September
2002
Business
Spotlight
Being
Coy: private eye watches the City of Trenton
By
Joe Emanski
Like many people, John T. Coy watches "Law and Order"
reruns on television after dinner. While you may sometimes question
the outcomes of the trials-which seem decidedly pro-prosecution-Coy
has the experience one needs to be able to question something
else that happens on the show-something that most people probably
never gave a second thought.
"Those
guys just whip through cases like nobody's business," Coy
says, referring to the policemen who spend the first half-hour
of the show chasing down suspects. "Every time they go to
question someone, it's at the person's home-and the person is
there! It doesn't work that way in real life," he says with
amusement.
Coy would know. He's a civil and criminal investigator and a former
police officer. He retired in 1993 as a detective sergeant on
the Trenton police force. In 1981, he received the police department's
highest honor, the Valor Award, for facing an armed suspect during
a robbery and, while under fire, wounding and capturing the suspect.
Two
days after he retired, Coy, 62, opened his own detective agency.
His career didn't follow exactly the path that he had mapped out
as a younger man, but that's all right. Coy has achieved what
wanted to achieve at the outset of his career-owning his own investigative
firm-it just took a little longer than he had planned.
"I
joined the police force just so I could be a private investigator,"
he says. "I needed five years of experience (to become a
P.I.), but I ended up staying up 29 years."
John
T. Coy and Associates, with an office at 40 West Lafayette Street
in Trenton, employs an average of 35 to 40 people, though only
some of them are employed as investigators. The rest are security
officers. Coy's firm has established a reputation for offering
quality uniformed security services that has spread as far as
Camden and even Wilmington, Del.
It's
a wide area for a small-city security company, but word of mouth
has helped build the practice to what it is today. "People
got to know there was a pretty reputable firm," he says.
Coy and Associates also does consulting and training of security
officers.
As for the P.I. work, in a given week, Coy might be juggling three
to four cases.
"You
don't have the luxury of working one case at a time," he
says, although he stresses that each case gets equal attention.
"You do your surveillance, you do your interviews when you
can."
When
one case hits a stopping point, Coy concentrates on another for
awhile, until an opportunity arises to return to the first. "Some
days you might put in a 15-hour day," he says. Coy figures
that he averages more than 60 hours per week of work.
Coy's
background as a policeman is part of what gives him his credibility.
And yet, like all private detectives, he's not always playing
on the same side as his old team.
"If
I'm doing criminal matters, I might actually be on the other side
from law enforcement," Coy says, adding that he does not
often simply share his acquired information with the police-and
neither do they share their data with him. But it's not a contentious
relationship.
"
I have good relationships with all the police departments in the
area. It's helpful in a lot of ways. That's part of the resources
that you have. The more people you know, the better you are at
your craft," he says.
Surveillance-i.e.,
lawfully spying-is most definitely part of the job. A lot of Coy's
work is undertaken under cover.
"I
get a chance to use the skills that I used in the vice squad-mobile
surveillance and stationary surveillance-it takes a little bit
of skill. You've got to be careful of other people watching you
and blowing your case."
For
someone in Coy's line of work, that's the nightmare scenario-having
the work that he's doing found out by the parties upon whom he
has been hired to investigate. Fortunately for his clients, Coy's
nearly 30 years in the business speak to his ability to keep a
low profile. Though Coy could tell the Downtowner that when it
comes to his work, he's usually engaged by attorneys, private
businesses, and individuals, and that his jobs typically range
anywhere from criminal investigations to matrimonial cases to
civil cases and personal injury cases (for both plaintiffs and
defendants), he could not give out any details or examples of
any of the work that he was doing.
"I
don't even talk to my wife about my cases. Confidentiality is,
I guess, the cornerstone of my business. It's that important,"
says the Trenton High grad.
It's
not just confidentiality-it's also integrity. For regardless of
who pays the bills, Coy is beholden to the truth and not what
the client hopes-or expects-to hear.
"I
don't choose sides. I consider myself a fact-finder. I base my
findings on what I find, no matter who pays me."
John T. Coy and Associates
40 West Lafayette Street
609-393-8900
#
# #
