Private Investigator in Pittsburgh, PA

Call (800) 860-6068 and describe the situation to a senior investigator. That first conversation is confidential, costs nothing, and usually settles whether an investigation is the right tool at all. If it is, we scope the work, quote it, and put the terms in writing before anyone goes into the field.

Yes. Empire has held a Pennsylvania private detective license since November 1982 and has operated continuously since. Pennsylvania licensure is not a form you fill out: it requires a prior investigative or law enforcement background, approval by the Court of Common Pleas, a bond, and insurance. We are also bonded, insured, and A+ rated with the Better Business Bureau.

Since 1982, from an office on Steubenville Pike in the West Hills. That is more than four decades of casework in the same city, which is the reason our investigators know which streets you can sit on and which ones you cannot.

Three things that are checkable rather than claimed. A documented press and broadcast record in this city going back to 1983, including WPXI, Fox 53, KDKA, WTAE and the Tribune-Review. More than two million dollars in specialized investigative equipment, roughly twenty times the typical agency. And a founder who trained in counter-eavesdropping under Jim Ross, Marty Kaiser and Ted Sandin.

No. Client identity is confidential, our vehicles are unmarked, our technicians arrive in unbranded vehicles, and we do not discuss engagements with anyone outside the case. Most clients never visit the office at all; the work is arranged by phone.

Not to call us. Many Pittsburgh clients come to us before they retain counsel, and some come at their attorney's direction. If your matter is heading for Family Division or civil litigation, evidence gathered under an attorney's direction is often handled more cleanly, and we will say so if that is the case.

Yes, though single-day surveillance is the least likely to produce anything. Patterns are what make a case, and patterns take more than one shift to establish. We will tell you honestly when a one-day budget is unlikely to answer your question.

Regularly. We handle witness location and interviews, background intelligence, asset identification, service support and pre-trial documentation for firms across Allegheny County, and our investigators are prepared to testify to what they observed.

All of them. Downtown and the Golden Triangle, the Strip District, Lawrenceville, Oakland, Shadyside, Squirrel Hill, Point Breeze, East Liberty, Bloomfield, the South Side, Mount Washington, the North Shore and North Side, Brookline, Beechview, the West End, and out through Robinson and the airport corridor.

Yes. Mt. Lebanon, Upper St. Clair, Bethel Park, Peters Township, Castle Shannon, Dormont, Whitehall and Baldwin are regular working areas. South Hills cases skew toward divorce, custody and asset work, and toward neighborhoods quiet enough that a parked car is noticed, so we rotate vehicles and positions carefully.

Yes. Ross, McCandless, Franklin Park, Wexford, Cranberry Township, Zelienople and Mars are all within regular coverage, along with the river communities of Sewickley and Fox Chapel. We maintain dedicated landing pages for Sewickley, Wexford, Cranberry Township and Butler.

Yes. Monroeville, Penn Hills, Plum, Murrysville, Wilkinsburg, Forest Hills and the Parkway East corridor are covered. The commercial and medical employers around Monroeville generate a steady volume of corporate and workers-compensation matters.

Yes, and they take local knowledge. Homestead, Munhall, McKeesport, Braddock, Rankin and Duquesne have tight grids, limited through routes, and neighbors who register an unfamiliar vehicle immediately. We plan those differently than we plan a Shadyside case.

Butler, Washington, Westmoreland, Beaver, Armstrong, Fayette and Lawrence counties are all within normal working range, and we take cases statewide and nationally. Our Butler County work has its own office and its own page.

4250 Steubenville Pike, Pittsburgh, PA 15205, in the West Hills near the Robinson and Parkway West corridor. Consultations are by appointment and always private, and most matters begin and end without a client ever coming in.

It is more technical. Two rivers, three of them at the Point, four hundred and forty-six bridges, tunnels that funnel traffic, hillside neighborhoods with one way in, and a street grid that stops making sense the moment you leave a flat. All of that is a constraint on where a subject can go and where an investigator can sit, which is exactly why forty years of local casework matters more here than it would on a grid city.

Yes. Downtown is worked on foot and from rotating garage positions rather than from a parked vehicle, because the Golden Triangle's one-way grid and camera density make a static sit conspicuous. We also plan around the bridge and tunnel choke points that determine when a subject can actually leave the Triangle.

Yes. Pitt, Carnegie Mellon, Duquesne and the UPMC campuses are dense, heavily monitored, and repopulated every fall. Oakland is also where most of our student housing and off-campus bug sweep calls originate.

That is home terrain. Our office sits on Steubenville Pike, so Robinson, Moon, Crafton, Carnegie, Coraopolis and Pittsburgh International are the areas we reach fastest, and travel-related surveillance out of the airport corridor is routine work for us.

Covered, and increasingly busy. The robotics and autonomous vehicle firms along Penn and Butler have made intellectual property, trade secret and departing-employee matters one of the faster growing parts of our corporate practice.

It depends on the type of work, the hours required and the number of investigators. Surveillance is quoted hourly with a minimum block; background work and asset searches are usually quoted flat. You get a written scope and a number before we start, and we do not exceed it without your authorization.

No. The initial consultation is free and confidential. It exists so you can find out whether an investigation is the right answer, and so we can tell you when it is not.

Most Pittsburgh inquiries get a same-day response from a senior investigator. Urgent matters, an immediate surveillance window or a suspected eavesdropping situation, can typically be staffed within 24 to 48 hours.

