Ep # 139 Behind the Badge: From Police Officer to Private Investigator

What happens when a 28-year veteran police detective retires only to discover that civilian life isn't quite what he expected? For Tom Geisler, the answer was to launch Blue Chameleon Investigations, transforming his law enforcement expertise into a thriving private investigation firm now employing 14 people.

Tom takes us behind the scenes of modern private investigation work, shattering stereotypes about what PIs actually do. While infidelity cases remain common, his team handles everything from corporate fraud and workplace misconduct to cybersecurity threats and digital forensics. The conversation reveals how technology has transformed the field, creating both new challenges and sophisticated investigative techniques.

Perhaps most eye-opening is Tom's insight into online dating scams that target vulnerable older adults. These elaborate schemes can cost victims hundreds of thousands of dollars when scammers manipulate emotions and exploit trust. Blue Chameleon regularly conducts background checks for cautious daters, potentially saving them from both financial ruin and emotional devastation.

The interview explores the ethical boundaries that reputable investigators maintain, including their approach to missing persons cases. Rather than simply handing over information that could potentially enable harm, Tom's firm acts as an intermediary, giving found individuals control over whether they wish to reconnect with someone from their past.

Whether you're curious about the investigative field, concerned about online security, or simply fascinated by human behavior, this conversation offers rare insights into a profession that combines high-tech tools with timeless observational skills. To learn more about Tom's services or to connect with Blue Chameleon Investigations, visit trustbci.com or call 704-233-7758.

Blue Chameleon Investigations

Tom Geisler

4833 Old Charlotte Hwy, Monroe, NC 28110 Indian Trail, NC, United States, North Carolina 28110

[phone]

[e-mail]

trustbci.com

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place
where local businesses andneighbors come together.
Here's your host, Regina League.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Hi everyone.
This is Regina and I'm theowner of South Charlotte Media
Group and one of my favoritethings to do is talk to local
business owners.
And today I have a very unusualguest.
I have with us Tom Geisler.
Very unusual guest I have withus Tom Geisler.
He's president and CEO of BlueChameleon Investigations, based
out of Monroe but working thewhole Charlotte metro area.
Welcome, tom.

Speaker 3 (00:32):
Well, thank you, Regina.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
Yeah, I see you've been in this area a long time,
so, like me, you've seen a lotof changes.

Speaker 3 (00:41):
Oh yeah, I moved here in 1980 or 79.
I went to high school in EastMeck, went to UNCC, graduated
from there, and then I was apolice officer in
Charlotte-Mecklenburg PoliceDepartment from 86, all the way
to 2014 when I retired.

Speaker 2 (01:01):
Wow, yeah, this city has really, really changed in
that respect as well.
So now you own a privateinvestigation company, so I'd
love to know a little bit abouthow that came to be.
Obviously, you were a policeofficer, and that sounds like it
works, but what made you decideto do this?

Speaker 3 (01:21):
Well, it was always kind of a dream of mine when I
was working with the policedepartment.
I was a detective probably forabout 25 years with CMPD, and
once I retired I triedretirement for about six months
and I found that I was spendingtoo much money and bored.

(01:46):
So I decided, well, maybe it'sbetter to go ahead and start
being productive again.
And since I was only 52 and Istarted this company with just
me and now I've grown it to 14employees- my goodness, since
2015.

Speaker 2 (02:05):
That's amazing.
So to call yourself a privateinvestigator?
Are there any requiredqualifications?

Speaker 3 (02:14):
You have to be licensed through the Private
Protective Services Board, PPSB,and they have a stringent
requirement.
You have to have a certainnumber of hours that you
actually worked ininvestigations before you can
have that get that license.
Now, obviously, with the policedepartment working for 25 years

(02:36):
, I had that time easily.
But since then I have actuallytrained several private
investigators during my you know, during working in this role as
a private investigator.
So I have taken someindividuals that had no

(02:57):
investigative experience andthen brought them to where
they're actually fully licensedand most of them are still
working for me.

Speaker 2 (03:06):
That's amazing.
I used to want to do that.
I'm really intrigued by whatyou do, so I was looking at your
website and you guys offer alot of services.
Why don't you kind of walk usthrough what kind of cases and
what kind of surveillance workyou do?

