filters - or as one colleague put it - triage. To avoid having dozens of unread emails to sort through every hour or morning, Dean wasted time deleting unnecessary emails as they alerted, and concentrated on important emails as time permitted. This was not a time-saver and was more of a distraction. Karen suggested delaying reading except at certain times. It worked, until one day we were traveling and stayed a weekend in a state park canyon - with no service of any kind. This was really nice and stress free - until we hit ‘a signal’ and each of us had well over a couple hundred emails to sort, delete, and answer - we had no triage. Then Karen suggested filtering might help.
 
Triage is necessary to separate what needs attention from what doesn’t. If it needs attention, either leave it unfiltered and in your inbox - or filter it to a folder for important emails. Next are those emails of lesser importance to no importance. Three basic filters, for most PIs, is a start - Important, Groups, and Miscellaneous. Groups are for various investigative email groups you may be subscribed to - but most often do not have anything of importance for you. Because your associations may send important emails - but not client level important - it is probably best to have an Associations filter. Miscellaneous would be for all other uncategorized emails. You can further filter this; however, remember filtering is meant to save time - not create more work. Start with the basics, and if you find you need more defined filtering, then make those necessary changes. Set up the filtering so the unread messages are sent directly to the appropriate folder. Next, set a schedule to look at those filters - hour, morning and afternoon - whatever works best. Groups are probably good to check hourly and Miscellaneous a couple times a day. Here is a tip - when you send an email, or reply to an email - use a helpful subject line! Something like ‘Hi’ often gets sent to spam - or deleted; something like ‘Help needed’ is not helpful; but, something like ‘Surveillance needed in City, State’ is best - not too much, yet enough to determine if it should be read. Next, if you use an old email to contact someone - at least change the subject line. Best practice - actually compose an email with their email address. Huge pet peeve - getting an email with an old subject line and message - chances are its been filtered or deleted unread.  Triage isn’t just about your email inbox - its also about how others see, or not, your email.
 
Next is sorting. Your subject line should always contain something to help you and your client sort - key words. Your email should have folders for specific needs - cases, tips, persons, associations - anything helpful. If there is not a folder for it - it should be deleted once its need is done. Your clients are likely doing the same.  This is the second point of composing new emails and not using an old email (besides its just lazy) - sorting.
 
The goal is to reduce the size of your inbox, while also reducing the time you spend reading and answering emails.
 
- Use of Templates in Communications
All correspondence can use templates - from letters and reports to emails. You can create Word documents, and/or draft emails, of templates for both documents and emails, frequent requests, etc. If you find you frequently receive emails asking about your services - have a draft reply ready and simply personalize or customize it. If you make frequent requests for records from the same agencies - keep the template request and simply change the relevant information. Even as simple as an IRS W-9 form, which many clients ask for in December for 1099s or before sending any payments over $600 - have one handy and just change the date as needed.  You can save hours each month with templates in responding to common requests.
 
Do you have memorandums and reports you frequently use? Templates! Some can be as simple as a form, others require new text or adding and deleting subject headers. If you save one hour on a report and compile two reports a week - 100 per year - over two weeks you have ‘recovered’.
 
- Scheduled, Delayed and Recurring Email
Next to filtering and triage - this is Dean’s personal favorite! Unfortunately, we have yet to find direct scheduling options for Yahoo; there are several options for Gmail. There are limitations to some, check carefully. Most are simply a browser extension - not a new app - and are integrated in your email. In trying a few, some would not post to email groups. Others didn’t have ‘recurring’ send options. Most are inexpensive - $5 a month or $50 year is common. For Yahoo, there are indirect solutions - you would send your email to a service and they would then send the scheduled email. We have not tried this - there are security concerns, and there are also email management concerns. As an example, if you do not receive a needed reply, you can’t use the original email - because it will show having first been through a service. Boomerang and RightInBox both work directly from Gmail. If you know of a solution for Yahoo mail, please share with us.
 
