Only Philip Becnel could write such a stimulating article about investigative ethics. In his Pursuit Magazine feature, called “Re-examining Private Investigator Ethics in a Divided Political Era,” our managing partner divulged a never-before-reported piece of news relevant to the Trump/Russia investigation and provided a tantalizing forecast into his new novel, Freedom City, which he describes as “… so fervently left-wing that one memorable scene features rebels launching the heads of Confederate statues into the U.S. Capitol with a medieval trebuchet. “
In his first book, Introduction to Conducting Private Investigations, Philip wrote about the unique ethical issues inherent to conducting investigations for private interests. He warned investigators about the need to strive for objectivity and about the risk of becoming too aligned with their clients’ goals. Now, almost a decade after that book was published, our society is more divided than ever. It behooves all investigators to take a step back and remember the ideals that separate us from those with an agenda.
In the Pursuit Magazine piece, after revealing a near miss at our firm that could have resulted in an ethical debacle, Philip re-examines the core principles of conducting ethical investigations, relying on interviews from several colleagues to make his argument that—today more than ever—we must own up to our personal prejudices and recommit to the fundamentals of private investigator ethics.
It is a timely, important and thoughtful article that is bound to be hotly debated in the private investigations community for some time to come. You can read the article here.