Speaker 3 (03:20):
Well, we do the obvious the cheating spouses
that everybody thinks about.
We do child custody backgroundinvestigations I also do.
I've got individuals oremployees that will do, or
subcontractors also that docybersecurity, security, cyber

(03:46):
threats and also digitalforensics like examining phones
and such.

Speaker 2 (03:52):
Hasn't that changed just tremendously, I'm sure,
just in the 10 years you've beendoing this?
What's happening online is, youknow, can be crazy it is.

Speaker 3 (04:03):
it's it's a continual battle.
We have experts in the fieldthat work for us or consult with
us so that we can help ourcustomers or clients, you know
protect themselves online, toidentify who may be stalking

(04:26):
them online.
There's a lot of that that goeson.
So there's and it's one ofthose things that where you're
always going to continually haveto upgrade your defenses
because they're always trying to, so it's a continual.
So, outside of the cyber cases,to the field of finances, so
it's a continual file.

Speaker 2 (04:47):
So, outside of the cyber cases, what are some of
the most common types of casesyou get hired for or your team
gets hired for?

Speaker 3 (04:54):
Well, domestic cases is probably one of the most
common, but we also get a lot ofcalls about background
investigations, like with theonline dating.
People go online, they try tomeet their new significant other

(05:22):
through that method, butthere's a lot of scam artists
and so I've had clients or Ihave a lot of clients that will
call up and say, hey, I'mgetting ready to date this new
guy and I've got thisinformation about him.
Can you kind of look into it alittle bit further?

Speaker 2 (05:37):
okay, so individuals call you.
I'm sure you work withattorneys, uh, businesses,
that's that's very, very cool.

Speaker 3 (05:44):
Yeah, that dating online stuff, I mean, I wouldn't
even know if I were beingscammed, that's, that's super
interesting yeah, it's uh, a lotof people that what they'll uh,
you know, they get on thesedating sites, especially older,
like 50s, 60s Maybe they've losta spouse, or through divorce,

(06:04):
or through death, and they geton there and then they've got
these folks that will actuallyplay on their hardship and then
they'll start befriending themand then they'll try to elicit
money.
So they'll start out say, hey,can I borrow 50 bucks or

(06:26):
whatever, and put it on a giftcard.
But sometimes those fundsactually become really
significant, like hundreds ofthousands of dollars that these
people lose because they thinkthat they're in a loving
relationship with this persononline but they're actually not
that's terrifying.

Speaker 2 (06:45):
Yeah, it's.
It is definitely a differentworld.
What?

Speaker 1 (06:49):
are some of the misconceptions.

Speaker 2 (06:51):
You know.
When someone comes to you, what?
What do you find are commonmisconceptions?

Speaker 3 (06:57):
What do you find are common misconceptions?
Well, that we only handleinfidelity cases.
We handle a wide variety ofcases, you know, from fraud,
asset recovery, child disputes.
You know we also docorporations.

(07:30):
We will do investigations likeif there was sexual harassment
in the workplace or a workplacehostile work environment, that
type of thing.
Hire us to do thoseinvestigations to determine
where they can make changes andwho they need to fire and
whatever.
So yes.

Speaker 2 (07:46):
So, go ahead If an individual calls you is there.
Sometimes you just can't dothat case for them.

Speaker 3 (08:00):
Sometimes there are some folks that will call us and
it's obviously illegal whatthey want us to do, so we will
take those cases and not takethose cases.
We'll just tell them that theyneed to go somewhere else.
I get a lot of folks or well, afair amount that will call up,

(08:25):
like a guy will call up and sayI'm trying to find my
ex-girlfriend or or you know,baby's mama, and then of course
that it sets up all kinds ofalarms in our heads because I'm
not going to release any addressinformation without knowing
more about what's going on.
And a lot of times they're justtrying to find them and there
have been PIs in the past thathave gotten in trouble for

(08:47):
releasing information on anindividual that was actually
trying to hide from the personthat was the PI and try to do
injury to that person.

Speaker 2 (08:59):
Oh, wow.
Well, that's where your policebackground.
I'm sure you know the radars gooff in your head.
I didn't know, you just can'tcall and say all right.
I want to find this person.

