Whenever I speak to a prospective client looking for Surveillance services that involves any sort of following on foot, vehicle, or public transport I always advise to use at least two surveillance operatives. The reason being if you cut corners by paying for one operative it can go horribly wrong.

Very recently we were tasked with a client looking for a private investigator in Coventry to prove where a person was working, residing and to show that they were in full time employment. The client was advised that to do the surveillance professionally to minimise risks of loss of the Subject and compromise that they should use at least two Coventry private investigators.

The client stated that due to budget that they were prepared to only utilise one Coventry private detective. We tried to no avail to advise the client about the pitfalls but they ignored our advice.

To cut a long story short the surveillance operation took four times as long to obtain the evidence needed as the surveillance operative constantly had to back off to avoid compromise. The operatives surveillance skills were stretched to the extreme, not only to get the result but to avoid compromising the whole operation. At times when he had to hold back some crucial evidence was missed that would not have happened had there been two operatives on the operation.

Example, on one of the days the client needed to prove how long the Subject was driving for whilst carrying out his work. Also required evidence of the Subject returning into the workplace. The first objective was accomplished but near to the workplace the operative got held at traffic lights and the crucial evidence of the Subject driving into the workplace was lost. Remedy? Another day’s surveillance, in fact on the second day he did not go back to the workplace and so another day’s surveillance was required and another day’s pay.

Had the client had listened to us in the first place, on day one with the first objective accomplished the other operative would have been laying in wait to obtain evidence for the second objective and saved some money. Pay cheap pay twice or maybe as on this occasion pay thrice.