El Scott Harrell

Online Private Investigator Magazine Develops Huge Reach

There are many exciting things developing at Pursuit Magazine these days and many things yet to come!

We launched our Private Investigator Jobs board several weeks ago and have attracted both Job Seekers and Employers in equal numbers.  The investigation career part of our portal is proving to be an extremely valuable addition to the community and we are getting really incredible reviews as new jobs are being added every day.

Our Pursuit Magazine Facebook Fan Page continues to grow by 10 or 12 people every day without a great deal of effort and we are appreciative of everyone who is becoming actively involved in contributing to the community.  The fan page initially served as one of the ways we let our subscribers know when we posted new articles, but it has grown into a great deal more than that at this point; ideas are being discussed more fully, people are offering suggestions on how to continually improve and best of all, the support encouragement we receive makes it a worthwhile project for me.

If you are on Facebook and have a professional interest in private investigation, bail enforcement, process serving, repossession, security and skip tracing, then check out the fan page...

We are getting traffic from all over the world now as our online PI magazine is now available in 7 languages including Portuguese, French, Italian, Spanish, German, English and  Russian- making us the only TRUE international PI Magazine.  We are welcoming, on average, well over 4,500 unique visitors everyday now and have in excess of 6,200 subscribers to our RSS feed through FeedBurner.

And as promised, we have several new features coming to Pursuit Magazine very shortly... I'd tell you, but I'd hate to ruin the surprise.

Just stay tuned!

Arizona Process Server Continuing Education is Online

PIEducation.com today announced the formal acceptance by the Supreme Court of Arizona of its online Arizona process server continuing education course.

PIEducation.com’s online course titled, Advanced Skip Tracing Techniques for Professional Process Servers, written by veteran private investigator and skip tracing expert L. Scott Harrell, has been approved for ten hours of CE credit.

Process servers certified by the Arizona Supreme Court must obtain 10 hours of continuing education every year in order to maintain their certification and can meet their total education requirement for the year with this one course.

In business since July 1, 2002, PIEducation.com is the undisputed market leader in state-approved online continuing education for private investigators and adding course content for process servers was a natural fit.  All courses have been designed "by working Investigators... for working Investigators" and no other online continuing education provider can honestly make that claim.  We understand that there are other education service providers to choose from. However, you will find that there is no other continuing education service provider that can match our level of professionalism, experience and consistency. 

As of January 2010, PIEducation.com has conferred over 52,000 CE hours to over 4,400 licensees in twelve (12) states including Texas, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Oregon, Kansas, Kentucky, South Carolina, New Mexico, Georgia, Louisiana, Iowa and now, Arizona.

For more information, please visit PIEducation.com's Continuing education for Arizona Process Servers FAQ page.

L. Scott Harrell Joins Leading Private Investigator Database Provider IRBsearch

TALLAHASSEE, Fl., August 17 --

Effective 8/1/2009 L. Scott Harrell joined IRBsearch as Director of Brand Management and eMedia. Harrell was hired by IRBsearch to spearhead the company’s expansion in the fields of online continuing education, e-commerce, and e-magazine communications. Scott Harrell’s background hails from nearly twenty years of professional investigation and security service. He worked undercover operations while in the United States Navy, as a corporate investigations manager with a fortune 500 company, and more recently as the owner of two successful investigative companies along the Gulf Coast from Texas to Florida.

As founder of CompassPoint Investigations in 2000, Scott Harrell created an investigative agency that originated in Austin, Texas and moved to Pensacola, Florida with branch offices in Gulfport, Mississippi and Mobile, Alabama. Harrell continued to initiate new product launches and services during his tenure as a professional private investigator.

In June of 2002, Harrell premiered PIeducation.com as an industry specific curriculum for delivering online continuing education classes to private investigators. Scott Harrell is distinguished as one of the leading United States private investigators to develop training programs recognized and approved by 14 different state licensing and regulating agencies. His courses are accepted in almost a dozen states and professional associations, making PIeducation the market leader in state-mandated continuing education for private investigators.

In addition to PIeducation.com, Harrell has constantly been in demand as an accomplished industry trainer, speaker, and author. Harrell has written eight books on investigative subjects and regularly speaks on the topics of skip tracing, sources of digital evidence, several real-world marketing subjects, and bail forfeiture. He has been well received by audiences at events hosted by organizations such as the American Society of Industrial Security, the National Sheriff’s Association, Professional Bail Agents of the United States, the Texas State Bar, and numerous other national and state associations. Harrell most recently launched the online magazine entitled, Pursuit Magazine in 2008. With the advent of Pursuit Magazine, private investigators, legal professionals, and security experts have access to free subscriptions and online content at http://pursuitmag.com. Harrell passed his successful CompassPoint Investigations to top investigator-employees in July of 2009 to accept a senior management position with IRBsearch.

