The firm
Thirty-five years of finding things people went to trouble to hide.
Founded in 1991 and based in the Chicago area, Special Solutions, Ltd. is a licensed Illinois private detective agency working in technical surveillance counter-measures, executive protection, corporate risk and complex investigation. U.S. TSCM is our counter-surveillance division.
The foundation of our investigative services division is experience, quality and integrity, and above all a genuine sensitivity to what clients are actually going through when they call us. Our consultants are former military, federal, state and local law-enforcement officers, most with more than twenty years in the field.
We still believe in old-fashioned investigative work while taking a modern approach to answering the question in front of us — straight answers, without excuses. We still believe in a handshake and in a promise kept.
That matters in counter-surveillance more than in most disciplines, because the client almost never has the technical knowledge to check the work. It is an unusually easy field in which to take somebody's money, wave an inexpensive hand-held detector around a room for forty minutes, and assure them that everything is fine. We have watched that happen for decades. It is the reason this site explains our method in as much detail as it does.
Special Solutions is one of very few firms offering genuinely end-to-end investigative services. Engage us and you get not only qualified investigators but the supporting capability behind them: record and financial analysis, witness interviews, corporate risk assessment, documented evidence reports, trial preparation and expert testimony. Information retrieval, however sensitive or difficult, is what we do best.
THE RECORD
- Licensed Illinois private detective agency
- Continuously in operation since 1991
- Technicians re-trained twice annually
- Over half a million dollars of detection instrumentation
- Expert testimony and trial preparation
- Nationwide coverage, plus select international
How we work
Four commitments, and we will hold to all four.
Confidentiality without exception
We do not name clients, publish case studies or use anyone's situation in our marketing. There are no testimonials on this site and there never will be. If that costs us business from people who want to see social proof, we consider that an acceptable price.
An honest negative
Most sweeps find nothing, and we say so plainly rather than manufacturing a finding to justify the invoice. You get a report documenting exactly what was covered either way.
Method you can inspect
Every phase, instrument and limitation is set out on this website before you pay us anything. Mystique is not a service.
No trace, no mess, no problems
We photograph before we start and everything goes back where it was. We are quiet, we are respectful of the space, and we are available day or night, weekends and holidays.
Leadership
John C. Frycek
PPS, LPD, LAC, CIS · PRESIDENT & CEO · CHIEF INVESTIGATOR
Thank you for taking the time to look at how we work. Special Solutions, Ltd. is a professional executive protection and private investigation firm headquartered in the Chicago area, in business since 1991.
We provide protective, investigative and risk-management solutions to large corporations, governments and private affluent families. Threat assessment, advance protection, specialised surveillance, physical security applications and complex investigation are the hallmarks of our business.
The broader practice
Counter-surveillance sits inside a full investigative firm.
That matters more than it sounds. A sweep frequently raises questions a sweep cannot answer — who had access, what a timeline really shows, whether a pattern of leaks has a human explanation, what a court will accept.
Because Special Solutions, Ltd. is a licensed private detective agency with 35 years behind it, those questions do not require a second firm and a second set of introductions. Threat assessment, surveillance, background investigation, record and financial analysis, witness interviews, executive protection, trial preparation and expert testimony all sit under the same roof and the same case file.
Start with a conversation.
Free, confidential, and no obligation. We will tell you plainly whether a sweep is the right answer for your situation.