Investigations
Protect Your People.
Two questions decide every safety and security case.
Whether the matter is negligent security, premises liability, workplace violence, a mass-casualty incident, a school or faith-based safety event, an event-security failure, or a personal injury or fraud claim with a safety and security component; the same two questions sit at the center of every one of them. Strategos Investigations is the federal-credentialed investigations and expert witness practice of Strategos International. We have done the prevention work for more than two decades and now bring that practical experience into the response phase for law firms and insurance carriers. The combination is rare. That is the value we bring to your matter.
Strategos helps law firms answer both.
The Two-Step Liability Test
When liability is the question, the answer comes in two steps.
Strategos works both. Our principals have built and operated security programs for living, breathing organizations across the country; we now apply that practitioner-level perspective to investigations, expert witness designations, and the analytical work product that goes with them.
1.
Foreseeability
Could the need have been anticipated in advance?
2.
Standards of Care
If yes, what reasonable preparation did the organization actually make?
A Practical Reframe
Reasonable effort, not perfect prevention.
The most protected person on the planet is the President of the United States. Thousands of personnel and billions of dollars of resources are aligned to that mission, and they still cannot prevent everything. If those resources cannot prevent everything, then the expectation cannot be that any other organization will. The legal question is not whether harm could have been avoided; it is whether reasonable effort, measured against reasonable “leading practices” standards of care, was actually made.
That distinction is where these cases are decided. It is also where Strategos lives.
Prevention. Response. Both.
Practitioners who actually do the work.
Most expert witness firms come from one side of the practice; they either investigated incidents for a living or consulted on security programs. Each of those positions has value, and each has limits. The reasonable standard of care is what a reasonable practitioner would do; that is an operational question, not an abstract one. The most credible answer comes from the practitioner doing the work right now.
Prevention Phase
What we do every week for current clients:
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Executive protection programs for corporate clients and high-profile individuals
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School Protective Services for K-12 districts and faith-based schools
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Active threat training and workplace violence prevention curriculum
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Event security planning for large public gatherings
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Threat assessment and intervention protocols
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Security operations training for in-house security teams
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Digital threat monitoring and protective intelligence
Prevention Phase
What we do every week for current clients:
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Civil and criminal investigation under attorney direction
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Designated expert witness in event security, premises liability, and mass-gathering security planning
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Digital intelligence and online evidence preservation through the Digital Overwatch platform
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Coordinated multi-investigator teams for high-complexity matters
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Scene reconstruction and comparative event analysis
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Litigation work product structured for direct use by counsel
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Pre-deposition preparation and trial support
How We Work
A counsel-directed, phase-gated engagement model.
Phased Retainer
Engagements run in defined phases with written deliverables at each phase end. Continuation is approved phase by phase, giving counsel and carriers predictable budget exposure and natural decision points for scope review.
Counsel-Directed Work Product
All work product is produced as attorney work product, marked accordingly. All witness contacts run through counsel. Weekly internal coordination, bi-monthly status reports, and written reports at each phase end.
Transparent Rate Structure
Rates are calibrated to the specialized investigation and litigation support market and benchmarked against published market ranges for comparable federal-credentialed personnel. Hard expenses billed at cost with documentation.
Subject-Matter Expertise
The four issues that decide these cases.
Strategos principals testify and consult on the four issues at the center of safety and security preparedness cases. Each of these is more than a label; each requires a separate analytical lens and a separate evidentiary trail.
Property Control
Standards of Care
Negligence & Willful Negligence
Foreseeability
Property Control
Where did the incident actually occur? Who controlled that space at the time? In many premises liability cases, the answer determines exposure as much as any other single issue. We map property lines, lease and venue agreements, and contracted-control arrangements against the precise location of the incident.
Standards of Care
What did reasonable preparation actually look like for this type of organization, this type of event, and this type of risk? We answer through current operational knowledge, comparative analysis of similar venues, and published frameworks (DHS SEAR, NFPA, IAVM, industry leading practices). We deliberately use the phrase “leading practices” rather than “best practices” because the latter implies a rigid standard that does not actually exist in practice, and creates legal vulnerability that the former does not.
Negligence and Willful Negligence
Did the organization fail to take reasonable effort, and if so, what kind of failure was it? An honest gap in preparation is one analysis. A choice to ignore known risk is another. The legal distinction is significant, and the evidentiary trail is different in each case. We analyze prior-incident history, internal communications, training records, and post-incident response to draw that line where it actually belongs.
Foreseeability
Could the harm have been anticipated? This is where most premises liability cases open. We answer it through prior-incident analysis (police-reported activity, comparable venue records, industry-wide pattern data), threat-intelligence review, and the practical question of what a reasonable practitioner in that role would have known going in.