IRBsearch CEO Tony Del Vecchio applauds the new venture. “We’re thrilled to have the history of experience and depth of knowledge available to our customers with Scott Harrell. His contributions can foster even more personal relationships with our customers and continue to develop value-added services and benefits for our customer’s success.” IRBsearch is the national premiere provider of online risk management services for private investigators, process servers, recovery agents, and bail bondsmen in the United States. IRBsearch offers The Most information, The Best data sources, and The Fastest delivery for locating people, businesses, and their assets.

####

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Rebecca Roberts
(850) 942-2500 x 104
www.irbsearch.com

Towing versus Salvage- How a Boat Towing Service will Rip You Off

“Towing  vs Salvage”
By C. C. Thorsen

Boaters should not assume anything when it comes to boating. If you are a boater and have not taken a towing/salvage 101 course let me speak from experience and recommend that you do not wait until you need a tow to find out the coverage you have. Trust me there is a big different in the cost. Most of the boaters that I know have some type of towing insurance. However, there are different levels of coverage just as any other types of insurance. You should take the time to read and understand the amount of coverage you have. For example, do you know the difference in a simple tow, a soft grounding, a hard grounding, and salvage? 

On November 14th, 2008 I had a very unpleasant experience in my 72’ houseboat when a very strong wind picked up during the night of an overnight trip and caused my stern anchor to drag and blew me parallel to the beach. The wind also caused the tide to go out very fast leaving me in very shallow water. At 6:00 AM the next morning (11/15/08) when I awoke to find that I had a problem, my boat was still floating but I would need some help to have it pulled into deeper water.

I called my towing service and explained my situation to them and advised them that the tide was still going out and very fast. I was asked if I/we, or my boat was in any danger and I told them that we were not. Even though they were only thirty five to forty minutes away from me they did not arrive until 9:15 AM and by that time I did not have any water under a large portion of my boat.

When the tow boat arrived the Captain determined that this was a “hard grounding” and had me sign the contract. He then attempted to pull my boat straight back parallel with the beach but it would not move. Even though none of the conditions changed other than he was going to pull the stern of the boat out away from the beach the captain advised me that this was going to turn into “salvage” instead of a hard ground tow. I was not sure exactly what he was talking about however he asked me if I had hull insurance and he wanted to see my insurance policy. He stated that my insurance company would not have problem with his charge of $125.00 per foot ($9,000.00). I said but what about my $4,000.00 deductible, he said that he was sorry about that .He then had me initial the original contract showing it as a salvage.  The captain then proceeded to place a large water pump on the back of my boat (though he never started the engine) and stuck oil soaks rags in the engine compartment vents, he said this was to prevent water from coming into the engine compartment which was not necessary because the water level never got high enough for any water to come into the vents. He then pulled the stern of the boat around into deeper water and with the help of my two engines the boat was backed off the sand. In the Captain’s written report he stated that my boat was taking on water which it was not but I assume that was his justification for changing it to a salvage. The moral to this story is that had this been classified as a “hard ground tow” (and that is what it was) instead of a “salvage” the Captain would have earned approximately $1,000.00 which was covered by my unlimited coverage with Boat US instead of the $9,000.00 of which I would have to pay $4,000.00. Had I known the difference in the types of “tows and salvage” I would not have signed the agreement contract until I had a better understanding of why it was being changed from a tow to a salvage.

Ruffin Blaylock Joins Pursuit Magazine as a Bail Enforcement Editor

Ruffin Blaylock has joined Pursuit Magazine as an editor of the online PI magazine's Bail Enforcement featured category.

Mr. Blaylock is the president of Spaniel Investigations, Inc in Decatur, Alabama and backs up his informative articles with almost a decade of active bail fugitive apprehension experience and prior employment in law enforcement. He is also an administrator with the Fugitive Recovery Network.

L. Scott Harrell, Pursuit Magazine's Editor in Chief, said, "We're excited to add Ruffin to our professional lineup of experienced authors and contributors.  He has a unique writing style that I am sure will not only capture the attention of our readers, but will engage them in the type of dialogue we are trying to get started at Pursuit.  It's through that sense of conversation where professionals come together to create communities;  Ruffin Blaylock will certainly be an asset to us all."

Ruffin's first article, Using Shotguns During Bail Enforcement Operations, debuted at Pursuit Magazine on January 9, 2009.

