Life in the Field

There are many types of investigators.

Some prefer to sit behind a desk conducting online research--"data detectives"-- you can do this work in your bathrobe. Others are most comfortable "working the phone" for information. Lot's of charm and patience needed-- especially working the abyss of government agencies. Others, myself included, are best when they're out in the field knocking on doors to get the information they need.

One of the great things about field work, is that you can do your work pretty much anywhere in the country, urban or rural, well to do areas or poor. Wherever the work leads you can follow. Field work also stokes the fires of "the chase" when you suddenly find a great source of information that you did not expect. You don't even need to take very much with you, a note pad, pen and a business card so you can travel light. You get all types of visual clues regarding your sources that the telephone and computer lack as well.

But there are some tricks to success in the field. You need to be able to plan routes, locate people on the fly and know the crux of the information that you are after. Field work is very much unscripted. You also have to be incredibly flexible and be open to the unknown since things often don't follow the path that you initially laid out. You also have to be willing to walk up to a total stranger's door and ask them questions about really difficult topics, the kind that investigators are called in to work on.

I always loved the movie "All the President's Men", because Hoffman and Redford, depicted the field work the way it really is. It can be both incredibly frustrating and incredibly productive and you don't know what the next door knock will bring. But, you keep at it because the results can be amazing. Well beyond what the phone and computer can bring.