Considerations on vehicles for surveillance.

When planning for a surveillance operation there is one critical factor that is overlooked when carrying out risk assessment strategies and that is the vehicles that will be used on the surveillance operation. Let me explain a little more.

Quite often especially for larger surveillance operations you may have to call in for assistance using surveillance operatives that you have never worked with before. Jobs get posted on various PI forums such as “X2 operatives required for a surveillance in Coventry on Monday”. What will usually happen here is anyone that’s available that day will shout up for the job, the person posting out the job will (if they have got anything about them) most likely if he does not know the operatives that have shouted up, do a little due diligence enquiries to find out if these people are up to the task in hand. They may ask about their experience, camera skills etc. But rarely if ever ask what vehicles they drive.

So, why is this important? One of the fundamental reasons for using more than one operative/vehicle on surveillance is so that each vehicle gets limited exposure from the subject of enquiry. If you can imagine one car behind him on a long journey this greatly increases the chances of them realising that vehicle has been behind them for a long time. This is when they will carry out anti-surveillance manoeuvres to confirm their suspicion that they are being followed. At this point the whole operation is blown if the operative carries on following or aborted and the moment is lost if the operative realises what is happening and decides to have a tactical loss. The answer is to use two or more vehicles but pointless if both operatives turn up in two black ford focuses! to the subject of enquiry he will still see a black ford focus behind him all the time. For this reason when carrying out your due diligence one question you should be asking is what vehicle will you be using.

Questions to ask your client

This is probably more crucial in private matters such as a matrimonial/infidelity case but worth asking in other scenarios too.  A private detective agency when taking instruction from a client will ask all the normal questions such as a description of the person they require putting under surveillance,  as well as the vehicle that the subject of enquiry drives but quite often not think to ask their client is what car they (the client) drives. Why is this important? Actually it is quite crucial. I ask how many of you take notice when you see a car/van that looks like your partners car? I will wager that most of you do, I certainly do. Now if one of the vehicles used on the surveillance is the same make and model as his/her partners then it will quite probably get noticed quickly, if it is same make, model and colour, it will most certainly get noticed. And if it is seen behind them on say, three occasions then alarm bells will ring for sure. This will also be true if any of the operatives are using similar vehicles to the person they are following.

Having this information beforehand allows you to prepare for this and greatly reduces the surveillance operation from falling down at the first hurdle.

Cheating partner habits.

Having done this job for 25 years I will share an observation that I have noticed time and again. If a cheating partner meets up somewhere with their secret lover they will nearly always try and park as close to their lovers vehicle as possible in a car park. This could be at any venue such as a pub, restaurant or hotel. For this reason if we arrive after the subject of enquiry has exited their vehicle we always take note and capture imagery of  vehicles in close proximity.

© M.R.Investigations Ltd October 2023.