|
By The Hill Editors
|
|
Posted: 07/17/07 06:46 PM [ET] |
Hollywood movies not infrequently contain a scene that goes something like this: A commercial jet swoops down the Potomac on final approach toward Reagan National; jet passes behind Jefferson Memorial; camera focuses on the memorial, where two anonymous figures are seen in purposeful conversation unlike that of the few other people in the vicinity; their conversation is about nefarious goings-on. One of the interlocutors is a worried businessman, politician, civil servant — take your pick — and the other is a private detective laying out the fruits of his sleuthing.
It is easy and not unreasonable to scoff lightly at such scenes, dismissing them as the product of overactive Hollywood imaginations, much as one dismisses hyperventilating conspiracy theories about an omniscient CIA. But in a fascinating story today, The Hill’s reporter, Kevin Bogardus, lifts the lid on Washington’s sleuthing world, were work goes on of a type not widely acknowledged. Private investigators operate largely unnoticed on the fringes of politics and policymaking.
Mary Fesq, who runs her own gumshoe outfit, Oriole Research, assuredly is not the only Washington detective who has sat at a downtown restaurant table to listen to the conversation taking place at the next table. In the incident she recounts, Fesq was snooping for a trade association that suspected its lobbyist was blowing his entertainment budget on meals for friends rather than on people he needed to influence. The lobbyist’s secretary tipped off the detective when the suspect left the office, and Fesq snagged a table as close as possible.
It’s not exactly cloak-and-dagger stuff, but such work has its moments; Fesq was once obliged to jump into a taxi and utter the classic movie line, “Follow that cab.”
She no longer does stakeouts, and instead ferrets out information in public records. But surveillance, security and fact-finding through courthouse documents and criminal rap sheets are some of the services she and other private investigators in the D.C. area provide.
There are 305 private detectives licensed by Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department, and another 2,644 in Virginia and 1,272 in Maryland. Most of those working in the federal capital are in the pay of Fortune 500 companies, white-shoe law firms and, sometimes, politicians.
They don’t do much opposition research for campaigns, but former Rep. Harold Ford (D-Tenn.) spent some $68,000 for unspecified work by “research consultants” from a company called Diligence during the 2006 midterm campaign.
There have been several stories in the news recently about the increasing use of spy cameras in public areas recording the movements of (mostly) law-abiding citizens. But even where there are no cameras, there may well be someone watching.
That guy at the corner table who didn’t seem interested in what the waiter had to say about today’s specials was probably much more interested in hearing you.
|
