Skip tracing is also sometimes called person locate or debtor recovery. It is basically an investigative technique that traces or finds skips or people who have skipped out on their financial or legal obligations. Skip tracing can help you get owed money back or can help ensure that a dangerous criminal finds his or her way back to court.
While many people assume that law-enforcement agencies take care of finding fugitives and other such problems, the truth is that most agencies are overwhelmed with work. If you want a debtor or a criminal found, you may have to do so yourself. Hiring a professional for a skip trace is far more effective, since the skip tracer will work until he or she finds the person you’re seeking. Plus, a professional skip tracer can use techniques that are not available to law enforcement agencies. For example, a skip tracer is not restricted by just cause regulations or search warrants. They can simply find and recover the person in question.
Depending on the situation, skip tracing can involve many things:
Surveillance. Skip tracers may observe certain homes where the person being sought has been known to live.
Background checks. Skip tracers and private investigators wishing to apprehend a fugitive or debtor will often run background checks in order to figure out a targets past habits. In many cases, this can lead investigators right to their target.
Interviews and questioning. Professional investigators will often speak with those who know a target well. They may try to convince a fugitive’s family that the fugitive should turn himself or herself in, or they may try to get acquaintances to simply slip up and reveal a targets whereabouts.
Impersonations and traditional investigative work. A skip tracer may pose as a FedEx delivery person or someone else in order to get close to a target. They may also spend hours researching in order to find where someone is most likely to be hiding.
Informants. Our private investigation professionals have a network of informers who work for them. These informants will often find out information quickly by talking to their own contacts.
If you need a skip trace run to protect your family from a fugitive or to find a debtor in order to recover money, Olympic Tactical & Investigations has the investigators that can start track down the individual quickly.