About Sun State
Our goal is to exceed your expectations. Successful private investigations do not happen by accident. They are the result of a talented team of professionals working together and utilizing the appropriate tools.
Warren J. Sonne BCPI CLI
Our President, Warren J. Sonne was born in Brooklyn, NY, and attended George W. Wingate High School and New York Institute of Technology.
After joining the NYPD in 1968, Sonne left the uniformed service in 1972, and was assigned to the NYPD’s Narcotics Division where he worked both as an undercover and a field investigator.
During the next 18 years Sonne was assigned to investigate Terrorist Groups, Sex Crimes in Queens, and subsequently to the Queens Detective Task Force, the 108 and 110 Precinct Detective Units, the Special Investigations Division as a Polygraph Examiner, and finally returning to the 108 Precinct where he finished his career investigating Homicides and developing an intelligence file on Korean Gangs.
Accolades
Sonne, is a recipient of the Combat Cross, the NYPD’s second highest award “granted to members of the service who, having received “Honorable Mention” awards, successfully and intelligently performed an act of extraordinary heroism while engaged in personal combat with an armed adversary under circumstances of imminent personal hazard to life.” He has also received numerous other medals and awards for excellent and meritorious police work, and is a member of the NYPD’s Honor Legion.
During his NYPD career, Sonne attended extensive specialized investigative training including several advanced Criminal Investigators Courses, Advanced Narcotics Training, Nikon’s Forensic Photography Course, Arson Investigators Course, Homicide Investigators Course, Sex Crimes Investigators Course, Explosives Investigation, Heavy and Automatic Weapons training, Pursuit Driving Course, among others.
Since retiring from the NYPD in 1989, Sonne founded and remains president of two private investigation agencies; Pinnacle Protective Services, Inc. in New York, and Sun State Investigative Services in Florida. He was also the founder and first president of the United States Association of Professional Investigators, www.usapi.org
As a private investigator, Sonne has gained worldwide recognition in the areas of product liability and insurance defense, representing such clients as Ford Motor Company, Volkswagen Group of America, Mercedes Benz, Electric Insurance Company, and many others, including some of Americas leading law firms and Third Party Administrators.
Sonne is a Certified Protection Professional (CPP) through ASIS, and a Certified Legal Investigator (CLI) through NALI. He was the Associate Editor-Law Enforcement at PI Magazine as well as a contributing author for Officer.com
Sonne’s book “Criminal Investigations for the Professional Investigator” is published by Taylor&Francis/CRC Press.
The author of many articles featured in PI Magazine and Officer.com. Sonne has recentlly authored chapters in “Basic Private Investigations” (2011) and the upcoming 2012 book entiltled, “Private Investigation: More Specialized Skills for the Private Investigator” both published by Charles C Thomas.
Our Mission
Our GOAL is to provided Superior performance, which means:
We will deliver the highest quality services, which address the needs of our clients.Our dealings with our clients, employees, other professionals, and the subjects of our investigations will be marked by dignity, fairness and respect.
We will maintain high levels of productivity and efficiency and constantly strive to improve our investigative and consulting services.
We will continuously reinvest in the business to maintain and improve our ability to provide quality investigative services and to insure our clients’ information is safe and secure. By providing quality investigative and consulting services we will maintain business longevity.
Our investigators will comply with the laws of the various states in which we operate, and we will never place our clients in jeopardy of criminal actions.
Code of Ethics
- Conduct all investigations and allied matters with integrity in accordance with all laws, professional and moral guidelines, and never be guilty of conduct which will bring reproach upon the profession of the private investigator or our clients.
- Require a client’s undertaking that all information provided by the client is for lawful use only.
- Require that all employees and others assisting in an investigation abide by our Code of Ethics. To respect the best interest of our clients by maintaining the high standard of proficiency, while reporting to our clients all the facts discovered whether they be advantageous or detrimental, and nothing be withheld from the clients within the dictates of law.
- Assist all regulatory and legal authorities when required to do so by law.
- To respect the privacy of clients and their lawful confidence.
- To conduct each and every phase of every investigation in a fair and impartial manner, not only to our client but also to every subject, witness, person, or entity touched by our investigations.
- Not misrepresent or exaggerate the activities and services offered by the profession.
- To ensure that services are adequately secure to protect privacy and to guard against inadvertent disclosure of private information.
- To protect the individual privacy rights of each subject and client and to conduct our investigations in balance with those rights.
- Comply with the regulatory and legal requirements within our operational jurisdictions.
- To ensure that all employees and other persons paid to assist an investigation adhere to this Code of Ethics and to accept responsibility thereof.