The Patience of a Saint!

08/01/2008 by admin.

An increasing amount of clients come to us who have tried and subsequently failed to follow a target or conduct their own surveillance. It works for some; but for the vast majority it fails miserably. This usually happens for the simple fact that it is not easy.

Few can conduct static surveillance because they do not have the right tools for the job and because they are part of the locality that they want to watch. Even fewer are successful at mobile or foot surveillance. Simply because it can seldomly be done by a single person and may need a team.

It all looks so easy in the movies doesn’t it? In the movies the car never turns right out of a ‘T’ junction and across traffic (building on the gap and the amount of cars between the follower and the followed) or makes it through the lights at the junction, leaving the follower on a red light behind an Argos lorry!

We recently had a female client who had even hired a van and a car in a bid to follow her errant husband. The only winner was the hire car company several times over. On the time that she hired the van she managed to follow him not much beyond his work entrance/exit before losing him in rush hour traffic in less than a minute.

And this happens; and I know this because………… Because it happens to the professionals too.

Surveillance is a game of patience. It sometimes will take more than the one time to prove or disprove those suspicions. To find out what happens every Thursday night after work when he is supposed to be at the ‘club’ may take several Thursdays.

And finally when the destination is known, it’s another waiting game, often for hours for what could possibly be a second of opportunity to take a photograph or shoot video. Remember of course you can’t use a ‘flash’ or ask for a second pose like a wedding photographer. It’s a one chance only situation.

There is of course another way; and that is the subject of another post.‹(-¿•)›

Posted in Surveillance | Print | No Comments »