Workplace Investigations - When To Leverage Law Enforcement Agencies

3/19/2026

In situations where the employer believes a criminal act has occurred, engaging the police immediately is critical.

In engaging the police, it allows the company to leverage local law enforcement to investigate the case by obtaining a police report. The police report provides the company with an official document that states what the facts of the case are and/or the incident that actually occurred.

Additionally, the police report "opens up a case" for law enforcement and gives them the platform with which to launch an investigation.

Once the police report has been evaluated and the information reviewed, then a decision can be made regarding whether or not to hire a PI firm. In some instances, law enforcement may not wish to pursue investigating the case. Sometimes this can be attributed to a lack of departmental resources at the time. Other times it can be because the crime is simply not serious enough to warrant their deployment of resources, even if those resources are available.

If law enforcement does wish to pursue the case, then a good course of action is to hire a PI firm so they can run a parallel investigation with law enforcement. Throughout the investigation, a sharing of information takes place, with the PI firm providing additional evidence to law enforcement. In essence, the PI firm can supplement the resources available to law enforcement, enabling a faster closing of the case.

Another aspect of leveraging law enforcement is also in knowing which agency to contact.

For cases involving petty theft, local law enforcement should be contacted. An example of this would be in a situation involving an employee who stole $1000 in cash from a retail store's safe.

If the store is located within city limits, the local city police would have jurisdiction to investigate. However, if the store was located outside the city limits, the county sheriff's department would more than likely be the appropriate agency to contact to handle the investigation.

or situations in which law enforcement jurisdiction may not be clear, it is usually best to contact a state law enforcement agency. In contacting the state agency, they can usually determine which jurisdiction should be engaged or if the crime is significant enough, it may involve their agency.

For situations involving crimes committed across state lines, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) should be contacted. As an example, if there is an allegation that an employee has stolen computer chips from the company headquarters in Chicago, IL but has transported them and sold them throughout the U.S. via the Internet, the stolen goods have crossed state lines. In those situations, federal law enforcement must be engaged.