New York License Search

New York, like many other states, has a website where you can find out if the private investigator agency that you want to hire is licensed. The easiest way to search is to type in the company’s name. You simply type it in and the system will tell you whether or not the company currently has a private investigator license in NYC: New York Private Investigator.

Hiring a private investigator to work with you or your company can be a daunting experience. You not only want to have someone with whom you are comfortable working, but you also want to be certain that the detective has the skills and work ethic to solve your case. You should think of your private investigator as your own personal policeman – someone who is skilled, hard working and willing to go to great lengths to solve your case.

New York Private Investigators

It is best hiring a licensed investigator from states that have high requirements such as the ones in New York State. Why? The tough requirements help to make better investigators who can give you the best value for your money. For example, New York requirements include running a background check on the investigator and also verifying that he or she has the professional skills to serve the role. An investigator who professes to be able to conduct surveillance must show that he or she has at least 3 years of experience doing so in a professional environment such as in the police or sheriff’s department. The person also has to pass a detailed and comprehensive exam. For more information on the tough NYC requirement see the NYC state licensing board website.

Private Investigator Hiring

When hiring a PI, it is important to hire someone who has been licensed and who has the experience that you need. In some states, the requirements are minimal, simply requiring that a person be 21 years old, a U.S. Citizen and “of good moral character.” However, in the tough states like New York, you can rest assured that your investigator is highly experienced. In fact, many New York private investigator agencies hire former NYPD detectives. These are people who have been working in the field for decades and have the instincts and experience that non-NYPD detectives have a hard time matching.

What Can You Hire a Private Detective To-Do?

A private investigator can be hired to do many tasks such as obtaining information regarding the identity, habits, movements or character of a person or group. They can also conduct detailed background checks of an individual. The range of those wanting such a service can be vast – from someone who thinks his or her partner is cheating to an insurance company trying to determine if a claim is valid. Lawyers will often hire an investigator to help clear their client’s name if they think a witness or accuser is lying. Grieving families use investigators to help find a runaway child or loved one. And private persons or businesses have private investigators to hunt down stolen property when they are not convince that the police are doing a good enough job.

Again, the range of services that an investigator can offer is vast. Make sure that you hire a person or agency that is not only licensed but also has the experience that you need. While there are skilled private investigators in many parts of the United States, New York State investigators must pass rigorous tests and demonstrate their competence. For detailed information about the requirements see the NY State Department of Licenses.

Scott Prendergast is the Owner and Principal of Cornelius Investigations LLC a New York Private Investigator agency. He is a Licensed and Bonded NYS Private Investigator, licensed to conduct Investigations, provide Security Services and do Bail Bond Enforcement. Having worked at the NYPD for over 20 years Scott is skilled in a wide range of investigations including larcenies, frauds, finding runaway children, protecting abused children, and criminal and civil matters of all kinds.

Experienced private investigators can find detailed information about a person that online services often miss. Hiring a PI to investigate your “person of interest” can save you the time and hassle of dealing with a person or company who might not be what they represent. Find out what information a private investigator can get for you and why you might want to consider hiring one.

What is a Background Check?

A background check can be considered a type of surveillance that involves finding out about a person’s history. For example, information can be gathered about a person’s employment history, criminal background and financial history. This type of investigation can be extremely detailed and can help you find out about a person’s sex offender status, debts, credit history, liens and judgments, sources of income, professional licenses held, address history, relatives and ancestry and much more. Investigations can also be conducted on a company or an association in order to find out about its financial health, funding sources and ownerships

Are Background Checks Legal?

The law does not prohibit checking a person or company’s history. However, for some background cases, such as searching outstanding warrants and certain criminal matters, there are federal laws that restrict the information that can be reported. Regardless, a great deal of personal information can be discovered and reported. For this reason, it can be useful to hire a licensed private investigator who has police experience. They not only know the limits of the law, but also have extensive investigative experience that allow them to find sources of information that are hidden to less experienced searchers.

