Reminder: double check addresses for sources!

Reminder for everyone, newer investigators in particular: when typing your source ROI double check with usps.com the correct address for your source. Often people in college, people who move a lot, etc will flub the zip code. Regardless of what the source tells you, if the DCSA-sent QA questionnaire comes back “undeliverable” then it becomes an integrity issue for you!

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Also, double check the house number you typed before scheduling a source to someone else. You don’t want to send an investigator unknowingly to an incorrect address. Be certain of your addresses and zip codes when scheduling!

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Not necessarily because they will call the source and if they can’t reach the source by phone, they will send somebody out to the address. He will probably be told to be more careful with the ZIP Codes but it’s not an integrity issue because it’s easily explained.0

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How is it an integrity issue if you record the address exactly as provided by the source? It’s an integrity concern for documenting exactly what a source provides you?

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Don’t ask me why it’s an integrity issue, ask the folks in “integrity assurance.”

All I’m saying is that it’s in everyone’s internet if the addresses we report for sources are accurate, and this one easy step ensures the accuracy of addresses.

And this step isn’t just ensuring a correct ZIP code. People are dumb and can provide the wrong street they live on - maybe it’s Rio Rancho but they think it’s Ranch. Or the wrong town - they say Smallville because that’s what the locals call it but the mailing address is Gotham City. Or they forget a unit number. And so on. All this can lead to a QA letter coming back to DCSA or the company as undeliverable, which then leads to questions for the investigator. I don’t do this with every source, but I definitely do it if I suspect my source is a guy who would flub his own address.

I don’t do this at all. I report what people give me, as that’s what we’re supposed to do. Changing provided info is more of an integrity issue than reporting verbatim.

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Be sure to ask “is there an apartment or unit number” Many times I’ve been given “123 S Main street” as the source’s address. Source doesn’t respond to phone calls, and I roll up on 123 S Main only to find it’s a 500 unit apartment complex. So frustrating!

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No one is doing all of that. Some of you investigators over work yourselves for no reason.

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Agreed! I’ll be darned if I’m going to venture on my own and double check all the addresses on usps.com!! Integrity Assurance is nothing more than the hall monitors in grade school.

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Are you saying you change the zip code from what you wrote in your notes? Or you have your phone out during the interview? As another poster mentioned, both of those are larger integrity concerns than the source providing a wrong zip code

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We report what we are provided. You could add (Discrepant) to an address but I wouldn’t.

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