A background or asset search is often days. Surveillance depends on the pattern you are trying to document: some cases resolve in a single well-chosen shift, others need coverage across two or three weeks to establish a routine. We would rather tell you that up front than bill you into a surprise.

A written investigative report with dates, times, locations and observations, supported by photographic or video documentation where it exists. It is prepared to be usable in court, and the investigator who wrote it can testify to it.

Our line is answered live around the clock, and callbacks are confidential. Surveillance is frequently scheduled at night and on weekends, because that is when the behavior people are asking about tends to happen.

That is a result, and sometimes it is the one worth paying for. A documented absence of the behavior a client feared has ended more Pittsburgh cases peacefully than any surveillance video ever has. We report what we observed, not what anyone hoped we would observe.

We can document behavior: where someone goes, who they meet, how long they stay, and what is observable in public. That documentation is time-stamped and photographic where possible. What it means is for you, and for your attorney, to decide.

Pennsylvania is a no-fault divorce state, so infidelity by itself does not usually decide the outcome. It can still matter to spousal support, to the disposition of marital assets that were spent on a third party, and to custody where the conduct affects the children. Ask your attorney how it applies to your case.

By documenting the objectively observable: who is at the residence, whether the children are supervised, whether the custodial schedule is being followed, and whether anything happens that a court would want to know about. Allegheny County Family Division matters make up the largest share of this work.

That is a defined practice for us. Hidden income, undisclosed property, business interests, accounts and transfers that were made to be difficult to see. It pairs naturally with equitable distribution proceedings in Allegheny and Butler counties.

Yes. Documenting that a former spouse is cohabiting is one of the more common reasons Pittsburgh clients ask for surveillance, and it requires establishing a pattern rather than capturing a single evening.

Yes, and it is a common request. Pre-marital due diligence covers identity, prior marriages, litigation history, liens and judgments, licensing and the parts of a financial picture that tend not to come up over dinner.

Yes. TSCM, technical surveillance counter-measures, is one of our core practices: residences, offices, conference rooms, vehicles, school and campus spaces. Our technicians arrive in unbranded vehicles and the visit looks like an ordinary service call.

Usually you do not, which is the point of the device. What people notice instead is that someone knows things they should not know. If private conversations are turning up in other people's mouths, that pattern is worth a professional inspection rather than a consumer detector app.

A physical inspection and an electronic one. Radio frequency analysis, spectrum work, non-linear junction detection, thermal and physical search of furniture, fixtures, outlets, vehicles and telecom infrastructure. You get a written findings report either way.

Yes. Vehicle sweeps for GPS trackers, both magnetic battery units and hardwired installations, are a frequent request in divorce and stalking matters across the region.

Our founder trained under Jim Ross of Ross Engineering, Marty Kaiser and Ted Sandin, three of the recognized figures in American counter-eavesdropping, and has taught surveillance technique at Surveillance Expo for more than a decade.

Regularly, for Pittsburgh companies and law firms. Pre-meeting sweeps of boardrooms and conference spaces are standard practice ahead of transactions, negotiations and litigation strategy sessions.

Yes. Internal theft, inventory shrink, register and expense manipulation, vendor kickbacks and billing fraud, for employers from Grant Street offices to Robinson and Monroeville warehouses. Findings are documented to survive a termination hearing or a prosecution.

Yes. Independent third-party investigation of harassment, discrimination, policy violations and whistleblower complaints, conducted so that the process itself does not become the employer's next liability.

Yes, and the Strip District and Lawrenceville technology corridor has made this a growing area. Departing-employee investigations, information leak tracing, trade secret misappropriation and non-compete enforcement support.

Yes. Executive vetting, partner due diligence, vendor screening and transaction support, including litigation history, undisclosed affiliations, regulatory exposure and the reputational questions that do not appear in a credit report.

Yes, provided the investigator is licensed. Pennsylvania regulates private detectives under the Private Detective Act, and licenses are issued through the Court of Common Pleas. Anyone offering investigative services in Pittsburgh without that license is operating illegally, and evidence they gather may be worth nothing to you.

Pennsylvania is an all-party consent state under its Wiretapping and Electronic Surveillance Control Act, which means intercepting an oral or wire communication generally requires the consent of everyone involved. We work within that. Video documentation of what is observable in public, without audio interception, is a different question and is the basis of most lawful surveillance.

That is the standard we work to. Reports carry dates, times, locations and observations, documentation is preserved with its chain intact, and the investigator who produced it is available to testify. Evidence gathered improperly is not just useless; it can damage the case it was meant to help.

No. Placing a tracking device on a vehicle you do not own carries real legal exposure in Pennsylvania, for you and for us. We will sweep a vehicle for a tracker somebody else placed, and we will accomplish the same objective through lawful surveillance.

Not by pretext, and nobody legitimate can. Financial and telecommunications records are protected, and obtaining them by impersonation is a federal problem. What we do instead is lawful asset identification through public filings, records research and investigation, which in practice finds a great deal.

Anything unlawful, and anything that would harm the client's own position. We will not intercept protected communications, obtain records by pretext, trespass, or take a case whose real objective is to help someone locate a person who is hiding from them for good reason.

Yes. Client identity and case information stay inside the firm. Note that a private investigator does not carry attorney-client privilege, which is one practical reason matters headed for litigation are often best routed through your attorney.