I am a private Fire Investigation K9 Handler who operates in Texas. Earlier this week my company was contacted by a private fire investigator, who has been hired by a major insurance company, to determine the cause of a fire which occurred in one of the properties they had insured. The investigator stated he needed the services of a K9 and would like for us to come out and assist. We agreed and arrangements were made to meet at the fire scene within the next few days.

Two days later, the investigator called back to cancel, stating that the claims rep was not willing to pay for the services of a K9, when a state (government - state law enforcement) K9 had already processed the scene. The investigator stated that the government did not fully process the scene and he wanted to process a K9 through the scene throughout his investigation. The claims rep was still unwilling to hire our company.

The investigator then contacted the state K9 handler and asked if he could come back out and run the dog again during his private investigation. The State K9 handler said he wanted to do more on the scene while he was there, but the local officials were completed with their investigation, and he could not come out at the request of the insurance company.

The investigator then contacted the local officials having jurisdiction and asked them to call the State K9 handler back out. They told the investigator that they were finished and would not be processing the scene further. The private investigator stated that he would continue processing and digging out the scene but needed the assistance of a K9 Team and would really appreciate if they could call him back out, as the State K9 Team could not come at the request of the insurance investigator. The locals did call out the State K9 Team under the pretense they were continuing their investigation, and now the private investigator has a free tax payer K9 Team to help him with his private investigation.

Does this seem wrong on so may levels to others, as it does to me? Is there an ethical issue with this? Is this borderline collusion? Or Is it just me, due to the fact that this directly affects my business? This is literally taking money right out of our pockets. This continually happens here in our state and I am just wondering if it happens in others as well?

Why do some private investigators think it is ok to use a tax payers K9’s to help supplement their private investigation? If they are all at the scene together and processing the scene together, I would not have such an issue with it. But when a local investigation is completed and then the private investigator request a government dog… just is not right in my opinion. If the insurance company is not willing to pay for the services of a private dog, then they should not have that service provided at the expense of the tax payer.

My rant is over…

Darle L. McClintock
Vector Investigative Services
dlmcclintock@vectorinvestigations.com