As I am sure you are all following the developments with the HP investigative scandal, I wanted to bring some issues to your attention. In May 2006, the U.S. House of Representatives, by unanimous vote, passed HR4709, the “Telephone Records and Privacy Protection Act of 2006”. Its passage was clearly the result of the avalanche of publicity over the trafficking of personal telephone records by unscrupulous data brokers and private investigators. As our industry has been in the spotlight more than ever, it is important for us to discuss issues of importance and present a unified front to stand up to those who are placing a negative image on our industry.  As we are still making additions to the communications offered by the Chameleon system portal, I will continue to use e-mail to promote interagency communication.

According to those closest to the topic of HR4709, the While the Senate will not likely take up the bill until after the fall elections.  Reports say that “insiders” agree, that the bill will likely receive the Senate’s blessing and see the desk of the President before year’s end.  If this bill becomes law, the use of most pre-texting (definition: a covert investigative technique in which an investigator assumes the identity of another individual to collect information) will be unlawful.

Bauer Risk Management as an organization supports this legislation but believes that pre-texting, when used properly, is an important investigative tool. This belief is shared by other professional investigative firms as well as regulators. Like other professionals, our firm believes that pretexts, when we do not assume the identity of the subject (unlike the pretexts allegedly used in the HP matter), are appropriate, useful and often very necessary.  Recently, the Association of Security and Investigative Regulators (IASIR) issued the following resolution:

"Be it resolved that IASIR recognizes the common practice of pretext as an investigative tool in lawful investigations by both public law enforcement and licensed private investigators and security practitioners."

However, the issue of pre-tex