Employee Surveillance Investigations in South Dakota

01Why employers call

The Employee Conduct Problems We Document Most Often

Employee surveillance investigations usually start with a pattern a manager cannot prove. A technician whose service calls take twice as long as anyone else's. A salaried manager who claims client visits that customers do not remember. An employee on paid leave who posts photos from a job site. In each case the question is factual: what is this person doing during the hours the company is paying for? Our South Dakota surveillance services answer it with dated observations rather than suspicion.

Other files involve loyalty rather than time. An employee may be running a competing business on weekends, steering customers to a relative's company or meeting a competitor's leadership before resigning. Those cases combine surveillance with records research on business filings and ownership. Our business partner background checks identify who is behind a new competitor, and the corporate investigations team takes over when the problem reaches beyond one employee.

• Sick leave and paid leave abuse
• Time theft by field and remote staff
• Company vehicle and fuel card misuse
• Moonlighting for a competitor
• Customer solicitation before or after resignation

02Legal limits

What South Dakota Law Allows When Watching an Employee

South Dakota employers generally employ people at will under SDCL 60-4-4, which lets either side end employment with no fixed term on notice. That rule does not license unlimited monitoring. Investigators may observe and photograph an employee in public, but SDCL 22-21-1 bars surveillance in private places, and SDCL 23A-35A-20 makes recording a conversation without a participant's consent a Class 5 felony. Our guide to recording laws in South Dakota explains where those lines fall.

Discrimination law adds a second boundary. The Human Relations Act, SDCL 20-13-10, prohibits adverse treatment because of race, color, creed, religion, sex, ancestry, disability or national origin, and surveillance aimed at one group, or launched right after an employee complains, can look like retaliation. Federal leave and labor laws may also apply. We ask employers to involve counsel before surveillance begins, and our wrongful termination investigators understand how these files are later examined by the other side.

03Restrictive covenants

Non-Compete and Customer Solicitation Cases Under SDCL 53-9-11

South Dakota starts from a rule that contracts restraining someone from a lawful profession or business are void to that extent under SDCL 53-9-8, then carves out exceptions. SDCL 53-9-11 allows an employee to agree not to engage in the same business or solicit the employer's existing customers for up to two years after employment ends, within a specified area, as long as the employer still carries on a similar business there. The statute was amended as recently as 2023 and has its own exceptions, so enforceability is a question for counsel.

What counsel needs is proof of conduct. We document a former employee calling on named customers, working at a competitor's location or operating a new business inside the restricted area, and we pair that with filing and licensing records. Departing employees sometimes take customer lists or pricing on their way out, which our corporate espionage investigators handle. If the case goes to court, our attorney services team prepares the timeline and exhibits for an injunction hearing.

04Field staff

Field Crews, Drivers and Company Vehicles Across a Big State

Many South Dakota employees work far from a supervisor. Agronomy reps cover several counties, utility and telecom crews work rural lines, and drivers run routes along I-90, I-29 and US highways such as US 12, US 14, US 83 and US 212. When a crew reports a full day on a site two hours from the office, nobody can easily check. We observe the vehicle, the site and the hours, documenting long stops, personal errands and side jobs with time-stamped photographs. Our Huron investigators and Pierre surveillance team cover much of the central state.

Fuel cards and mileage logs give us a starting point. Fuel purchases at odd hours or far from assigned routes often point to the days worth watching. Using a company vehicle without permission, with no intent to keep it, is generally unauthorized use under SDCL 22-30A-12, while larger losses may be theft graded by value. We document the facts, and the employer and counsel decide the response. Fleet-wide problems are better suited to our employee theft investigators.

05Office and remote staff

Remote Workers and Office Staff in Sioux Falls and Beyond

Sioux Falls has a large office workforce in health care, card banking and financial services, with Citi, Wells Fargo, First PREMIER and Sammons Financial among its notable employers. Many of those roles are now hybrid or fully remote, and a few employees treat remote status as permission to hold a second full-time job or to be somewhere else entirely. We can confirm whether a remote employee is at the home they report working from during core hours, without entering property or contacting anyone. Our Brandon investigators and Tea private investigators cover the growing suburbs where many remote workers live.

We do not monitor employer systems or devices, and we recommend that counsel review any electronic monitoring separately. Our role is the physical side of the question: where the person is, what they are doing and who they meet. When a remote employee's identity or employment history is itself in doubt, a pre-hire or post-hire check through our employee background check service is often the first step. Executive roles call for our more detailed executive hire background checks.