Digital Overwatch
A purpose-built digital intelligence platform for litigation.
Digital Overwatch is the Strategos-built digital intelligence platform deployed in active litigation to capture, preserve, and analyze online evidence on the schedule the matter requires. Analyst-validated. Chain-of-custody preserved. Built for the work, not retrofitted from a consumer tool.
Geofenced Location Capture
Publicly posted content from a defined perimeter during the incident time window.
Date and Time-Range Searches
Date-bounded reconstruction of timelines through social media and open-source pulls.
Boolean Search-Term Engineering
Strategos-curated keyword libraries and Boolean logic, refined through analyst review.
Witness Identification
Social media activity, digital footprint analysis, and association mapping.
Scene Reconstruction & Program Status
What was happening at the scene at a precise moment, including stage program and crowd posture.
Jury Selection & Voir Dire Support
OSINT review of the venire to inform strike decisions and identify undisclosed bias.
Expert Witness Rebuttal
Independent credential verification, prior testimony analysis, and rebuttal research on opposing experts.
Opposition Research
Background and digital intelligence on parties, counsel, and material witnesses.
Forensic Screen Capture
Evidentiary-grade capture and chain-of-custody preservation before deletion or alteration.
The Team Behind the Practice
Federal, State, and Municipal credentials in one engagement.
Each engagement is staffed with the credential mix the matter actually requires. Several team members hold active TS/SCI clearances. Composition is built to the matter.
Strategos Investigations is supported by the broader Strategos International firm of more than 800 security professionals and instructors.
Specialized Service Catalog
Specialized investigation and expert witness services.
Built on the same federal, state, and municipal pedigree as our core litigation practice. Click any service to read more. Available to litigation counsel, corporate counsel, family offices, and insurance carriers.
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Litigation Counsel | Corporate Counsel | Family Offices | Insurance Carriers
Vehicle and pedestrian crash reconstruction using scene mapping, vehicle dynamics analysis, and 3D modeling supported by drone-collected aerial imagery. Scene preservation, evidence collection, witness coordination, and demonstrative exhibits structured for jury presentation. Civil and criminal matters; defense and plaintiff support.
Officer-involved shooting analysis, security guard use of force review, tactical reasonableness opinion, and expert witness designation in civil rights and excessive force litigation. Federal FBI Hostage Rescue Team, U.S. Secret Service Presidential Protective Division, and KCPD SWAT and command credentials applied to Section 1983 and state-law analogs.
Pre-incident threat assessment failure analysis, intervention-protocol adequacy review, post-incident reconstruction, and expert witness designation in workplace violence civil litigation. Direct experience from federal protective intelligence and municipal command applied to employer liability matters.
Independent investigation of harassment, discrimination, theft, fraud, executive misconduct, and policy violations. Conducted under counsel direction with attorney work product protection. Methodology structured for EEOC, Title VII, Title IX, and similar regulatory reporting requirements.
Civil wrongful death investigation including scene work, witness identification and interviews, document and records analysis, expert coordination, and the full litigation work product suite. A direct extension of our premises liability and mass-casualty event practice.
Senior hire vetting for boards, executive teams, family offices, and private equity. Background investigation, regulatory and litigation history, reputation analysis, and financial and asset review where permissible by jurisdiction. Quick-turn deliverables on a tiered scope.
Standing corporate program combining quarterly threat assessment briefings with continuous open-source and dark web monitoring through the Digital Overwatch platform. Employee, executive, and facility focused. Supports IP protection, workplace violence prevention, and corporate counterintelligence.
Digital Overwatch deployed as a managed service for executives, public figures, and corporate brands. Continuous monitoring of social media, blogs, forums, deep and dark web, paste sites, and news media for reputational threats, doxxing, and credible physical threats. Monthly intelligence summaries with defined escalation protocols.
Subject-matter and personnel due diligence on acquisition targets and key executives. Regulatory history, litigation exposure, leadership reputation, financial and asset review, and digital footprint analysis. Quick-turn engagements timed to deal calendars.
Sweep operations for hidden audio, video, and tracking devices in executive offices, conference rooms, residences, vehicles, and aircraft. Performed by trained technicians using current-generation detection equipment. Discreet, credentialed, and reportable.
Single-source provider model for ultra-high-net-worth families combining protective services, residential security, threat monitoring through Digital Overwatch, asset and personnel due diligence, and investigation support. Confidential retainer-based engagement designed for discreet, long-term partnership.