What is the benefit of scheduled email? You’re sitting at your desk, working at midnight on a Saturday - maybe after a surveillance or late field assignment - and you want to draft your thoughts to the client while its still fresh; but, you don’t want your client knowing you were up at midnight.  Maybe you’re relaxing on vacation and something important comes to mind, but you don’t want to send it from vacation.  Another time you’re planning a project and need to email others, but you know some aren’t going to read their email until Monday afternoon - and its Thursday. Draft the email and schedule it for the appropriate time. You can schedule them to send based on time zone, which can be helpful. There were times of traveling we didn’t want an email sent until Tuesday morning, but knew we would be unable to send - or might even forget - draft, schedule and done.
 
We typically have between 50 and 100 emails scheduled for the next days and weeks. The time this saves is incredible. One example, invoicing and final reports or case status updates. These often occur at specific times - beginning of the month, end of the month, etc. If your agency has 10, 15 or 25 invoices, reports and case status emails to send out - which can be a time draining event for the administrator or assistant. Draft the invoices and correspondence as soon as the case is complete, then schedule to send on the 1st, 5th or whatever date. Is your report done, but the client is on vacation? Schedule it to be in their inbox when they return.
 
Probably the worst times to send email is Monday morning and Friday afternoon - schedule for Monday afternoon or Tuesday morning, or Thursday afternoon and Friday morning. But, if you’re thinking about it on Sunday, the old way was to save a draft and then remember to send it. Another benefit - avoiding potentially embarrassing emails. This most often happens when you are in a hurry and reply to an email, and later realizing your reply was not as intended. Simply draft your email and schedule it for an hour later - this gives you time to make sure your email is informative and appropriate, and an hour to change it if not.
 
Our agency recovers hours each month using scheduling - probably one of the most productive aids. As soon as the thought comes to mind to send it - draft, schedule and done. If you can break up what would be a block of time - hours to all day - into organized fragments, especially used in your ‘down’ time - you are recovering valuable time for other tasks. This is also helpful if you have similar messages to multiple people - copy and paste, schedule and continue your day.
 
The next best is recurring email. This is most helpful when you have the same message for the same frequency. If you have regularly scheduled conference calls - schedule a recurring email to remind everyone, including yourself. Do you often remind others of specific events? Do you need your own regular reminder? At times this can be easier than making calendar appointments - saving steps. Previously we would set a calendar reminder to send an email - which required stopping what we were doing and drafting the email; or we might be busy and then forget until later in the day or week. Recurring emails are so much easier.
 
Finally, there is auto-respond. In the event you send an email and need a response, you can set up a reminder for hours to days for a response. If you send an email with a two-day reminder, and a response is not received, you will receive a reminder to follow-up. You can also schedule your own message - by replying to your sent message with a ‘hey - did you get this?’ and then scheduling it. If you do get a response, just cancel the scheduled or recurring email.
 
- Desktop / Smartphone Synched and Scheduled Texting
Texting was difficult to embrace, but has become a popular form of communicating. Texting is most often a distraction; but, if you receive a text it is an assumption to be important - at least we treat sending a text as usually more urgent than email - or even actually talking and responding to voicemail. We have found many will respond to a text faster than an email - some never respond to an email or voicemail, and if so can take days. It’s a mystery how a person can be in business and not communicate effectively.  Some will have entire texting conversations, spanning hours, instead of a five-minute voice conversation.  There have been times group texting is easier than email - due to being instantaneous, and less necessary than conference calling - due to the lack of urgency.  We originally looked into phone apps for texting in order to preserve texts.  Learning, or more accurately realizing, many use text (or SMS) to regularly communicate.
 
We found MySMS - an app which synchs all mobile and PC devices, and is also web-based. In addition, texts can be archived to popular cloud storage services. Sending photos and videos by text is also popular, but saving from phone to a PC or external device has not been. Using the web platform, it is easy. Also, when you change mobile devices - just install and synch the app and no more lost text messages.  MySMS and others also provide scheduled texting.  Although not as handy as scheduled emails, there are some uses for scheduled texting.
 
The time saver is both being synched across devices - if your tablet is handier than your phone, and your desktop. If you have carried on a text conversation for 30 minutes (it happens - although a phone call would be better), you know the frustration of being distracted from an important project. Instead, have it on your desktop and tab over to reply and back to continue. You can also copy and paste messages much easier than on your phone. Like emails, if you have a similar message for multiple people, but not a group text, copy and paste the message much faster than retyping.
 
