Private Investigator & Security Consulting

Brett was certified in Michigan as a police officer in 1982, after obtaining the required criminal justice training hours.  He was then hired by the Benton Harbor Police Department in Michigan, which at the time was ranked as the most dangerous city in the US.  In 1985, he attended the Michigan State Police – Supervisor Development School, in order to become a shift supervisor. 

In 1986, Brett accepted a job offer with the Elkhart City Police Department.  During his 20 years there, he spent 17 years in (C.I.D.) the Criminal Investigations Division, 14 years of which, being assigned more than 100 major crimes each year, including burglary, rape, arson, aggravated assaults, robbery, bank robbery, and homicide.  He was fortunate and proud to receive many awards and commendations during that time for solving complex cases, with a better-than 99% conviction rate. 

The 1988 murder of his own brother, Jonathon, in South Bend, Indiana, gave Brett a deep personal understanding of the pain and grief felt by families of murder victims.  A rare perspective for any police investigator to have.  That single act made a significant change in Brett and subconsciously created a deep passion in him to understand why some people commit violent crimes.  While he hid the pain and grieved in private for many years, the grief fueled him as a detective, in every way.  As his passion grew to understand violent crime and violent criminals, he attended more than 50 specialized investigative training schools and received multiple certifications related to all types of investigations.  He also became a trainer/instructor in 1993 in multiple areas within investigations, including Interview and Interrogation.  He would spend the rest of his career striving to master investigative strategy, criminal investigations, human behavior, and the Reid Method of Interrogation.  Over the years, he has strategically interviewed thousands of suspects; hundreds of whom were violent offenders; each and every interview conducted with the goal of gaining a deeper understanding of the person, and more importantly, how, and why they committed their crimes.  This extensive, first-hand knowledge of criminology, with a focus on how and why criminals do what they do, helped Brett develop an even deeper understanding of true crime prevention, investigative strategy, and criminal investigations. 

By 1999, Brett began to notice a service gap, where police departments could not assist businesses or people until an actual crime was committed; caused in part by existing laws, and some caused in part by a lack of police department resources.  So, in 2006, Brett retired to operate Coppins Investigative & Security Group, Inc., the company he founded with the deep desire to assist and consult the private sector with investigative and security support.  While taking on new clients, Brett accepted a contract in 2008, serving the US Department of Defense as an International Police Advisor and was assigned to Iraq.  During 2009 and again in 2010, he was promoted twice to a Senior Criminal Investigations Advisor reporting directly to the U.S. State Department.  His primary assignment was as a Subject Matter Expert (SME).  He trained, mentored, and supported Iraqi and Kurdish forces in Criminal Investigations and the Reid Method of Interview and Interrogation.

After ending his last contract and coming home from Iraq in 2011, Brett returned to serving individuals and businesses by striving to provide the most experienced investigative and security support possible. 

While he was proud of his accomplishments, he said he tributes all of his success to four things; his very first training officer in Benton Harbor, his own father’s example of hard work, the training he received, and the senior detectives and officers, who he watched closely and learned from for many years. 

When asked about the case that he is most proud of, he said, it was his contribution to solving the 30-year-old unsolved murder of Mariam Rice of South Bend.  He and his cold case partner worked on that investigation for several years before solving the crime and being able to identify two important witnesses, who were critical to making two arrests and bringing some level of peace to the family.  Brett said, the uniform officers and detectives from 1988 accomplished most of the work and should be credited with solving the case all these years later.  He said, from reading through all of the original and investigative reports, it was evident they were thorough and dedicated and did an amazing job of documenting their efforts.  He and his partner were blessed to have been able to find the last few critical pieces of evidence and push the case over the finish line.