The never ending use of the telephone

Lying is so different than “not remembering” or recalling other peoples life events when asked about it. I recently interviewed a Subject’s highly educated and professional father who couldn’t even recall his adult child’s exact birthday let alone his one time drug use 4 years ago.

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So true, if I don’t have something written on a list somewhere I am not remembering it. My memory sucks.

I had one father tell me initially the Subject was born just 10 years earlier when the father provided the wrong birth year.

Okay, I’ve had dozens of parents to that very mistake during in person interviews.

how would you know if someone is lying or not or simply not recalling the information? Also if you believe they’re lying what are you able to do with that information?

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I agree. We ask fact-finding questions, follow-up with more questions, and report what we are told. We keep our opinions out of this process, as much as possible. We report what we are told.

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As someone who has been doing this job for 19 years, I can confidently say that it wouldn’t matter if the source was being interviewed in person or over the phone. You have to remember that sources have a hard time keeping up with their own lives let alone knowing exact dates and complete details of someone else’s life. This whole “sources must be interviewed in person unless their in the middle of a natural disaster” change is complete b.s. I can see making sure we try to interview someone in person that is in our area, but having to do a 150 mile round trip for a 15 minute interview is complete nonsense and a waste of time. And as investigators continue to leave this industry there will be more and more territory to cover for what small amount of investigators are left, so be prepared to live in your car.

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Since Covid as well as a huge amount of people, still working from their homes in the corporate world over the last year or so, realistically many leads are completely just simply to do better by telephone than trying to arrange an in person meeting. With sources that will easily do a 15 or 20 minute interview instead of trying to arrange an in person meeting especially when there are zero issues or clarifications that do not develop into issues. It’s actually not a bad idea to get rid of a lot of the backlog as well as just being smarter in this day and age. I’m all for this if it helps us with our workload.

Appreciate you feelings and if as spoken it’s time to go.

We don’t do anything. People are allowed to lie, forget, or remember things differently. We just report what they do or don’t say. Someone else adjudicates clearances,

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I was told we HAVE to do DCSA work in person and was then berated over my mileage when I am literally the only investigator in the southern half of the state (small state, but still) because everyone else left. Like what exactly did they think was going to happen when there is not a single other investigator within 75 miles of me in any direction?!?

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I’m in the same boat and I DO NOT get mileage reimbursement. As a contractor I get paid per item, and believe me it’s not that much. For instance, I get scheduled to interview a source that is a 125 mile round trip and between the time it takes driving, paying my own gas, doing the interview, typing the interview, and sending out my case messages, I average about $12 an hour for the item. Fast food workers get paid more!

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As a contractor don’t you get to pick which items you take? Can’t you pick items closer to you?

Not anymore. They assign our work for us now and they give the good work to the full-time employees. My contract agreement states my work is to be assigned within a 50 mile radius and every single assignment I get is at least 65 miles away from my home.

You can write off mileage when you file your taxes though, right?

You record it and file it but trust me it is no where near penny for penny what you spent. It lowers a percentage of your gross income.

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You can write off mileage but it makes no difference when it comes to taxes. I’ve been learning the hard way that being a contractor is not all it’s cracked up to be. All of the training they continuously make us do for DCSA is unpaid. I just had to renew my CAC card, which was a 150 mile round trip, time unpaid and mileage unpaid. You have to pay for all your own supplies and do not get reimbursed for your phone, internet, etc. When all is said and done I average about $15 per hour, which is very depressing considering I have been doing this job for nearly 20 years.

Why not go back to a company then?

Those are all business expenses. Do you have an accountant?

I left CACI because the stress was no longer worth it. It’s a shame because the job itself could be great, but the companies that DCSA uses to do the job are terrible companies.

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If your contract says 50 mile radius why do you accept conditions outside of your contract? Just say no! I think both companies are so desperately in need of experienced investigators at this point , that you do have some negotiating power. Perhaps an incentive amount for items outside 50 miles? If you allow yourself to be taken advantage of they will continue to do so.

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