Another issue is keeping your cell phone number confidential. We presently have zero landline phones, but do have a fully functioning office phone system. This is accomplished from a cloud / VOIP based service from many choices - we use Ring Central. A Ring Central digital line also allows you to send and receive text messages on your business number. Like MySMS, there is an app for your mobile devices and PCs - you can send and receive text messages from your phone or desktop using the app. As previously mentioned in the modern age of communication - in which many do not even listen or respond to their voicemails - although they will quickly text a reply. When attempting to contact a witness, if we do not get an answer we leave a voicemail (unless it is not activated or is full) and immediately send a text message. As most are template texts - we simply copy, paste, edit and send. The response rate to our text messaging is higher than voicemail, email or snail mail.
 
- Scheduled, Delayed and Recurring Social Media
There are several apps for making your social media presence more efficient. We actually don’t presently use these; instead, we use features included in the social media platform. Two of the more popular include Hootsuite and Mail Chimp. The concepts are the same as scheduling and recurring email, as well as email marketing.
 
Presently, our preference is to use a combination of templates, linked social media, and scheduled social media.  For example, our Twitter account is linked to both our Facebook and LinkedIn business profiles. When a post is made to our Facebook or LinkedIn account, they automatically post on Twitter. We don’t schedule posts on Facebook, or make posts on LinkedIn, on the same days to avoid double Twitter posts. LinkedIn does not yet have scheduling, so it is a matter of copy and past from Facebook to LinkedIn - one to three messages a day. Facebook does allow scheduling. We have a series of regular posts we schedule for the month - it takes about one hour per month to do this. Before scheduling, this could take 15-30 minutes a day (excluding those distractions). Going from about 10 hours a month to one hour is definitely more productive, and is recovered time.
 
- Online Fax Send and Receive - Including Scheduled and Delayed
Yes, some still use faxes - mostly government agencies, and faxing can be more secure. If you have not yet taken the leap into online sending and receiving faxes - do so now! Our agency has been faxing online for 20 years - when eFax first came to being and only receiving was possible. If you remember thermal paper fax machines, you know the frustration of archiving faxes. Online faxing is essential to an efficient and paperless office. Our necessity was much different - it was actually to have an open data line without the extra cost. In 1996 we had multiple phone lines, but were limited to how many were available for our home office. So, we forwarded our fax line to an online fax service and used the open line for data - when you had to dial in modem to modem for AOL, Compuserve and investigative databases. Time was literally money as these services had limited hourly use - 10, 20 or so a month. The PI databases often charged you for the access and then the data, because they were also charged for bandwidth.  Much of Europe is still the same way. Still needing more phone lines, but having no more capacity, we later forwarded our business line to a cell phone. Necessity is often the key to solutions.
 
We now use Ring Central to send and receive faxes. You can subscribe to local and toll-free numbers, and also port an existing number. The cost is minimal and is much cheaper than a separate phone line. Simply provide your fax number to the client and receive faxes in your email, usually as a PDF. Save these PDFs into your case file and/or organize in your email; you can also forward these by email to clients.
 
To send a fax, it is often a fax number / email address format - 1112223333@onlinefaxcompany dot com and send. You can group send, and using a scheduler you can schedule in advance. We often send faxes to a post office for change of address information - but if we are working the case at 7pm or a Sunday, the fax could get lost in a group of other faxes. Instead, schedule to send during a time you know someone will retrieve the fax.
 
- Online Scheduling
Scheduling your time is no longer just for appointments. Sometimes you need reminders, once or recurring, to not only keep track of your tasks - but to organize them. If you regularly send out a monthly newsletter, schedule a recurring time to draft it. The same for any regular task - from client follow-up to doctor appointments. If you serve process and have a recurring schedule to be in the field - calendar it. If you regularly conduct phone or in-person investigative interviews - calendar it. These become priorities and a more efficient use of your time.
 
Using an online calendar, such as Gmail, allows others with access to see your availability and also allows you to ‘invite’ others to the appointment. Online calendaring also allows you to set alarms - such as email or screen pop-up notifications, and you can schedule advanced reminders from hours to days and weeks in advance.  Take advantage of how you schedule business and personal appointments - make appointments for your tasks. You will get them done and you will have better organized your time.
 
