NU Online News Service
The president of auto insurer Progressive issued a public apology today after a newspaper revealed that in 2005 company investigators had infiltrated a church support group to spy on a couple that was suing the insurer.
Glenn Renwick, president and chief executive officer of the Mayfield Village, Ohio-based Progressive, in his statement of apology said he was "appalled" and did not initially believe the report in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
According to the newspaper, two investigators were looking for dirt on Bill and Leandra Pitts in order to discredit their legal action after a traffic accent.
The Progressive operatives, it was reported, attended support sessions at the private home of a minister, where group members confessed personal indiscretions, and secretly tape recorded them.
The activity was revealed in a lawsuit filed last week in Fulton County Georgia State Court against Progressive Northern Insurance Co., attorneys for the insurer and investigators James Purgason Jr. and Paige Weeks of Merlin Investigations.
CEO Renwick said today, "What the investigators and Progressive people involved in that case did was wrong--period. I personally want to apologize to anyone who was affected by this incident.
"At Progressive, we have a stated set of Core Values that we use to guide our decision making and actions. One of these Values is the Golden Rule--treat others as you would like to be treated. The actions of the investigators and Progressive people involved in this situation were incompatible with our Values and inappropriate."
He added that he wanted to assure customers the firm is "committed to doing the right thing. We know that we were wrong in this situation and we take full responsibility for the mistakes that were made."
The company he said now has guidelines that "prohibit any type of misrepresentation in conducting investigations. Those guidelines have been widely communicated internally and we now audit to ensure compliance."
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