A funny thing happened to me today; a fellow came to my door, identified himself as a Special Agent with the U.S. Federal Investigative Services, and said he wanted to ask me some questions about a former neighbor who’d moved out in 2006.
To get a couple of questions out of the way:
- The US FIS is a real agency. They do background checks on people who are seeking security clearances.
- I didn’t know my neighbor, and so the guy just went away.
The funny thing about this was that the guy came to my door at 12:50 on a Tuesday afternoon. Is this really the best way to get in touch with someone? Furthermore, is it really likely that asking questions of the people who currently live near someone’s 3-year old residence will turn up something interesting? (“Oh, yeah – Bob. I remember him. He moved out years ago, but was always talking about how he wanted to make some extra money by selling inertial navigation systems to the Chinese. Good thing you stopped by to ask!”)
Maybe it is an effective technique, but it looks pretty damn feckless to me. (A criticism not directed so much at the poor guy who’s got to go door-to-door doing this crap, who I’m sure is governed by established procedure, but rather at the bureaucracy which came up with the procedure in the first place.) I wonder if it’s ever done any good at all.
