The reality of private investigation is a lot less glamorous — and a whole lot sweatier — than the movie version. Surveillance often entails long days spent lying low in the back seat of a car with the air conditioner turned off, waiting for someone to leave his or her home. During the longest shifts, investigators will keep a container on hand in case of a bathroom emergency.
Brianne Joseph, founder of Sly Fox Investigations — Louisiana’s only all-woman detective agency — says these conditions deter many people from working in the field. But knowing the impact a piece of evidence could have on people’s lives, especially in a child custody case, makes the uncomfortable conditions of collecting it worthwhile, she says.
“It’s either pee in a container, or watch this child get abused — I’m going to pee in a container,” she says. “It just puts it in perspective. I’m sitting out here all of this time, and I’m about to get the evidence that’s going to put this child in a better situation, but I have to pee. Am I going to leave the case and jeopardize getting this one piece of evidence that could really help this child, or am I going to pee in the mayonnaise jar?
Sly Fox, which has offices in New Orleans and Baton Rouge, is Louisiana’s only all-female detective agency, and its team is made up of women of different races from different backgrounds. The agency specializes in cases of child custody, infidelity, insurance fraud and workers’ compensation fraud, gathering evidence for clients ranging from everyday people to what Joseph calls “super lawyers” — attorneys who handle high-profile, multimillion-dollar lawsuits.
The agency is an intentional anomaly in a heavily male-dominated industry. Trade publication PI Magazine estimates that of the roughly 60,000 private investigators in the United States, only 15 percent are women.
Women of color are even less represented in the field. Joseph says about 3 percent of private investigators are black women like herself — numbers which inspired her to launch her own detective agency in an attempt to change the face of private investigation in Louisiana.
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Photo credit: Alexander Lejo
