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The distorted portrayal of private
detectives
and undercover police officers performing surveillance on television
and in the movies can often give viewers a very slanted perspective
of this line of work. The actors in these shows are often depicted
observing the bad guys doing evil deeds with extreme speed and
relative ease, and are rarely shown drawing any unwanted attention
to themselves. Further, they almost always catch the person “in the
act” every time and you will rarely see one of these Hollywood
professionals being stared at by a passerby or neighbor, or being
stopped and questioned by the police. And how is it that they can
follow a person’s vehicle for hours by remaining only inches from
that person’s car without ever being noticed?
Unfortunately, these portrayals make this type of work look very
simple and the people who perform it, simple minded. The truth is,
there is rarely anything speedy, easy or simple about it. Cases
requiring surveillance take careful planning and time,
not-to-mention trained personnel, each possessing a great deal of
unobtrusiveness, patience and finesse. In the following paragraphs
we address and attempt to dispel for you a few of the most Common
Misconceptions Of Surveillance.
The first common misconception pertains to what is termed Stationary
Surveillance. Stationary Surveillance is the act of surveillance
performed by a single investigator who sits and watches a particular
subject, vehicle, residence or building. Unlike what can often be
viewed on the big screen, operatives that perform such work and the
vehicles that they use to transport themselves in, are not
invisible. These individuals often must sit for hours upon hours
before anything ever happens and a fair percentage of locations
cannot be watched directly by one person without that person being
too close and very obvious to the target subject.
This means that the investigator often has to park some distance
away from the location he/she is attempting to monitor. In doing so,
the investigator will often be noticed by unrelated subjects living
or walking about in the area. In recent years, members of society
have grown a great deal more aware of their personal surroundings,
especially when in their own neighborhoods. They can be quick to
notice any unfamiliar or suspicious persons or vehicles. This is
most likely a result of the sharp rise in awareness surrounding
crimes against our country, our property and children, as well as
the aggressive promotion of neighborhood watch programs by police.
Thus, the reality of this situation is that an unfamiliar vehicle or
subject sitting in a vehicle on a residential street will rarely go
unnoticed these days. In the real world, neighbors routinely notice
investigators, sometimes approach them and occasionally contact the
police. This means that in most cases, both the frequency and the
duration of Stationary Surveillance needs to be closely monitored,
particularly when the surveillance is being performed in the target
subject’s own neighborhood.
Another common misconception regarding surveillance is related to a
case’s duration, or the time it takes to solve it. Another is the
notion that investigations are always solved quickly, or as some
television producers would have you believe, in less than an hour,
leaving just enough time for a few commercial breaks and the
production credits.
The truth is, even the simplest of cases can require many separate
occasions of investigation. These occasions are usually spread out
over a period of several weeks and occasionally even months.
Investigations are like jigsaw puzzles with the many small portions
of surveillance representing the individual pieces that fit together
to form the entire picture. Each of these portions will usually
reveal only a tiny bit of information about the subject’s
activities. Just as with putting a jigsaw puzzle together, the
nearer you get to the end of the puzzle, the more clearly the
picture begins to reveal itself and you can then quickly guess where
the last few pieces should go. In an investigation, once many of the
missing pieces of information are put into place, we can often see
what the rest of the picture should look like. It is usually only
after several periods of surveillance that we are able to learn
enough about the person’s actions and patterns to enable us to
successfully solve the case. Investigators who attempt to solve a
case in a day or who blanket a target subject with surveillance will
often run the risk of getting caught by their target and therefore
wasting their client’s money.
Finally, one of the most common and perhaps greatest misconceptions
surrounding surveillance deals with the Art of Tailing. Tailing is
following someone without their knowledge for the purpose of
learning something and/or documenting their activities. Again,
unlike what is often seen in today’s films, tailing is extremely
difficult, very stressful to the operative and can sometimes become
dangerous.
It is especially difficult to tail someone in a downtown
metropolitan area such as Washington, DC, where sudden changes in
road conditions, construction and a ton of traffic congestion can
make tailing even the most courteous or unaware driver, nearly
impossible. Successful tailing requires that an investigator
maintain a fine balance between being too aggressive, thus being
detected by the target subject, and being too passive and losing the
tail altogether.
For these reasons, effective tailing often requires the use of
multiple investigators in separate vehicles. These investigators are
in constant contact with one another by two-way radio and work
together as a team to keep their eyes on the target subject and on
the road ahead. Even still, letting the wrong driver’s car get
between you and the target subject’s vehicle can turn a long-awaited
opportunity to solve a case into a big waste of time in an instant.
This is because the car you have just let in decided to stop for a
yellow traffic light and the only thing you can do is stop behind
him and watch as your target subject drives off out of view and into
the sunset.
As we have just outlined for you, performing stationary surveillance
can be very tedious and painstaking work that is often interrupted
by protective neighbors and the police. Most cases take several
occasions of surveillance to solve, which can be stretched out over
a period of weeks if not months. And tailing someone without their
knowledge is a very difficult and stressful task, one that can often
result in the loss of the subject, requiring investigators to come
back another day. But now that we have covered the common
misconceptions, you should have a clearer understanding of some the
benefits of hiring professionals to perform this truly difficult,
complicated and very sensitive type of work for you.
This article was written by Kenneth P. D'Angelo, President of
Target Investigations, Inc in Gaithersburg, MD. |
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Got-Cha Surveillance
19 Landon Street • Pittston, PA 18640
Toll Free: 1-866-654-4889
(570)654-4889
E-mail:
wiltoole@aol.com |
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