THE ART OF SURVEILLANCE

Whether you’re doing vehicle or walking surveillances, there are certain traits you need to acquire to be good at it.  The first one is patience.  You may be sitting in a vehicle for four or six hours and then suddenly your subject comes out of a location and you have to react.  The next important trait is concentration.  You have to be focused on that residence or that vehicle, possibly for a lengthy period of time.  One turn of the head, one mental lapse, and you can miss your subject and blow the surveillance.  You also have to have confidence in yourself and fight off the feeling that you’ve been ‘burned.’  Although it’s hard for new people in this field to understand, most subjects are completely oblivious to their surroundings and never pay attention to a tail.  Here are some tips to help you out.  Whether you’re on foot or in a vehicle, try not to bumper lock the subject.  You don’t have to be right behind the subject in the same lane in a car or even on the same side of the street on foot in order to follow him.  Beginners at this are often paranoid and think that if the subject looks in their direction their burned.  This is rarely if ever the case.  Here’s my rule of thumb.  One look by the subject directly at me, no big deal.  The emphasis here is on directly at me.  A second direct look and I have to be real careful.  Now you have to decide if you want to risk a third direct look or come back another day.  This will most likely depend on how many hours of surveillance the client has agreed on.  A third direct look and you’re probably burned.  Lastly, you learn best by doing it, so go out and do it.