Vehicle Sighting Reports

The vehicle sighting reports have recently been improving drastically in terms of the geographic coverage and number of records updating.  Currently the available databases have about a billion records available and are adding 50 million sightings each month.  Records are currently coming in from 42 US states.

How does a vehicle sighting report work?

The commercial providers have been able to grab license plate recognition (LPR) and put it into a searchable database which allows you to search by plate or tag to determine if the vehicle was spotted.  If so when we was the vehicle spotted?  Last 30 days, 31-90 days or 90 days and beyond…

• Each Vehicle Sighting includes time, date, and exact location stamps.
• Integrated with online mapping tools, visual pinpoint location information is available with a single click.
• Access a massive database of more than a billion vehicle sightings and the addition of up to 50 million sightings added monthly.

What type of cases can a vehicle sighting report be useful for?

Here are some examples of cases where a vehicle sighting report could be a great tool to be used in the course of the investigation.

• Family Law- your spouse moves out and refuses to tell you where he or she is living. Your spouse has visitation of the kids, but you have no idea where they are staying or with whom.  A vehicle sightings report could give you insight into where he or she could be residing.

• You own commercial vehicles (trucks, trailers, cement trucks). You lease these vehicles out to contractors and they stop paying you.  Now you need to locate and repossess the vehicles.  What are your options?  Before you conduct a stake-out and or surveillance that can be costly a vehicle sightings report might give you a sense of where that vehicle is being used, which could lead you to the business location or yard where it is stored at night.

• If you need to locate a transient or runaway and they are living out of their car, a vehicle sightings report can provide valuable insight into what spots they are frequenting and this will help you to get them served with legal papers and or get them off the street and into court or rehab.

We recently had a case where we needed to conduct surveillance on a claimant alleging a workers compensation claim.  He told the employer, the doctors and the attorneys that his home address was his parents’ house.  We eventually determined he was living with his girlfriend, but we didn’t know her name.

All efforts to conduct surveillance came up dry because he was never there.  We ran a vehicle sightings report on his vehicle and found evidence that his vehicle was always spotted in one intersection where there a number of apartment complexes.  We canvassed the area and located his vehicle which was parked in a spot the tied to his unit.  Now we could conduct surveillance on this subject and determine what his activities are and where he could be working.