The fictional character Sherlock Holmes was an outstanding detective. He studied his crime scenes in great detail looking for as many clues as he could find. Holmes was well known for discovering clues that nobody else had picked up on. From this he then generated a theory about the crime and set about to test it. He eliminated possibilities about the crime, bit by bit, and whatever remained, no matter how unbelievable it was must be the truth. The technical term for this method is abductive reasoning and Sherlock Holmes was without a doubt the king of it.

But although Holmes’ skill set was like nobody else’s, if he was alive today his job would have been so much different. With the amount of new technology in the world, private investigation for Holmes would have been a great deal easier.

If Sherlock Holmes was non-fictional, and alive in the world today, here are some gadgets that he could have done with.

A Pen Recorder

Although Sherlock Holmes had a brilliant memory and could remember lots of snippets of detail, if he had one of these pens, it would still help him a lot. Pen recorders as the name suggests are just small recording devices fitted inside a normal pen. They have an internal memory which can allow for a few hours of recording time and are easily hooked up to a computer via USB (Holmes would have to have a computer as well). This means that when Holmes was talking to suspects he could play back their conversation at a later date, either to confirm suspicions or pick up on any clues he had previously missed.

A GPS Tracker

Although when Sherlock Holmes was set, cars weren’t as abundant as they are today, a GPS tracking advice still would have been pretty handy for Holmes. He could have just slipped it in a suspects car or in their jacket pocket and monitored their behaviour to see if it was suspicious. It would also have made it easier if the suspect tried to evade arrest, as Holmes would be able to know exactly where they were as GPS tracking devices work all over the globe.

A HD Camera

Private investigation involves following people and observing them go about their daily activities. In Sherlock Holmes and near enough any book about private investigation, the strange incriminating behaviour usually takes place when it starts to get dark. If Sherlock Holmes had a HD camera he could have recorded suspects and made sure it was definitely them before moving in to question them or to arrest them. The quality of a HD camera could help identify a suspects face from a few hundred meters away. This would mean that Holmes cover would never have to be blown.

These are just a few of the gadgets Sherlock Holmes could have done with, which could have made his job a lot easier. If he was such a brilliant detective without the technology, how much better could he have been if these gadgets were available when he was around?!

This is a guest post by Sam Taylor. Occasional guest blogger on asset investigation. Sam currently represents Beacon Investigation Solutions.