Nashville's clear-eyed private detectives

A licensed Tennessee private detective gathers facts lawfully: surveillance from public or otherwise lawful vantage points, public-records research, locating people, interviewing witnesses who agree to talk, serving legal papers, and testifying to what was observed. The work product is documented evidence and a written report, prepared so it keeps its value if the matter reaches a courtroom, an insurer or a board.

Yes. Watchtower's investigators work under Tennessee's private investigator licensing law, T.C.A. Title 62, Chapter 26, and Watchtower is a subsidiary of Delator Group, a Tennessee private investigation and process serving corporation. You can ask for the assigned investigator's license details at any point, and you should ask that of any agency you consider hiring.

Surveillance and field investigation are usually billed hourly with travel disclosed up front, while locates, background research and process serving are usually flat-rate. The biggest cost driver is how well-defined the question is: a scoped question such as documenting one evening a week costs a fraction of an open-ended one. Our pricing guides break it down by case type, and the consultation is free.

No licensed investigator can place a GPS tracker on a vehicle they do not own (a Class A misdemeanor under T.C.A. § 39-13-606), read someone else's texts or email, obtain bank balances or phone records without lawful process, trespass, or use pretexting to get protected financial records. An agency offering any of those is describing a crime that can damage your case and expose you.

Tennessee is a one-party consent state under T.C.A. § 39-13-601: you may generally record a conversation you are part of. Recording a conversation you are not part of, or placing a device to capture other people's private conversations, is a crime. Video recording in places where people expect privacy raises separate problems. When in doubt, ask before you record, not after.

A locate or records check often takes a few business days. Surveillance depends on the subject's routine: a pattern that happens every Thursday may need one or two sessions, while an unpredictable one takes longer. We scope timing at the consultation and tell you if a deadline is not realistic before any work starts.

Evidence is only as strong as how it was obtained and preserved. We document to a cross-examination standard: intact metadata, continuous observation logs rather than selected clips, contemporaneous notes and a clear chain of custody. Our investigators can testify to what they observed under the Tennessee Rules of Evidence, including authentication under Rule 901.

Yes. Watchtower process servers cover all 95 Tennessee counties: Middle Tennessee is served directly from the Nashville hub, West Tennessee by servers based there, and East Tennessee through the same statewide Delator Group network. Every return is prepared for the court that issued the process, with a full attempt log attached.

Watchtower works Nashville and Middle and West Tennessee directly, with pages for 15 cities and 62 counties below. East Tennessee investigations run through Delator Group's chapter network, and process serving reaches every county in the state. Records-based work such as skip tracing has nationwide reach.

We do not discuss client matters, confirm that someone is a client, or share files. One honest caveat: communication with an investigator is not privileged the way communication with a lawyer is. If your matter is headed to litigation, having your attorney engage us usually brings the work inside attorney work product, and we will raise that at the consultation.

Regularly. Defense counsel, family law attorneys, civil litigators and in-house legal teams use Watchtower for witness location and interviews, surveillance, asset research, jury research support, and service of process. Where counsel engages us, we take direction on scope and sequencing and report to the attorney.

Watchtower Investigations is a subsidiary of Delator Group, a Tennessee private investigation and process serving corporation, and serves as Delator's Nashville hub for Middle and West Tennessee. The Delator Group Privacy Policy and Terms of Service govern this website and Watchtower engagements.

A background check for employment, tenancy or credit decisions is a consumer report governed by the Fair Credit Reporting Act, with consent and adverse-action rules. A private investigator's report answers a specific factual question and generally cannot be used as a substitute for an FCRA report in those decisions. Our guide on the difference explains when you need which.

Often, yes, lawfully. Skip tracing combines public and commercial records with field confirmation, and the result is a verified current address rather than a list of possibilities. We will not help locate someone where the request suggests a risk to that person's safety, and we decline those matters.

Call (629) 310-8667, email contact@delatorgroup.com, or pick your situation in the box at the top of this page. You do not need to know what the service is called. Tell us what is going on, and we will tell you what can lawfully be established, roughly what it costs, and whether an investigator is the right answer.