Over the years this has been a fact with Private detectives-knowledge is power, and for us of course, "PROFIT".

Its no secret that Private detectives in the past have a massed great numbers of personal sources making him/her successful in the business, but these are changing times both for our industry and the way we conduct our business.

by now, those of you who keep a watchful eye, can read the signs and know that difficult times are not far ahead, and for those who do not pay much attention to the warnings just keep an eye on your bottom line - of course by the time you see it go south it will be too late.

It is safe to say that we find ourselves in the midst of the digital age, which in turn means that investigative research has become much simpler-in short this means that unless your client needs certified hard copies, your to price your services competitively, and increase you bottom line.

Barry D. Bayer, author of "Court Forms on the Web" Law Office Technology Review explains that in the United States the federal and states agencies publish over 40,000 forms and finding these forms is not difficult.  He states " A relatively new phenomenon are the Web sites that claim thousands of forms available for download..."

Lets face it, the U.S.Government is arguably the biggest source of information and much of that information is there for the asking. Rhonda Abrams, in her article for Inc. Magazine "Get the Low Down at a Low Cost" states that "Knowledge is power. In business, knowledge-of you customers, competition, and industry- means the power to stay ahead"

Looking for information on a company? Try www.see.gov and select "Edgar Database." Try www.census.gov a wealth of information on everything from "Zip Code Business Patterns" to the average sales of businesses in you community.

What about the U.S.Postal Service if you go to www.usps.com you can find zip codes for any area they cover, and how about the official post office address locator form "39 CFR 265" you can find and print(Adobe Acrobat PDF format) this by selecting "Forms" at the top of the page.

Closer to home you can look up information on local businesses at the Secretary of State Web page www.concord.state.ct.us/ this site will save you time by allowing you to check their database online instead of traveling to Hartford and waiting in line to use their computers.

Another excellent site when conducting research is the State of Connecticut Judicial Branch Web page www.jud.state.ct.us/  here you can check for current cases in family or civil court everything from the parties involved to their attorneys and current residential address- sorry no criminal information is available here.

Would you like to know if a gun is stolen? Then you should go to www.isthisgunstolen.com/ in this site you simply enter the serial number of the gun and let the database do the rest , you can also report a stolen gun on this site.

Ever wonder where to find international dialing codes? Go to http://kropla.com/dialcode.htm and go global.

800 number directory can be found at www.inter800.com/ also regular telephone number directory is at www.555-1212.com here you can conduct reverse number checks and learn the name and services address for that number on your caller ID.

Computer, the Internet, and technology are of great value to our industry, the modern investigator has much at his/her finger tips the key is not to fear this technology, but to embrace it

The Waverly Inn did it's usual fine job keeping everyone satisfied with food and beverage. we had a good turn out, but an even better exchange of ideas and information. Our scheduled speaker for the evening was Ron Catania,Director of Corporate Security for Bob's Stores. Bob's corporate headquarters is in Meriden,CT. Mr. Cantania couldn't make it , but  Mr. Craig Mansfield, Dir. of Asset Protection for Bob's Stores did and admirable job filling in for Ron. Craig gave a very informative presentation on the function and experiences of Bob's Security Department, accompanied by an enlightening video. Our Legislative "watchdog", Robert Winstanley reported that the Raised Bill No. 6995,An Act Concerning Private Detectives and Security Services, did not make it out of Committee. There were parts of that bill that we did not concur with, and hopefully, we will be given the opportunity to once more work with the Committee on amending the bill so that it is palatable to all concerned. A member brought to vote whether or not we should reduce our meetings to four time a year as opposed to the present six. A vote determined that we would remain with six.