A Guide to Business Organization Flexible_13

Foot and Vehicle Surveillance 263 insurance companies or through other illegal acts, and it is in their best interest to ensure that the flow of money is not going to be interrupt-ed. Many of our subjects know that they may have surveillance con-ducted on them, and they will take steps to find that out. It is as easy as having their wife, girlfriend, a friend, a coworker, and so on, watch to see if someone follows the subjects when they drive away or if someone parks close by just after the subjects arrive home or at work. An exceptional investigation and surveillance can be neutralized very easily through compromise. Your surveillance activities could be quickly identified by a successful countersurveillance mounted against you. The sophisticationanddegreeofcountersurveillancewillvarywiththetypeof investigation you are conducting. You must always assume that counter- surveillance is being directed against your surveillance operation. Let us look at some of the methods of countersurveillance that are likely to be used against you and what you can or should do about it. Countersurveillance includes all actions designed to detect surveil-lance activity. The most common and most successful type of counter-surveillance involves the use of fixed point locations. The fixed point provides greater security to the countersurveillance team. Subjects may follow a specific path or route and along this route will be the countersurveillance chokepoints. A chokepoint is nothing more than a location through which surveillance members must travel and from which countersurveillance can quickly and easily identify if there is any surveillance. Some examples of chokepoints are the following: • Passageways between one street and another. • Stores or buildings with glass walls allowing an unobstructed view of the outside street. • Homes of acquaintances, family, or friends. • Stairways and escalators facing in the direction from which the subject has just come. • Short, narrow alleys. • Tourist observation points that allow the subject to turn around and take photos. • Parking lots. • Department stores. • Phone booths (anyone approaching the booth while the subject places a call, or soon afterward, is considered a subject). 264 Basic Private Investigation • Lightly traveled streets and sidewalks. • Subway stations. • Change of transportation. • Bridges • Highway entrance or exit ramps. When using these chokepoints, the countersurveillance is basically looking for some very telltale signals or behavior that the investigators will automatically exhibit. Some of these include the following: • Hesitation or evasion on the part of a person or car. • The same car or person seen two or more times in two or more different areas or after two or more changes of transportation. • Vehicles that stop or start when the subjects do, especially behind them, or who pass and make a U-turn, then park. • Any vehicle with other than a normal antenna. • Cars that signal a turn and then do not make it. • After the subject turns, any vehicle that goes slowly through the intersection, rounds the corner slowly, or pokes its nose around the corner and then withdraws. • Vehicles driving too fast or too slow. • Any vehicles that follow the subject the wrong way on a one-way street. • Any car that makes a turn a block before or a block after the sub-ject stops. • Flashing of lights between cars. • Any car that maintains the same distance at different speeds. • Vehicles moving on parallel streets at roughly the same speeds under conditions of light or no traffic. • Vehicles that slow down and duck behind other cars when the subject slows down. • Vehicles that hide behind buses or pull out as if to pass the sub-ject’s car, then drop back. • Any vehicle that follows or soon turns onto the street after the subject reverses direction. • Any person seen talking on a mobile phone. • Any vehicle following the subject completely around a traffic cir-cle or a city block. Foot and Vehicle Surveillance 265 • Any vehicle pausing in a traffic circle until the subject has turned. • Any vehicle that stops slightly behind and to the side of the sub- ject at a stop light. • Jumping or running red lights. On foot, subjects may consider the following as evidence or grounds for suspicion: • Anyone turning his or her head away or turning around when looked at by the subject. • Anyone showing hesitation and/or looking around when entering a building that the subject has just entered. • Anyone crossing the street when the subject doubles back in the direction he has come from. • Dress out of place. • Anyone running. • Anyone entering by a service entrance in a restaurant. • Leaving or entering a store, restaurant, for example, immediately before or after the subject. • Making an obvious attempt to get a table or spot behind the sub-ject in a restaurant. • Special attention paid to people waiting at bus stops. • Any person who begins to move when the subject does or stops when the subject does. • Any person who gets out of a car when the subject does. Another method of countersurveillance is to employ a convoy. The countersurveillance will follow the person they are interested in at a discreet distance and attempt to identify surveillance team members attempting to follow the subject. You must always be wary of locations, routes of travel, and actions that may place the subject into a location that is ideally suited to con-duct countersurveillance. More and more, sophisticated technical devices and countersurveillance techniques are being employed by those involved in illegal activities. The surveillance team must consid-er that they are always being watched and take no action that would identify them to the countersurveillance team. 266 Basic Private Investigation It should be obvious that countersurveillance is definitely a force to be reckoned with. If we fail to plan for it, it can ruin months of work in short order SURVEILLANCE CONCEALMENT Duringtheprocessof“previewing”thesubjectandduringtheprocess of taking film, it is vital to remain unobserved. Remaining unobserved is an art and a science. All investigators have their favorite ways of con-cealing themselves in their vehicles, but here are a few pointers. • Remaining unseen in your vehicle while conducting surveillance is paramount! You must be concealed from the sight of not only the subject, but also neighbors, passersby, children playing, work-ers in the area, in short, everyone. If you are seen sitting in your vehicle for a length of time with no apparent purpose, you draw suspicion. People may suspect you are “casing” the area to do a robbery, or you may be a child molester who is waiting for a tar-get of opportunity. You are going to seem suspicious and someone may blow your cover. • Using sunshades, towels, curtains, dark window tint, window cutouts, or a combination of any of these will greatly assist you in maintaining your concealment in your vehicle. Towels and cur-tains hung from the interior header trim is especially useful, because it prevents others from seeing into your vehicle, but still allows you to part the screening slightly to observe and film your subject. • Generally speaking, when you block out three sides of a vehicle, persons outside the vehicle cannot see into the fourth side unless the sun or some other lighting is shining directly into the fourth side. This is especially true when there is a considerable distance between the investigator’s vehicle and the subject. SURVEILLANCE EQUIPMENT Being prepared to conduct surveillance requires more than just knowledge of the case, of the claimant, and of surveillance techniques. Foot and Vehicle Surveillance 267 It requires being prepared to do the job by having the equipment nec-essary to conduct surveillance. The following is a list of some of the basic equipment necessary to conduct surveillance: Video Camera Camera Mount Camera Bag Cellular Telephone Micro Recorder Props and Disguises Survival Gear Make sure your camera is in good working or-der and that you have extra batteries and the batteries are fully charged. Have a supply of fresh videotapes on hand. Have a tripod, bipod, or monopod available to assist you in holding the camera still during long-term filming sessions. It does not matter who you are, your hands and arms are going to get tired when you try to hold a camera steady for an hour at a time. Having a bag to conceal your camera for use indoors is critical. This is discussed in detail elsewhere in this manual. Make sure you know how to operate it proper-ly and that your battery is fully charged before you begin surveillance. Make sure the cigarette lighter adapter works properly. Having a recorder is a great way to keep sur-veillance notes, especially when things are hap-pening quickly or you are driving. Ensure your recorder has good batteries, and you have extra tapes (for tape-type recorders). Investigators worth their salt have a variety of props and disguises to use on surveillance. This may include hats, glasses, long and short pants, wigs, beards and mustaches, jackets, and so on. Do not forget about your vehicle. Items such as blankets or extra clothing to cover your inves-tigative equipment, baby seats, bumper stickers on magnetic tape, sunshades, curtains or towels, and so on are all essential. A cooler with ice and drinks, food and snacks, hand warmers, a “potty bottle,” a battery-oper-ated fan, and so forth are essential in allowing ... - tailieumienphi.vn