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With the help of more than 1,000 computer databases, private investigator Rob Kimmons continues to bring in the clients and crack the cases more than a decade after opening his own private investigations firm.
Kimmons, owner of Kimmons Security Services, Inc., has built a business not just as a private investigator, but also by tracking facts from public records using his vast collection of databases. That and a team of private investigators have helped the company post steady increases in revenues of 10 percent to 15 percent per year since 1983.
Since its formation, Kimmons Security Services has garnered national attention, bringing in such clients as billionaire Donald Trump, who hired Kimmons to investigate his wife's private investigator, and ABC's 20/20, which paid him to locate Texas assets tied to former Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos.
Kimmons found a niche in the market when he saw the need for quick and complete background checks on individuals and company employees.
Using more than 1,000 national computer databases to get pertinent information from public records, company private investigators can compile financial profiles of just about anybody. Services offered by the firm include personal and corporate public record reports, corporate investigations, personal injury claims, and surveillance.
Since the business started in 1983, Kimmons Security Services has steadily added services to the business to follow the demand in the market.
"Seven or eight years ago we did not do any personal injury cases," Kimmons says. "But now we do a lot. We've gotten more diversified and are adding areas of interest to the business we do. Personal injury is about half of our business today."
And Kimmons continues to offer new services for clients. Just last year he introduced jury profiles for his attorney clients. The former police officer found the need for this new service after he received individual requests from lawyers about a prospective juror.
The jury profiles take some of the guesswork out of jury selection by providing such information as a jurors property values on the tax rolls, the numbers names, and ages of licensed drivers at the jurors address, his or her vehicle type, civil and criminal litigation history,business-related legal filings, bankruptcies, liens and political party affiliation.
"We're able to look at up to 75 jurors and have the information ready in two to three hours," Kimmons says. "We have databases that check voting tax rolls that law firms are not set up to do."
Kimmons says he and other private investigators often find many conflicts and inconsistencies from the information gathered when compared to a individual's jury questionnaire.
As a certified Texas peace officer, Kimmons has always loved private investigation work. After working as a Houston police officer for five years, Kimmons left the force and worked as an private investigator for two years. Once he learned the ropes of the business, he started his own firm in 1983.
While working as a one-man private investigator firm, he discovered the valuable information available on computer databases after using the computers at a public research company next door to his office.
"I started using the company for my clients and learned what databases were out there for finding out public information."he says.
When the public research company went bankrupt, Kimmons hired several of its workers and bought the company databases to add to his own business.
Domestic surveillance work, a private
investigator's standby, was easy to come by during the
first year in business, but Kimmons wanted to get into
other areas of private investigations. Mailouts, cold calls,
word-of-mouth, and trustworthy service for the first two
years paid off as the firm began to get calls from companies
for undercover investigation. Kimmons says his business
thrived from the stability of his business and the help
of the databases.
"There are a lot of private investigators out there, but they don't have the reputation that I have," Kimmons says. Many are here today and gone tomorrow, or they don't invest the money it takes to have a viable business. We've built a reputation, and whatever we report is factual."
The databases used at his firm may increase overhead costs, but Kimmons says that's one of the things that keeps the business ahead of the rest.
"We spend $70,000 to $80,000 per year on database services online in our office, but we access to so many databases that a lot people don't even know exist."
Although growth in Houston has remained steady, Kimmons Security Services "expansion elsewhere has proved spotty. With increasing client numbers in and outside Houston, Kimmons opened an office in Dallas in 1984, but closed it eight months later.
"We possibly expanded too soon," Kimmons says. It did not work with me not being there in Dallas and picking the wrong person to run the office."
And he expanded into Galveston in 1983, but closed that operation after six months because business there slowed. But now, after those failed expansion attempts, Kimmons says he's learned his lesson and last year opened a low-cost office back in Dallas.
"In Dallas there is low overhead with an executive suite and only two investigators," Kimmons says. "I do not like to put in money unless I know for sure we'll grow."
Taking it slow this time, he has plans to open a similar office in Austin by next year,
Kimmons says working as a private investigator and starting his own form filled the void he felt working as a police officer.
"At the police department, if you're specialized or a street cop you may never see the results of your work, be rewarded for it, or be able to put the time into a case that you would like," Kimmons says. "With a firm it's much more of a challenge and we're in control."
By Melinda Krenek, Houston Business Journal |
