This time LifeNews.am reveals a detective’s working toolkit to its readers. If you’re curious how a detective manages to stay within the law while solving the most complex problems, this article is for you.
Hayk Gabrielyan, founding director of Gabrielyan & Partners Detective Bureau and a police lieutenant colonel, explains:
“From the 19th century, when the institution of the private investigator was just taking shape, until the 1990s, detectives’ main tools were a magnifying glass, a large-format camera or, at best, a film camera. They had to follow a person to obtain information and evidence. The investigator with a pipe, a hat and a magnifying glass has become the symbol of detective work. Today that problem no longer exists. The main helpers of the 21st-century private investigator are the internet, social media, modern digital tools and the ‘abundant’ information available from open sources.”
Asked about cooperation with the police, Gabrielyan replied:
“Around the world, for more than 100 years the private detective, as a party conducting alternative investigations, has been an integral part of the law enforcement system. Internationally, a private investigator pays tax on services and may carry out covert surveillance, video recording and photography in public places. Any information uncovered during a detective’s work that concerns a crime is immediately passed to law enforcement, who see the case through to its logical end. A detective can also make a citizen’s arrest of a person who has committed a crime and then hand them over to the police.
In Armenia, Gabrielyan & Partners Detective Bureau already practises this culture of cooperation and partnership in fighting crime with the Police of Armenia, the Investigative Committee of Armenia and other law enforcement bodies. A large part of our work also concerns uncovering economic crimes — not at the national but at the global level. International cooperation rests on the strongest foundations. We always support our law enforcement partners with our experience in combating fraud, drug trafficking and the distribution of psychotropic substances and poisons.”
Asked how a detective fulfils his mission while staying within the law — in particular, how he manages to gather the necessary information without intruding on personal space — Hayk Gabrielyan answered:
“You cannot enter someone’s personal territory. A detective walks an invisible line between law and lawlessness. Without professionalism, the right tools, relevant experience and knowledge, he will cross that line very quickly. Above all, a detective has no right to make mistakes. Our bureau conducts investigations exclusively using OSINT (Open Source Intelligence), the methodology of research through open sources. It is a set of techniques for finding, collecting and analysing information obtained from open, public sources. The main advantage of using information gathered from open public sources is that it can later be legalised, because everything collected is accessible in an unrestricted public environment — the key is to find it. And we do.”
I also asked him: if a crime has been committed, should you go to the police or to a detective, and in which case is each more effective? According to Hayk Gabrielyan, the answer is:
“In the case of any crime, you must go to the Police. The police have every possible tool and resource to solve a crime quickly. You can turn to a private detective for help gathering additional evidence and facts, which can then support the preliminary investigation. In real criminal investigations, a private detective most often acts as the defender of the victim’s interests and helps crimes get solved quickly.”
Asked whether the law grants detectives exceptions or special permissions, detective Gabrielyan replied:
“Cooperation between private detectives and the state is essential, because the state benefits from it in the fight against crime. Protecting state interests is the duty of a private detective armed with professional knowledge and experience — not to mention that most detectives are former law enforcement officers who always remain at the forefront of protecting state interests. Experience has shown that law-breaking exceptions granted in the name of protecting state interests can very quickly turn into new crimes. In my view, no one should be granted legal exceptions that could themselves give rise to new crimes or offences.”
Tatev Kostandyan
Read at the source (in Armenian): A detective walks an invisible line between law and lawlessness: Hayk Gabrielyan on the particulars of detective work — LifeNews