O'Connell & Associates

What O'Connell & Associates does

O'Connell & Associates, Inc. is a privately held, full-service private investigations firm founded in 1995 and headquartered in Fairfax, Virginia, with a secondary office in Oakland, Maryland. The firm specializes in discreet, covert surveillance for domestic relations matters — principally infidelity/adultery investigations, child custody cases, workplace affairs, and cohabitation documentation used to modify or terminate spousal support under Virginia Code § 20-109 — and serves individual consumers, parents in custody disputes, paying ex-spouses, and a smaller base of corporate/professional clients across Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, D.C., with stated nationwide travel capability including Florida.

The firm's core technology stack is physical rather than digital: state-of-the-art miniaturized camera equipment for covert video/photographic evidence capture, mobile and GPS tracking devices, a diversified fleet of surveillance vehicles, and digital freeze-frame evidence delivery with online sharing. Support capabilities include electronic monitoring and debugging sweeps, computer research, and expert witness testimony. The firm emphasizes that all cases are handled by full-time in-house investigators with no subcontracting, distinguishing it from competitors that outsource engagements.

Commercially, O'Connell & Associates operates a quote-based professional services model billed per case, with free initial consultations, 24/7 toll-free and local phone availability, and a sales-led go-to-market motion driven by direct inbound calls and a search-optimized website. The firm holds a Virginia private investigator license (ID#112060), reports 51-100 employees, and has no disclosed funding, acquisitions, partnerships, patents, or public-market activity, consistent with a long-standing, independently owned boutique practice serving a fragmented consumer market.

Name

O'Connell & Associates

Legal name

O'Connell & Associates, Inc.

Website

https://oconnellandassoc.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1995

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

O'Connell & Associates is a privately held, Fairfax, Virginia-based private investigations firm founded in 1995 that provides covert surveillance, infidelity, child custody, and cohabitation investigations for individual consumers and select corporate clients across Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, D.C.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Private Investigation Services

NAICS

Investigation and Personal Background Check Services (561611)

SIC

Services-Detective, Guard & Armored Car Services (7381)

akta.pro primary industry

Domestic/Family & Matrimonial Investigations (BPAKAEAG)

akta.pro secondary industries

Digital/Online Investigations & OSINT (Non-cyber) (BPAKAEAF), Fraud Investigations & Claims Support (Insurance/Financial) (BPAKAEAD)

Keywords

• Private investigation services
• Covert surveillance services
• Infidelity investigations
• Child custody investigations
• Cohabitation investigations

Headquarters

HQ city

Fairfax

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Private Investigation Services: Professional investigative services billed per case or engagement. Services include surveillance, infidelity investigations, child custody investigations, workplace affairs, cohabitation investigations, and fraud investigations. Free initial consultation provided. No sub-contracting ensures direct service delivery.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels2 records

Core offering

O'Connell & Associates, Inc. is a private investigation firm specializing in discreet covert surveillance. The firm sells its own investigation hours directly to private individuals (suspecting spouses, parents in custody disputes, paying ex-spouses) and to corporate/professional clients (workplace affairs, courtroom litigators, insurance claims professionals). Services are delivered by in-house investigators — the firm never sub-contracts — and supported by 24/7 availability and free initial consultation.

Product overview

O'Connell & Associates, Inc. is a full-service private investigations firm offering a unified portfolio of investigative services centered on discreet, covert surveillance. The core offerings include surveillance services, infidelity/adultery investigations (encompassing workplace affairs and traveling affairs), child custody investigations, and cohabitation investigations for spousal support modification. These services are supported by computer research capabilities, electronic monitoring/sweeps, video and photographic evidence collection, GPS tracking, and expert witness testimony. The firm operates as a single-service business with interconnected investigative offerings rather than a platform-plus-modules architecture.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Surveillance Services

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature4 records

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Broad incumbents

• Kroll: Global risk advisory and investigations firm with corporate fraud, due diligence, and litigation support practices. Overlaps with O'Connell on fraud and background-investigation work but serves enterprise and legal-firm clients at a much larger scale.
• Pinkerton Consulting & Investigations: One of the largest global corporate investigation and security services firms. Comparable because it offers domestic and corporate surveillance, background checks, and fraud investigation services that overlap with O'Connell's portfolio, though at enterprise scale and across many more geographies.

Direct peers

• PMI Investigations: Regional private investigations firm offering surveillance, infidelity, custody, and asset investigations. Comparable to O'Connell in service breadth, target clientele, and operational scale within a defined U.S. region.
• Confidential Investigations: Private investigation firm offering covert surveillance, infidelity, child custody, and background screening services. Mirrors O'Connell's service portfolio and direct-to-consumer, discreet delivery model.
• International Claims Specialists (ICS): Specialized investigations firm supporting insurance carriers with surveillance and fraud-claims investigations. Comparable to O'Connell on fraud-investigation and covert surveillance capability but with a corporate/insurance-client focus rather than consumer domestic cases.
• Bishop & Associates Investigations: Mid-sized U.S. private investigation firm offering domestic surveillance, infidelity, child custody, and corporate investigations. Closely comparable to O'Connell in service mix, target customers, and regional/private boutique delivery model.
• Lyon Investigations: U.S. private investigations firm covering surveillance, infidelity, child custody, and missing-persons cases. Comparable to O'Connell as a similarly sized regional/direct-to-consumer surveillance provider with overlapping service offerings.
• Snap Investigations: Regional private investigations firm specializing in infidelity, child custody, and covert surveillance cases. Direct competitor to O'Connell with similar use-case focus, evidence-based delivery, and individual/family-law client base.
• Truth Investigations: Private investigation agency focused on infidelity, child custody, and domestic surveillance matters. Highly comparable to O'Connell in niche specialization, evidence-oriented service delivery, and target customer (individuals in family-law disputes).

Emerging players

• Sterling Talent Solutions: Background screening and identity verification provider serving employers, landlords, and gig platforms. Adjacent to O'Connell's computer research and background-check capabilities but focused on employment screening rather than covert surveillance.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about O'Connell & Associates