Fieldcraft for the Private Investigator
An investigator observes without altering what is observed, produces evidence that survives challenge, and separates fact from assumption. Fieldcraft is built on those three duties, and on nothing else. A working manual for the private investigator, worldwide in scope and honest about the law.
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The Problem
The investigator on screen breaks in, bluffs past every door and produces the truth on nerve. In the real world that person ends up in the dock or out of work. Evidence gathered unlawfully is tainted, and it can take everything that flowed from it down too. Two identical photographs of a subject carrying a ladder: one shot from the public street strengthens the case, one shot from inside the yard can sink it. Method, not content, decides.
The real craft is quieter, and harder. Nine hours in a parked car for ninety seconds that matter. A log written to the minute, a camera clock checked against true time, an original file nobody has touched, and a chain of custody with no gaps. The modern investigator is defined less by what they can find out than by what they can prove.
Training in Japan under Grandmaster Masaaki Hatsumi
The Manual
42 chapters, eight parts and five appendices, from the first day of licensing to the witness box. Every task is measured against the three duties: will this change what I am examining, will it survive challenge, and does it keep fact and assumption apart? If a plan fails any of the three, it is the wrong plan, however clever it looks.
Who It's For
Meet Rob Baard
Rob Baard is a licensed private investigator who has worked both circumstantial investigations and surveillance. Long before he held a licence he was doing the work without the title: twenty-seven years managing cinemas, investigating complaints, identifying risk, writing hazard and injury reports and taking statements while memory was still fresh. Making action films and running live stunt events asked for the same discipline. He is a 14th Degree Bujinkan Shihan who trained directly under Grandmaster Masaaki Hatsumi in Japan, and the author of Stealth & Camouflage, Escape & Evasion, Micro Expressions, Body Language and Vocal Tells.
On Set with Danny Glover
Rob Baard — Instructor & Licensed Investigator
Get the Manual
Physical Book on Amazon
The complete working manual for the private investigator. 42 chapters on staying unseen, capturing a record that holds up in court, and keeping fact apart from assumption.
Get it on AmazonQuestions
Is this legal advice?
No. It is a general education in the craft. The law is taught as principle, with Australia, the UK, the USA, Canada and New Zealand as worked examples of how much the same rule varies. One instruction runs through every legal page: verify your local law before you act.
Does it cover my country?
The book is worldwide in scope. No single country is the standard. The techniques are written to work on any road, in any city, in front of any court, and the legal chapters show you how to check the rules where you stand.
Do I need a licence to use it?
In much of the world you cannot take a fee for investigation until you are licensed. The licensing chapter shows what a licence controls, why it rarely crosses a border, and how to confirm what your own market lets you be.
Is it based on real cases?
Yes. Part VII walks through real published court judgments where investigator evidence was admitted, excluded and contested. Every sourced chapter is backed by citation.
Does it teach me to spot liars?
It teaches you to read people honestly, which is different. Clusters, not single signs. Read the whole person against their baseline, in context. You report what you saw and where it does not add up. Truth and guilt are for the court.
Start Here
Not ready for the full manual? Start with the free guide: the three duties, what breaks each one, and the eleven rules the book never breaks.
Shihan 14th Dan · Japan-licensed Shidoshi