Dry Bones by Peter Quinn

Author:Peter Quinn [QUINN, PETER]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: FIC000000; FIC031020; FIC031050; FIC031060; FIC022000
ISBN: 9781468308440
Publisher: Overlook
Published: 2013-08-08T16:00:00+00:00

Part V

New Trajectories

MODERN DETECTION:

THE MAGAZINE OF THE PRIVATE SECURITY INDUSTRY

JUNE 1958

Fintan Dunne: “A Soldier’s Soldier”

BY

ALVIN CAPSHAW

Beginning with this issue, Modern Detection is adding a new Profiles column to its roster of articles, feature pieces, and news roundups covering what is among the fastest growing sectors of the service industry. Each month, Profiles will spotlight a leading practitioner currently at work in the profession and offer his insights on what lies ahead for the trade.

The need for such an addition is clear. In the five years since it began publishing, Modern Detection has made significant progress in dispelling the demeaning stereotypes and clichés about the private security industry relentlessly popularized by cheap novels, pulp magazines, and B-grade films.

Unfortunately, fiction continues to trump fact. All too often, the mention of “private investigator” conjures up in the mind of John Q. Public a seedy “gumshoe” who operates from a shabby office in a questionable part of town and serves a clientele of lowlifes and outright criminals.

Although it might seem like a case of “preaching to the choir,” it is worth reminding ourselves that the immense gulf between this hoary myth and everyday reality cannot be overemphasized. The vast majority of those working in today’s private security sector are employed by one of the several corporate entities that account for more than 90 percent of the industry’s revenues and profits.

In a growing number of instances, private security operations are part of conglomerates that include unrelated businesses such as auto-parts distribution and resort and hotel properties. (More about that in a minute from the subject of this month’s Profile.) Though the products are different, the standards of quality, cost effectiveness, and, most important, customer satisfaction are the same.

No organization better exemplifies the highest standards and practices of the industry than International Services Corporation (ISC), which is headquartered in several sleekly updated floors high up in the Graybar Building, adjacent to New York’s Grand Central Terminal. Over the last decade, ISC has consolidated the largest and best-run private investigation agencies across America into a smoothly functioning, highly coordinated operation. While its clientele is confidential, it is no secret that its customers include leading law firms, prominent investment houses, and corporations along with well-known personalities of stage, screen, and “high society.”

Together, the leadership of ISC’s private security team represents a veritable “Who’s Who” of seasoned investigators whose collective qualifications, experience, and achievements are unmatched. Fintan Dunne, a senior partner, is a case in point.

Standing in his outer office, a visitor immediately turns his gaze on a wall covered with framed awards, news clippings, and photos of Dunne with a wide spectrum of civic, military, and business leaders. In one corner is a signed photo of Dunne being given a one-arm hug by former New York mayor William O’Dwyer; in another, he is bookended by smiling star of stage and screen Joan Crawford and husband Alfred Steele, chairman and CEO of Pepsi-Cola.

Most prominent of all is the photo of Dunne with his mentor and former commander, the legendary

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