Pursuit Magazine also has a new home on MySpace- the private investigator mag.  Be sure to add us as a friend!

Private Investigator Association Conferences, Classes and Events

We are looking for submissions to add to our Private Investigator Calendar of Events at Pursuit Magazine.  Of course the listing is free; all submissions will be entered into the calendar and a news piece will be written about the event; this is GREAT exposure.

Association conferences, training classes, industry meetings and other important dates are all highly encouraged.

Just send me the basics:  who, what, where and when; we'll take care of the rest.  Contact me here.

BTW- we've just posted several new private investigator articles that I am sure will help you increase business in tough times; check them out- your competitors are probably reading them right now.

Important new Update on Anthony Oliver!

Tony Oliver has a felony arrest warrant out of San Diego County California and is some SERIOUS DEEP SHIT as a result.

Go to the Anthony Oliver Blog to learn more and find out what he is being charged with.

Note:  If you are hiding Anthony Oliver or know of his whereabouts, you must consider him to be both armed and dangerous.  I have several pictures of him with firearms and he has a previous arrest history of domestic violence.  You are probably not safe.  Don't get yourself into trouble or hurt for hiding this liar and thief.

You can email me or leave a comment through this blog with his location and remain completely anonymous.  Better yet get away from him and call the Police right now!
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Private Investigator Magazine Looking for Articles and Authors

I am looking for some good articles for the November issue of our very popular e-zine, Pursuit Magazine.

Would you like to write an article and be published in Pursuit? Currently over 1,200 investigators subscribe to Pursuit and a few thousand more have downloaded the current edition and are reading all of our past articles.  Being published in an industry trade journal is great for marketing, networking, search engine placement and getting your name out there!  Unlike with traditional magazines, when you write an article for Pursuit it will continue to work for you for years to come- as long as our website is operational and people are reading past issues!  Just write us a short article between 250 and 600 words and we’ll review it for a future issue of Pursuit.

Our next issue is all about Internet Research / Data Mining and Legal Research but we are interested in off topic articles as well and need articles for our featured skip tracing, process serving, bail enforcement and litigation spotlight sections.  This will be a great issue to get into because our newly redesigned website will go "live" in late October and we are planning a great deal of publicity around that event.  There are a few additional features that I can not let out of the bag until our new site is posted but rest assured that authors will get greater than average exposure during this short window of time. 

Submit all articles with a by-line (a short introduction of the author and his or her contact information) by October 15, 2008 for the November issue to:

info at compasspointpi.com
Put in subject line: "Pursuit Magazine Article"

Please feel free to repost this request as appropriate.

P.S. Business card submissions from subscribers are encouraged and it's FREE!  Subscribe now (also FREE) and send us a copy of your business card and I will publish the first 12 entries from subscribers in our November issue.

For more Information:

Pursuit Magazine
The Journal of Professional Excellence for Investigators
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Subscribe and read past articles and issues, all for FREE!

Thanks!

New Private Investigator Continuing Education Course

Our Introduction to Skip Tracing CE course has finally been approved by all states for continuing education, the final holdout was Tennessee while the PI board was waiting to hold a meeting.

We are very excited about adding the new course for private investigator CEUs to PIEducation.com and look forward to adding several more courses very shortly.

In the meantime we have added videos to YouTube and Google Video in an effort to show PIs just how easy and convenient taking an online continuing education course can be.

We remain the least expensive option for private investigators in Louisiana, Texas, Tennessee, South Carolina, Iowa, Oklahoma, Georgia, Oregon, Kansas and Kentucky.

Waited until the last minute to complete CLE?  No problem, we offer expedited same business day turn around for most courses at no extra cost.

El Scott Harrell on YouTube
Continuing Education for Private Investigators - Part 1
Private Investigator Continuing Education - Part 2
Online Private Investigator Continuing Education
PI CEUs - Continuing Education for Private Investigators

Experience the difference.  PIEducation.com - Convenient, Affordable and Available Now!

Pursuit Magazine for Investigators has Posted the September Issue!

The September issue of Pursuit Magazine is online now and it's another very important issue!

Pursuit Magazine is a free bi-monthly magazine covering many aspects of the private investigation and private security industries:

•  Private Investigators
•  Bail Enforcement Agents (Bounty Hunters)
•  Bail Bondsmen
•  Skip Tracers
•  Collateral Recovery and Repossession Agents (Repo Men and Women)
•  Judgment Recovery Professionals
•  Process Servers
•  Attorneys
•  Legal Investigators
•  and more

We welcome comments about our articles and look forward to your feedback!