The undercover investigation can be a very powerful tool when used to ferret out theft, substance abuse, sexual harassment and potentially violent individuals. Managers and supervisors are often plagued with suspicions of wrongdoing when exposed to inventory shrinkage, drug paraphernalia found in the workplace or a pattern of positive drug screens by tested employees. With no specific information of wrongdoing an undercover operative can, via on-going interaction with employees, identify culpable individuals. Unlike other investigative techniques, which are passive in nature, the undercover investigation provides “real time” interactive information.
The objective of any undercover investigation should be to gather truthful, accurate information. Labor law standards and penal code restrictions must also be considered. Our operatives are trained and closely guided in all phases of the investigation. Special attention is paid to areas such as entrapment, unfair labor practices and invasion of privacy. Operatives routinely enter the workforce, gather information and are removed from the workforce with their cover not having been compromised.
Although serious violations including drug use and sales, theft, sabotage and sexual harassment are reported; operatives report on a number of areas to include an assessment of employee attitudes towards management, supervisory effectiveness, safety and less serious policy violations.
All operatives are closely supervised with daily reporting and daily supervisory contact required.
If our operatives uncover a “drug dealer” in your organization, every effort to collect the best evidence against him will be made. The best evidence of a drug sale is a drug buy. After substantiating the fact that an employee is involved in the sales of illegal drugs on company time or property, a meeting with the law enforcement agency having jurisdiction will be scheduled. The purpose of the meeting is to comply with 11367 of the Health and Safety Code, which requires private citizens to become “agents” of the police prior to engaging in any purchase of illegal drugs.
During theft investigations our operatives often times develop the requisite relationship with thieves to enable a buy of stolen property. This “sting operation” is video recorded and the recovered property sequestered to provide evidence of the theft. When company property is being stolen and sold for profit to a “fence” or legitimate customer the identity of those involved and evidence of the involvement is pursued. Identifying the receivers of stolen property provide the company another vehicle by which they may pursue the recovery of losses via criminal and/or civil proceedings.