- Multiple Monitors or Split Screen Views
Most newer PCs have the ability to add additional monitors. At first this did not seem beneficial - just change or tab from window to window. But, it will be quickly realized how efficient one extra monitor can be. One of the more common uses is reading one document while drafting another - such as reading an arrest record and completing a report; or watching a surveillance video and completing a report. There are many benefits - your needs and creativity will determine this.
 
But, what if you simply do not have the desk space for another monitor? Welcome to Split View and similar programs. For about $50 you can install this program on your PC and split your monitor between two screens. This only works for larger monitors - smaller monitors split are very difficult to use.
 
The idea is to be able to smoothly read one screen while working on the other. If you are copying and pasting - such as from a template document to an email - having them both open is a matter of moving from one to another; not opening and copying from one, closing and then opening and pasting to another. Every person in your office will benefit from being able to do so.
 
- Distractions
Many of these suggestions came from realizing how time-consuming distractions are - like TV commercials are a distraction from the entertainment. If you are deep into a project and your email buzzes, a text beep is heard, or you just peek at your social media account - you went from a small distraction to 15 minutes.  A recent study found these distractions were about 1/3 responding estimated 30 minutes, 1/3 responding estimated one hour, and the remaining 1/3 responding estimated from two to five hours of wasted time - and revenue - a day! As this article is geared toward self-employed PIs, many also have office staff - and everyone is easily distracted. By modifying your office policy, you might recover 15-30 minutes per day of productivity from yourself and employees. By modifying your practices and adapting some of the suggestions here, you might recover 30-60 minutes per day of productivity. Maybe not per day - but average per day through the week and month, certainly. Those recovered minutes are hours - five to six a week (300 a year) - a six to eight week vacation earned, or 300 billable hours.
 
Let’s face it - you won’t take a six-week vacation, and you are looking to bill any hours earned. What you can do, in reality, is use those 300 hours to take some time off, pursue projects needing completed in your agency, and better market your agency. Those distractions - yours or your employees - are costing you time, money and potential. Harness it and improve upon it.
 
- Combining These Tools for High Efficiency / Personal Time
Our agency is busy - from case work to conferences, and associations to family. These all take time - and no matter how we delegate our time, we only have 24 hours in every day - no more and no less. We can artificially create more, just as easily as we lose time. One of the areas we use these resources is to create more personal time. While being professional and productive, without losing any time.
 
Having grandkids in school, we are invited to lunch, plays and other activities. When they are not in school, perhaps we can spend a day with them. If we plan carefully, we can take some other available time to complete tasks to free up a future day. Another scenario - which happened while preparing this article - was a last-minute client request to be at a scene investigation - the travel and assignment would take twelve hours; and, although billable - would interfere with other planned tasks. In our line of work, we often cannot delay tasks - they need done. Although our office is mobile, we are not always able to take our focus away from an immediate task - or time with our family. We can also schedule our communications - from emails to social media - during the time we are away from the office. Imagine if we had invoices all due to be completed the same day we needed to be away; or we needed to make multiple requests to agencies for records - not something you can do on a weekend, and being on the road for hours on a Monday makes that impossible. Instead, you reorganize your time - take up a bit of your weekend - and schedule tasks for while you are on the road. No one knows the difference, your work is done, your clients taken care of, and all your time is accounted for and billed.
 
WE NEED YOUR HELP!
These are just some of our experiences. From necessity comes solutions - whether its using one phone line for two needs, or one monitor for two views - we can greatly improve our time and productivity by limiting distractions and creating multi-tasking opportunities.  There are specific case management programs for our profession, but those are just a small part of being efficient. This article touches on those which many do not realize - at very small cost, little learning curve, and great benefit.
 
How can you help us? By sending us your own treasures - from apps to processes - let us know what you do to improve your productivity. Visit this article on our blog at www.deathcasereview.com/afi-llc-blog/time-is-money-multi-tasking-is-time-recovered and post your resources and contact information in the comments. Please share any Yahoo mail tips and tricks!
 