06Injury claims

When Employee Surveillance Becomes a Workers' Comp Matter

Some of the most common employer requests involve an injured worker, and those cases follow a different path. Once a claim is filed, the employer's carrier or third-party administrator usually directs any surveillance, and the employee has specific rights under South Dakota's workers' compensation statutes, including SDCL 62-7-1 on employer-requested medical examinations. We coordinate with the carrier rather than act around it. Our workers' comp surveillance service is built for those files.

Knowingly submitting a false workers' compensation claim is a Class 1 misdemeanor under SDCL 62-4-51, and larger schemes may fall under the insurance fraud provisions in chapter 58-4A. The Department of Labor and Regulation directs suspected fraud reports to the Attorney General's office. We document conduct; we do not decide whether it is fraud. Employers who want to understand their exposure first can start with our fraud risk audit, which reviews where claim, leave and expense abuse is most likely in their operation.

07Price

What Employee Surveillance Investigations Cost

Field surveillance is billed at $100 per hour, with mileage and travel disclosed before work begins. Because most employee concerns are tied to specific days, such as a recurring sick day or a scheduled route, a few targeted shifts often answer the question. We recommend the fewest hours likely to produce clear facts and put the scope and price in writing. Every published rate appears on our South Dakota service pricing page.

Background checks are priced separately: $102 for a basic remote check and $300 for a deep-dive, and due diligence reports on a competing business are $300. If the matter heads to litigation, such as an injunction over a non-compete, counsel can retain us for civil litigation support at a $1,000 minimum, and Delator Field Services coordinates service of the complaint through our South Dakota process serving desk. The written scope always controls what is billed.

Services

Employee Surveillance Services for South Dakota Employers

• Leave abuse surveillanceObservation on reported sick days or paid leave to document whether the employee's activity matches the reason given for the absence.Learn more
• Non-compete breach documentationEvidence of a current or former employee working for a competitor or calling on your customers inside a restricted area.Learn more
• Field crew time verificationCoverage of service routes, job sites and long rural drives to confirm hours worked, stops made and any side jobs performed.Learn more
• Company vehicle checksDocumentation of where fleet trucks and company cars go during and after shifts, often starting from fuel card and mileage data.Learn more
• Remote worker verificationPhysical confirmation that a remote employee is where they report working during core hours, without entering property or contacting anyone.Learn more
• Expense and travel reviewVerification that claimed client visits, conferences and business travel actually happened, paired with records review where the company provides data.Learn more
• Competitor ownership researchRecords research identifying who owns or runs a new competing business, including a $300 due diligence report on the entity.Learn more
• Workers' comp coordinationClaimant surveillance coordinated with the carrier or administrator once an injury claim is filed, following South Dakota's workers' compensation rules.Learn more
• Termination file supportOrganized timelines, photographs and investigator statements prepared for counsel when a discipline or termination decision may be challenged in a later claim.Learn more

How it works

How an Employee Surveillance Engagement Works

1. 01

   Confidential briefing

   HR, management or counsel explains the concern, the employee's schedule and any data already collected. We confirm the inquiry is tied to a legitimate business question.

2. 02

   Counsel-reviewed scope

   We recommend specific days and hours, flag any legal issues such as recent complaints or leave status and confirm the scope and price in writing before starting.

3. 03

   Lawful observation

   Investigators observe from public places only, log each activity with times and photographs and stop the assignment immediately if the work would require entering private property.

4. 04

   Neutral report

   You receive a factual report of what was observed and when, without conclusions about intent, organized so HR and counsel can decide on the next step.

Compare

Common Employee Surveillance Assignments in South Dakota

Statewide coverage

Employee Surveillance Investigations Statewide

We work for employers in every South Dakota county. Northeastern employers are served by our Watertown investigators, and southeastern ones by the Vermillion surveillance team and Yankton coverage. In the Black Hills, the Rapid City employee investigators and our Spearfish investigators handle contractors, health systems and hospitality employers. Every case follows the same counsel-first planning, public-place observation and neutral reporting, and rural assignments are priced with travel shown separately before the first shift. The report format never changes by region.

• Sioux Falls
• Rapid City
• Pierre
• Huron
• Brandon
• Watertown
• All of South Dakota

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Every service

Investigations available in South Dakota

Every service below is available in South Dakota and across South Dakota, run by the same Delator Group leadership that manages our Tennessee casework. Choose a service to read how it works in South Dakota.

Service areas

Private investigators across South Dakota