Pre-travel risk assessment, route and venue advance work, secure transportation planning, in-country liaison, and reachback support during travel. Federal protective advance pedigree applied to executive, family, and corporate travel programs. Available at the trip, country, or annual program level.
Also Available
Surveillance and skip tracing.
Beyond litigation work product and expert witness designation, we serve carriers, defense counsel, SIU units, and corporate clients with field investigation services that come from the same federal and municipal investigative pedigree as our litigation practice.
Surveillance
Activity-check and sub-rosa surveillance for personal injury, work comp, fraud, and loss prevention investigations. Video documentation, claimant background investigation, and disposition reporting structured for SIU and defense counsel.
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Personal injury claim verification
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Work comp investigations
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Fraud and SIU support
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Loss prevention investigations
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Multi-investigator surveillance teams
Skip Tracing
Location of witnesses, defendants, debtors, missing persons, and assets through commercial database research, public records, and the Strategos Digital Overwatch platform. Reports structured for legal, collections, and recovery use.
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Witness and defendant location
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Debtor and judgment-debtor location
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Asset location and identification
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Missing-person investigations
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Digital footprint and association mapping
Frequently Asked Questions
What law firms and carriers want to know.
We support safety and security preparedness matters across the full litigation spectrum: negligent security, premises liability, workplace violence, mass-casualty events, school and faith-based safety incidents, event-security failures, wrongful death, crash and reconstruction matters, law enforcement and security use of force, officer-involved shooting cases, and personal injury and fraud claims with a safety and security component.
Yes. Our methodology does not change based on who is paying. Independent investigative methodology that holds up under cross-examination is what makes our expert witness work credible to either side. We routinely serve litigation counsel on both sides of the V.
We are not a private investigator firm in the conventional sense. We staff engagements with former federal agents and senior state and municipal law enforcement command personnel. We deploy a purpose-built digital intelligence platform (Digital Overwatch). And we produce written analytical work product structured for direct use by counsel. The result is a different category of investigative deliverable, billed at rates calibrated to the specialized investigation and litigation support market rather than the general PI market.
Yes. Our principals are available for designation as expert witnesses in event security, premises liability, mass-gathering security planning, security operations standards, use of force, workplace violence, threat assessment, and related fields. Curricula vitae and prior testimony lists are made available upon engagement-letter execution.
Engagements are structured as phased retainers with written deliverables at each phase end and continuation approved phase by phase. This gives counsel and carriers predictable budget exposure and natural decision points for scope review. Rates are calibrated to the specialized litigation support market and benchmarked against published market ranges for comparable federal-credentialed personnel. Hard expenses are billed at cost with documentation.
Headquartered in Independence, Missouri, with deep Kansas City institutional knowledge, Strategos Investigations serves clients across the country and internationally. The team holds federal investigative pedigree from multiple agencies with global advance and protective experience. Several team members hold active TS/SCI clearances.
Initial consultation and conflict screening can typically be completed within 24 to 48 hours of inquiry, and engagement letters executed shortly thereafter. For time-sensitive digital evidence preservation, the Digital Overwatch platform can be configured and operational within days; this is often critical because social media content gets deleted or altered quickly.
Digital Overwatch is the Strategos-built digital intelligence platform deployed in active litigation to capture, preserve, and analyze online evidence. Capabilities include geofenced location-based content capture, time-range searches, witness identification, scene reconstruction support, jury selection and voir dire support, expert witness rebuttal research, opposition research, forensic screen capture, and continuous threat monitoring. All output is analyst-validated with chain-of-custody preservation.
All litigation work product is produced under attorney direction as attorney work product and marked accordingly. All witness contacts are coordinated through counsel. Initial consultations are conducted under engagement-letter confidentiality. For non-litigation engagements, NDAs and similar confidentiality protections are established at the engagement-letter stage.
Yes. Corporate counsel retains Strategos for internal investigations under privilege, executive due diligence, M&A due diligence, insider threat and brand reputation monitoring programs, TSCM sweeps, workplace violence response, and travel risk assessments. Family offices retain Strategos as a single-source provider for protection, residential security, threat monitoring, asset and personnel due diligence, and discreet investigation services.
Licensed Missouri Private Investigator Agency No. 2015011594
contact
If you are working a matter, we would be honored to serve you.
If you are working a matter where the questions of foreseeability, standards of care, and reasonable preparation are at the center, we would be honored to serve you. Initial consultations are conducted under engagement-letter confidentiality. Designation availability, conflict screening, and rate confirmation are addressed at the engagement-letter stage.
Kerry P. Sheehan
Director, Global Security Consulting | Former ASAIC, U.S. Secret Service
O: 816.795.3768
Vaughn Baker
President | Strategos International