Why Hire a PI to do a Background Check?

An experienced investigator can not only provide you the background information that you want but also provide you with the documentation and interpretation that you need to understand it all. It is relatively simple these days to do your own background check. But it is possible to miss crucial details and not get the full story on the person you are investigating. And f you are dealing with a potential civil or or criminal case, you want to make sure that you are staying within the law and using the information in the most effective manner. For this reason, hiring a former police detective, who is also a private investigator can be very useful. A well-documented background check is an important way to discover previous misdeeds such as stealing, embezzlement, insurance fraud and other acts.

Scott Prendergast, retired NYPD, is the Owner of Cornelius Investigations LLC, a Licensed and Bonded New York Private Investigator Agency. Our agency is skilled in a wide range of investigations including background checks and computer forensics.

If you have or a loved one has been accused of a crime or is frustrated with the slow pace of police work involved in case, you may want to hire your own private investigator.

Why Hire Your Own PI?

Doing so can help you in many ways. A private investigator can gain additional insight into a case, can find clues that the police may have missed, or may simply provide you with the peace of mind that you need to feel secure that you are doing everything that you need to get the facts.

Who Hires a Private Investigator?

If you follow sports, you may have heard recently that the lawyer of Steeler’s quarterback Ben Roethlisberger hired a private investigator. Why? Well, when an attorney is representing someone he or she needs to know ALL the facts surrounding a case. There may be mitigating circumstances that even the accused might not know about. For example, a private investigator, may be able to verify the accused’s alibi by conducting computer forensics to show that a client was online or otherwise engaged during an alleged incident. The private investigator can do a background check on on an accuser to find out if he or she has a history of filing complaints, or has had other legal or financial complaints that may have led to filing a false allegation. In short, have a private investigator on your team, helps you to get the facts you need to defend yourself or a loved one.

And if you hire one of my New York Private Investigators, at Cornelius Investigations, you will get not only a top-notch PI, but also someone who is a trained and experience former NYPD police investigator. Our team collectively has over 100 years of investigative experience. We didn’t just pass some test to become a licensed private investigator, we spent years in the trenches, conducting police investigations, preparing evidence, going to court, and learning how suspects think and act.

Call us direct at Cornelius Investigations to see how we can help you. All of our conversations are held in the strictest confidence: 212-880-2940

Or send and email directly to myself, Scott Prendergast: cornelius@nycprivateinvestigator.net

Though computer forensic analysis may seem to be a “new” field, at Cornelius Investigators we have been doing it for quite some time. The reason is quite simple: New York City is one of the major financial centers in the world and our former NYPD detectives have had to deal with computer forensics for decades.

Nearly every major bank, stock brokerage firm, and financial services company has office locations throughout New York – from Manhatten to Brooklyn and all points in between. And where do you think the criminals come to? Right here in New York.

One of the first things that financial criminals do to cover their tracks is delete files and even “reformat” computer hard drives. But that is not always enough to hide from our computer forensic experts. Every computer system has its own “finger prints” and hidden files that are hard to detect or erase. One of our specially-trained forensic experts can dig deep into a hard drive and find traces that others may miss.

Best of all, since we are licensed private investigators with a great deal of court experience. We can not only find the info you need, but document it so that it will stand up to court scrutiny (if needed).

Give us a call today for a no-obligation consultation: 212-880-2940.

Or send an email to: cornelius@nycprivateinvestigator.net

Ask for Scott Prendergast.

One of our specialties at Cornelius Investigations is doing criminal and civil background checks. Why is it important for you to hire an expert private investigator to do this for you? Because the computer-generated reports are not enough! You want to check not only someone’s credit but their state and criminal records. What if you run a credit check on one of your employee’s and find out that they have a 700 credit score? Is that a good thing?

Not necessarily!!

