Child Custody and Visitation Investigations

Summary:

A distraught mother of two contacted VIS out of desperation. She was in the process of a divorce, and had been fighting with her husband over future custody arrangements. In retaliation, her husband threatened to take the children out of the country and begin a new life. The mother's panic mounted because he was scheduled to have the children for the weekend.

It was determined that conducting surveillance would be the best course of action. We decided to arrange for two-agent surveillance teams, consisting of two surveillance specialists to be placed on the father at all times. The investigators were instructed to capture video and photo documentation.

The surveillance began at the father's place of employment, and he was followed in order to maintain constant visual contact. The surveillance tail began as he left his work to pick up his children (allowed by the court ordered visitation arrangements), with visual contact being maintained by both agents. The investigators are trained to rotate positions of visual contact with the subject. This type of surveillance measure reduces the exposure the investigators experience with the subject. The investigators were able to document the father each time he left the house with the children and followed him to various locations, such as the market, the video store, etc. Constant communications were kept with VIS base operations. In the event the subject gave any indication of leaving the country, investigations base was ready to deploy a backup team and coordinate with the client and law enforcement agency. Video documentation was kept as a precaution: if the father attempted to leave the country, the client would have solid proof. This type of mobile surveillance would provide the police and other legal entities with powerful evidence if the father did in fact try to flee the country.

The case manager assigned to the case gave the client multiple surveillance status updates over the weekend. He was diligent in keeping in constant communications with his investigative team as to the father's movements. As a result of a dedicated surveillance team of VIS investigators, in conjunction with the VIS base operations, case manager, case analyst, and a caring mother, her fears of losing her children had been allayed and piece of mind was achieved. This allowed her to comply with the court order and reduced the chances of a much more adverse scenario.