Speaker 3 (09:09):
No With those types of missing, because there are
legitimate ones, like trying tofind family members, and what we
do is we act as a middleman.
So legitimate ones, like tryingto find family members, and
what we do is we act as amiddleman, so we'll get all the
information from our client,we'll find that person and we'll
contact that person and say,hey, this person is trying to
find you.
Here's their information.
Call them if you want.

Speaker 2 (09:32):
Oh, that's super cool .
You know, I've heard of peoplethat found out they're adopted
and they want to find their realfamily.
Does that ever happen with youguys?

Speaker 3 (09:40):
Yes, we've worked several of those cases.
Sometimes it really works outgood, sometimes it doesn't.

Speaker 2 (09:48):
Yeah, but I see what you're saying.
You contact them, the otherperson say this person's looking
for you, and then if you wantto find out or to contact them,
that makes a lot of sense.
What do you think makes a goodprivate investigator?
Instincts, training, both.
What is it?
In your opinion.

Speaker 3 (10:06):
Well it is.
It's a lot of training or justgetting out there and observing
people.
Most successful investigatorsare the ones that really like to
watch people and can identifytheir possible motives before
you know just by observing them.

(10:27):
It's the same thing with thepolice department.
You know, when you're a policeofficer you've got to be able to
assess somebody very quicklybecause if you don't assess them
properly, you may be in danger.
There's definite warning signsfor people that will set the

(10:49):
bells and alarms off in a policeofficer or private
investigators head a lot oftimes.
Look, you know a lot of theemployees that I've hired that
had no investigative experience.
A lot of us the drive to findout what's going on, yeah that's

(11:10):
a good, good balance.

Speaker 2 (11:11):
and you experience, I'd say over time, what starts
as maybe an instinct, butbecause of your experience you
just know in your gut a lot oftimes yeah, a lot of times what
you've been exposed to over theyears.

Speaker 3 (11:25):
Yeah, yeah, when I talk to somebody, it's like this
does not sound right Because Italk to a lot of people all day.
Some days I don't even get offthe phone with potential new
customers, and it's really so.
I'm used to hearing a lot ofthe you know common things.
You know somebody throwssomething at me.
That's really strange.

(11:46):
That sets off some alarms.

Speaker 2 (11:50):
What are you most proud of?
Now?
You know you've retired fromthe police force and you've
started this successful jobafter retirement.
But what are you most proud of?

Speaker 3 (12:01):
Well, I would say that I've, you know, built this
company providing for 13 otherpeople.
You know livelihood, helpingthem and also helping our
clients.
You know our clients come to usin times of need.

(12:22):
Most people don't know theyneed a private investigator
until they need one Good pointand they're in a very stressful
situation.
You know, dealing with adivorce or whatever their
situation might be, and theyneed to know, have that
information to help them getthrough it.
Sometimes it's, you know, Ihave clients that will call up

(12:48):
and they have that feeling thatthe husband or wife is cheating
on them, or they actually knowit, but they want to have
closure, so they actually wantto see the evidence so they can
put that behind them and thenfocus on the future.

Speaker 2 (13:04):
Wow, sensitive stuff.
Well, I'm sure I'm guessing youhave cases that last a few
weeks.
Do you ever have some that lastover a year or more?

Speaker 3 (13:12):
Oh yeah, yes, we do.

Speaker 2 (13:14):
Oh, wow.
Well, Tom, it's been a pleasuregetting to know you, and your
work is so, so interesting.
Thank you for joining us today,and let's end by you telling
our listeners how they can findyour business and connect with
you guys that Okay, so we can befound on the web wwwtrustbcicom
orwwwbluechameleoninvestigations.

Speaker 3 (13:40):
Our phone number is 704-233-7758.
I have people answering thephone most of the day and the
weekends, and then you can alsoemail me directly, tom, at
TrustBCI.
com.

Speaker 2 (13:58):
Well, that's a good point.
You're kind of available 24-7?
Yes, I do sleep sometimes.

Speaker 3 (14:03):
Yeah, but you got you know that's what you have
people for.

Speaker 2 (14:06):
Well, Tom, thank you very much.
I hope to meet you in personone day.
Well, Tom, thank you very much.
I hope to meet you in personone day.

Speaker 3 (14:12):
Okay, well, thank you very much.

Speaker 1 (14:15):
Thank you for listening to the good neighbor
podcast.
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