Corporate and white-collar criminals are very smart. They may have perfect credit of their own and yet still be involved in the identity theft of others. They may pay their mortgage on time, and yet still be involved in mortgage fraud through their past employer. You really do need to be careful. Our former NYPD detectives know where to look and what questions to ask to uncover hidden information that others may miss.

Give us a call today and see what we can do for you. If you do NOT find negative information about your employee candidate you will gain the piece of mind of knowing that you have done everything that you can to protect yourself.

Give us a call today for a no-obligation consultation: 212-880-2940.

Or send an email to Scott Prendergast. His email is: cornelius@nycprivateinvestigator.net

What Is Surveillance?

Surveillance is simply the act of observing or monitoring someone. When following a “person of interest,” there are a huge number of different strategies to consider – especially when working in New York City or another major population center. For example, sometimes I or one of my other licensed investigators can follow by car without any suspicion. There is so much traffic in New York that a suspect will not notice that they are being followed. However, the situation can change very quickly when tailing in the city, so we may have to use several investigators in separate cars.

Other times we may need to follow by foot, motorcycle, even by bike. Occasionally, we conduct mobile surveillance by placing a GPS device on the person’s car or on some other object that they carry with them such as a purse or briefcase.

Team Surveillance

In complex cases, we have set-up an entire team of people to conduct a surveillance. This is especially important when a person thinks that he or she may be under suspicion. Very often, one PI can stop following the person as another PI begins, eliminating a person’s suspicion that he or she is being tailed.

Internet Surveillance

In other cases, such as a missing persons case, we may first investigate via phone and internet. Tracking down the whereabouts of the person using technology and then conducting the in-person surveillance, taking pictures to make sure we have found the person that you are looking for. The techniques that we use all depends on the case. We can also conduct internet surveillance in conjunction with our New York Computer Forensics Expert (insert link)

Is Surveillance by a Private Investigator Legal?

My customers often want to know if surveillance in New York City and elsewhere is legal. Yes, it is. The law does not prohibit surveillance. There is no general legal right to privacy from being observed – in public or private. One of my private investigators sitting in a car outside a home watching a suspect – and even video recording them – is not committing an offense. However, no one is allowed to invade someone’s privacy by recording bedroom, bathroom, or clothes changing area. Doing so is illegal and punishable.

Why Hire a PI to do Your Surveillance

In today’s litigious environment eyewitness testimony is often deemed unreliable and can be thrown out of court, leaving your case severely damaged. Video evidence is considered much more reliable and is often the best recourse to hold people responsible for their misdeeds. Plus, surveillance and covert video recording is often the only way to capture evidence of wrong doing such as cheating, stealing and insurance fraud.

What If the Surveillance Target Ends Up Being Innocent?

And if there is no wrong doing on the part of your “person of interest”? Great! Wouldn’t it be wonderful to gain the peace of mind to know that everything is OK? And they never need to know that you had them under surveillance. Your relationship with us is private.

On the other hand, a well-planned surveillance can potentially save you time and thousands of dollars in court costs. It’s good to know exactly what you are dealing with before going to court, filing for divorce or taking other action. Surveillance will let you know what you are dealing with.

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Scott Prendergast is the Owner and Principal Investigator of Cornelius Investigations LLC, a Licensed and Bonded NYS Private Investigator Agency. His firm is licensed to conduct investigations, domestic surveillance, background investigationsand provide security services, bail bond enforcement and other private investigator services Having worked at the NYPD for over 20 years Scott is skilled in a wide range of investigations including larcenies, frauds, finding runaway children, protecting abused children, and criminal and civil matters of all kinds. You can find out more about Scott and his company at NYC Private Investigator.

Investigations

Surveillances – Insurance, corporate, cheating spouses

Background Checks

Security Consulting

Event Security

Executive Protection

V.I.P. Protection

Locating Witnesses

Computer Forensics & Investigations

Accident Investigation/Reconstruction

Lie Detection/Polygraph