As Americans grow more security-conscious, private investigators and do-it-yourself sleuths answer the call of duty.

By Denise Trowbridge, New Orleans CityLife, December 2004

He’s the man in the fedora and tan trench coat, searching for clues and scrutinizing the evidence. He’s Sam Spade recovering the Maltese Falcon and Sherlock Holmes neatly solving the crime.

Hollywood and literature are full of colorful tales about private investigators. But beyond the glitz lies the everyday lives of real professional private eyes — and what it takes to catch the crook might surprise you.

The Daily Grind
It’s a rainy Thursday morning at the Centanni Investigative Agency. From his dark office in an inconspicuous building in Metairie, Wayne Centanni is juggling dozens of cases. He is running background checks — information on closest relatives, previous addresses and criminal records are only a keystroke away — and using his cell phone like a walkie talkie, coaching a newbie investigator whose suspect just gave him the slip.

The shelves in Centanni’s office are lined with pictures of smiling children, ones he has tracked down and returned to their rightful guardians. There’s also the “Hall of Shame,” a photo album of people caught doing things they weren’t supposed to. There are photos of a woman mowing her lawn, a tap dancer giving an animated lesson and a man digging a ditch when they told their insurance companies they couldn’t get of bed.

Centanni has been in the private investigations business for 30 years, and he’s had plenty of adventure. He’s been forced to bribe the police chief in a Mexican border town while trying to recover stolen heirlooms, and he’s thwarted criminals who’ve said “I’m not through with you” as they were sent off to prison.

But how, exactly, do Centanni and the other private eyes like him manage to continually catch the bad guy? “You have to be very imaginative,” he says. “You have to have a decent understanding of human nature and you can’t be afraid.”

A sense of humor helps, too. To lure reluctant witnesses in for an interview, Centanni has gone as far as telling them he has a check with their name on it. “People love anything with ‘Pay to the Order of’ written on it,” he says. “They usually call back.”

Private investigators have also developed innovative ways to get people to come to the door to pick up their subpoenas, which have to be served in person. They’ve dressed up as delivery men — carrying everything from pizzas and packages to bunches of flowers and balloons— dropped the papers next to the suspect’s car in a parking lot then videotaped them reading it, and even pretended to be landscapers. “People tend to come to the door when a stranger is using a leaf blower on their lawn,” Centanni says with a laugh. “In this business, it pays to be a very good actor.”

Technology doesn’t hurt either. The back room of Centanni’s office houses clear plastic bins filled with equipment such as wireless hidden cameras concealed in wristwatches and in the straps of inconspicuous black shoulder bags. But the ultimate weapon in his tech arsenal is the surveillance van, an inconspicuous vehicle decked out with camera equipment linked to a backseat control center. There’s a bag full of magnetic signs in the trunk advertising fictional businesses. Centanni sticks them to the outside so the van blends in with the neighborhood, throwing suspects off guard.

“Surveillance in the mainstay of this business,” Centanni says. “Our job is simply to find out if someone is telling the truth. We are in the information gathering business, and video surveillance is a pretty effective tool.”

Insurance companies in particular love video. “Surveillance is up because of insurance fraud,” he says. “The industry is fighting claims a lot more often.” Video helps the insurer know if a person’s claims of what they can or cannot do as a result of an injury are true or false.

Other businesses have hired him to beef up their security systems, to screen potential hires and to keep an eye on despondent executives who’ve just gotten their pink slips. He also partners with law firms and law enforcement agencies to track down witnesses and serve subpoenas to difficult witnesses.

Business is booming. “Since September 11, Americans are more security conscious, which has created more demand for our services,” Centanni says. “Private investigations is a growing field. I see maybe 20 to 30 percent growth a year, and it could continue for the next seven or eight years.”

But despite the demand, the number of licensed, trained professionals needed to handle the workload has actually decreased. The Louisiana State Board of Private Investigators reports that there are currently 1,430 licensed investigators in Louisiana; 305 new licensing applications were filed last year, a slight decrease from the 313 filed the year before.

The university system has stepped in to fill the demand.

Sleuthing 101
Delgado Community College, the University of New Orleans, Metropolitan Community College and Nunez Community College offer a course for beginners interested in a career as a private eye. It’s a prep class for the state private investigator’s license.

In order to obtain a license, the Louisiana State Board of Private Investigators requires individuals to take the 40-hour course as well as pass a state-administered exam. Both cover hot topics such as the legal system — including common law and Constitutional law —and information gathering techniques such as surveillance, interviewing and handling evidence.

While only five students took the course at Delgado Community College’s Westbank campus last semester, reports campus Director of Public Services Patrick Cote, “I’ve noticed a lot more interest in the class. People are constantly calling me wanting to know when the next one is.

“Reality and forensics television shows have renewed interest in this and some of the other criminal justice classes,” Cote adds. It’s not uncommon for a hit TV series to inspire a class, he says, citing Delgado’s CSI: New Orleans course. “But the problem is that TV shows lead to misconceptions about many things,” such as what a private investigator really does and how they do it.

He’s hoping students will have a much more realistic view after finishing the course, which costs approximately $350, is offered once a semester and can last anywhere from one weekend to two weeks. “I hope they walk away with a real knowledge of what a P.I. does,” Cote says.

The course has two goals: to teach students everything they need to know to pass the state exam and give them the basic skills they will use on the job. “The majority of our students aren’t already in a law enforcement field,” Cote says, so they need to be “taken to school” on the basics.

“There are a lot of laws a private investigator can violate while conducting an investigation, so beginners need to be particularly careful,” he says. For instance, an investigator can be charged with tampering with a vehicle while installing a tracking device or may accidentally cross the line when using a wiretap or conducting electronic surveillance.

“You have to be careful and know what you are doing. That’s why introductory and continuing education courses are so important,” Cote says. “They keep you up on the law.”

But Newly-minted private eyes, despite the boom in the field, may have more worries at the start than running afoul of the law.

Students shouldn’t expect to take the state test and immediately go to work, Centanni says. “They should either have an agency sponsor them before they take the class or go to work part-time, rather than give up their full-time job.

“It’s hard to make a living at first. You get paid by the hour and only for the time the client can be billed for,” he adds. A new private eye may be lucky to clock 30 hours a week for the first few years, which may be part of the reason there is a high turnover rate during that time. “It helps to have a nice bankroll to fall back on because invoices aren’t always paid quickly.”

But if a private investigator makes it through the lean times, it can be an exciting —and philosophical—vocation. “Nothing about this job is routine. It changes from day to day,” Centanni says.

It also offers insight into humanity. “You see life as it really occurs. You get to watch people being themselves, the way they are when they think no one is watching,” he explains. “Seeing some of the more chilling cases has changed my attitude. I don’t get upset about the little things.”

Life as a private eye has also made him more careful, Centanni says. “A little paranoia is good for everyone.”