By ANNEMARIE FRANCZYK
Business First

Somewhere between the intrigue of a complicated crime scene and the tedium of inconclusive surveillance lies private eye Bruce Wagner's favorite assignment.

It involved skip tracing, something that is usually reserved for someone who left town to duck the law. But not this assignment. This one was to reunite two Navy buddies, a happy-ending assignment that called on him to tap nearly all the tricks of his trade.

Wagner, owner of Omniscient Investigations, specializes in criminal work. He gets the bulk of assignments from the Erie County Bar Association's assigned-counsel program, a nonprofit initiative for the defense of indigent criminal suspects. Though reimbursement is roughly half of his usual hourly fee - indeed, the program pays the least of all of his clients - Wagner enjoys criminal investigations most of all for the intellectual exercise. It's simply more dynamic, bringing all his skills into play.

"It's much more interesting to be investigating a murder or a crime than somebody who has defrauded an insurance company," he said.

Wagner had held posts leading nonprofit organizations and was looking for something different when a friend with a private-investigation business needed an office manager. His interest piqued.

While the field is loaded with lawyers and former police detectives, Wagner comes to the profession with a bachelor's degree and some graduate work in cultural anthropology. The training in understanding cultural variations among people and communities has positioned him well for PI work, he said.

"In fieldwork, I had to figure out what happened, when and where. Now, I use a lot of the same skills, paying attention to details and recording them," he said.

New York's licensing standards are among the most rigorous in the country, he said. A potential private investigator here needs to have three years of full-time experience working with investigators in the government, law enforcement or the private sector in order to qualify for the licensing exam. Once the candidate passes the exam, a formal application to the state with references must be made. Fees are $400 every two years for individuals, $500 for businesses.

A New York license is good only in this state, precluding independent PIs like Wagner from working in nearby states or Canada.

The situation tends to tip business toward national vendors who have relationships with investigators in each state, Wagner said.

The competition can be tough on his business, but there seem to be enough referrals coming in from lawyers, insurers, businesses and landlords lately to keep Wagner busy - almost too busy, at times. His biggest challenge is balancing his sometimes 80-hour work week with his personal life, which includes a wife and two young daughters.

After more than five years on his own, Wagner is considering taking on a part-time PI by the end of the year.