The RiverFront Times, "StakeOut"

They don't make men like… Mike Barbieri anymore. Whether that's good or bad is open to debate. We're talking serious, major macho, here. Macho crotcho. Rootin'-tootin'-cowboy, bang-bang-shoot-'em-up-you're-dead macho. Men who wouldn't even dream of saying "Thank you for sharing." Men who'd rather send their children to bed with no dessert and no TV than get in touch with them.

Men you'd want on your side if you were in trouble… Barbieri oversees Personality Dimensions Inc.

…Barbieri, even on a warm summer day, wears a well-tailored wool jacket, mock turtleneck sweater and snakeskin boots. In conversation, Barbieri bobs, feints and weaves… Barbieri, with his warm eyes, soothing voice and three dozen different ways of saying, "No comment," is buffed and polished…

…"Yeah, we were kickin' in doors together on the North Side before there was a SWAT team," recalls Barbieri, all misty-eyed and nostalgic…

…police work wasn't diverse enough, exciting enough or lucrative enough… Besides, cops have to deal with all those nasty rules and regulations pertaining to suspects' rights… Barbieri is frequently called into duty by the city's top law firms.

…Brad Kessler swears by Barbieri. "Mike Barbieri is one of the best, most consistently reliable investigators in the business," says Kessler, a defense attorney. "Mike's as much a psychologist as he is an investigator."…

…At any given time… [PDI is usually] working on about 10 to 15 cases. "Really, most of what we do is pretty routine, like domestic or financial investigations, missing persons or staking out a factory and videotaping employees who are stealing," says Barbieri.insist that a PI's most valuable tools aren't bullets and high-tech surveillance equipment, but the telephone and the computer terminal…