OUR PREFERRED TOOLS:
DropBox - http://dropbox.privateinvestigations.org
Right Inbox for Gmail - www.rightinbox.com
Desktop Texting - www.MySMS.com
Ring Central Faxing - http://fax.privateinvestigations.org
Ring Central VOIP - http://ringcentral.privateinvestigations.org
Toll-Free Numbers - http://kall8.privateinvestigations.org (contact our office for how PIs can use this for blindline calling and traplines)
Split View - www.splitview.com

Associates in Forensic Investigations, LLC
A Rocky Mountain West Agency
Expert Consultants and Legal Investigators
Personal Injury, Negligence & Death in Civil, Criminal and Probate Litigation

www.DeathCaseReview.com ~ beersda@DeathCaseReview.com
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WY - (307) 222-0136 Office / TXT and (307) 222-0138 Fax
'Quaero Indicium' - To Find The Evidence

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We are pleased to include this guest commentary...

Does Drug Addiction Increase Chance of Suicide?
 
Of all reported suicides, over 50% are associated with dependence upon drugs and alcohol. In teens and young adults, this figure increases to over 70%. The relationship between substance abuse and suicide is complex, but those who suffer are not beyond help.
 
Why Substance Abuse and Suicide Are Correlated
As separate issues, both substance abuse and suicidal ideations are serious and must be properly addressed with medical professionals. However, these two issues are often intertwined, and researchers have tried to parse out their complex relationship. There are a number of reasons for the co-occurrence of substance abuse and suicidal behaviors, which may include:

• Depression, Anxiety, or other Psychiatric Disorders: Those who suffer from psychiatric disorders are more likely to self-medicate with drugs or alcohol. To ease their stress, cure their insomnia, or deal with manic periods, for example, many individuals turn to harmful substances. The high they get, however, is only temporary, and worsens their psychiatric symptoms after the drug wears off. Sadly, when the symptoms get worse, many addicts see no other way to stop the pain or cravings. This can lead a person towards a suicidal path, to stop the pain and stress.
• Substance Abuse as a Mode of Suicide: Individuals contemplating suicide may consider attempting an overdose as a mode of death. While they may not have a substance abuse problem at first, repeated attempts using drugs or alcohol may result in addiction.
• Substance Abuse as a Cause of Suicidal Tendencies: Drug and alcohol abuse can lead to feelings of hopelessness and suicidal thoughts. Substances affect neurotransmitters, which in turn, can impact mood and judgment. The combination of altered judgment and cyclical hopelessness can increase an individual’s risk of suicide.
• Social and Financial Problems as a Cause of Suicide and Substance Abuse: Those who suffer from both depression and substance abuse or addiction often have social and financial issues, which may create an increased likelihood of suicide.
• Personal Characteristics: Individuals who are more impulsive or who take more risks are more likely to experience both substance abuse and suicidal thoughts and behaviors.

 
Preventative Measures
Treatment for the co-occurring conditions of substance abuse and mental illness is becoming more widely available in the United States. While most individuals who suffer from both do not seek treatment, there are ways to help those in need:

• Educate yourself on substance abuse/addiction, including your loved one’s drug of choice
• Educate yourself on your loved one’s mental health condition
• Learn the warning signs of both substance abuse and suicidal behavior
• Call 911 if your loved one’s health is in imminent danger
• Learn about the available resources and treatment options for addiction and mental health issues
• Offer help and assistance when choosing a treatment facility and arranging the details
• Continually check in with your loved one (even if they do not respond well at first)

 
Your loved one may react negatively to your offer of help, but remember that it may take time to convince them to enter treatment. If they are reluctant to get help with substance abuse and address their mental health issues, try:

• Providing them with information on treatment facilities and what to expect
• Encouraging them to realize the cost of their issues by asking indirect questions (“If you take another day off from work, how will that affect your job?”)
• Designing a professional intervention with friends and family

 
All of these steps will allow your loved one to receive the help they need while addressing their issues. If substance abuse and suicide is a concern you have for someone in your life, know that both areas can be helped and stopped.
 *****
About the author:
Jennifer McGregor has wanted to be a doctor since she was little. Now, as a pre-med student, she’s well on her way to achieving that dream. She helped create PublicHealthLibrary.org with a friend as part of a class project. With it, she hopes to provide access to trustworthy health and medical resources. When Jennifer isn’t working on the site, you can usually find her hitting the books in the campus library or spending some downtime with her dog at the local park.