P.I. business unaffected by potential cuts

Hiring a private investigator is the chosen alternative for some who want more answers than authorities can give.

With deep budget cuts and shrinking staff over the years, we went to find out how it's affecting the P.I. business.  

Private investigator Bob Wall has twenty plus years in the field.

"I’m a former army counter intelligence special agent," Wall said.

During his time in Grand Junction, he's seen budget cuts across many local agencies.

In an earlier interview, Mesa County Sheriff Stan Hilkey, said, "We have a much smaller budget then what we had several years ago and less people.”

Shrinking law enforcement budgets are a nationwide trend that in some areas have benefited P.I. business.

"Cases from people who were unable to get the local police departments to respond,” Wall said.  “These would be property cases, theft cases."

But Wall says the numbers here in Western Colorado haven't spiked. In fact he hasn't seen a difference at all.

"I have not had any experience with that recently. Historically, I might get one referral once every two or three months," Wall explained.

"With all of the cuts that we've made in the last several years, we've really tried to avoid cuts in service delivery to our citizens,” Sheriff Hilkey said.

Wall says on the rare occasion someone asks him to do the same job as local law enforcement, he advises them to stick with authorities.

"You’re already paying for your police department, your sheriff's department service,” Wall said. “You’re going to have to pay me separately from that and I would just be duplicating the work that they would be doing."