NOTES ON
TRADECRAFT
SURVEILLANCE
CONFIRMING IDENTITY AND OCCUPANCY
Eye Spy provides background notes on some of the investigative avenues available to surveillance officers when faced with a difficult and aware target keen to hide his true identity and location erifying a target’s identity and presence quickly in a certain location and/or accuracy of an address can be a difficult task. In an official surveillance situation, whilst speed is sometimes essential, an incorrect call, especially one made during an on-going counter-terrorist operation can be a matter of life or death. One only has to examine the case of the unfortunate Brazilian, Jean Charles de Menezes, who was shot dead after being mistaken for a dangerous al-Qaida terrorist in London in 2005. Even professionals make mistakes. De Menezes’s contained flat in an apartment block that was being surveilled, and misidentification by an officer, proved critical in this case.
V
Before considering some of the tactics used to properly identify high-profile targets whose sole objective is to remain out of sight, it’s important to understand the nature and seriousness of a particular case will always determine just how many officers and resources are deployed. Confirmation that a target or ‘person of interest’ has been located and properly identified allows the intelligence process to develop, depending on the objective of the task in hand. On a commercial level, if the surveillance is simply to confirm occupancy, then the operation has achieved all its primary goals. If such a positive call forms but part of a far more complex government investigation, where counter-terrorism or counter-espionage officials are deployed, for example, then it may
be just the beginning of another intelligenceled process. And it’s to the latter scenario that we examine and afford more prominence here. Equally important in these tough days of recession is to ensure valuable time, money and resources are not wasted on a surveillance operation that by definition may involve several operatives and agencies. This is particularly true at a government level, but commercial enterprises don’t want to get bogged down in a protracted investigation that achieves nothing. Spending days, perhaps weeks at an incorrect address or monitoring the wrong target is not an option. However, if the person stays put and is inclined not to venture outdoors, confirming his or her identity then becomes just a little trickier. Nevertheless, such actions will be
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