When is Surveillance conducted?
Welcome back to another article relating to my series on Surveillance. The question of when surveillance is conducted may be an odd one to ask. The obvious and correct answer is, “Surveillance can be conducted at any time!”. And it is.
Surveillance can be planned or can happen at the spur of the moment. Surveillance teams work closely within their own law enforcement and intelligence organizations to determine what are the best times to cover a target.
Regarding a newly discovered target, a meeting will take place between intelligence officers and the surveillance team to provide an overall understanding of the concern surrounding the target, the targets known habits, associates, modes of transportation and any other details that the intelligence officer /s feels will be of interest or importance to the team.
Meetings like these will happen regularly as the back and forth of information collected by the surveillance team and the officers investigating the targets will be exchanged to improve on future surveillance operations and allow for further insights into the target.
Deciding on a time to conduct surveillance against a target is affected by several factors. Is the team located in the city or location where the target is known to live, work, travel? A surveillance team may need to set up in location is that is outside their regular area of operation or travel with a target to another location where the target can be handed off to a separate team. This kind of coordination may necessitate longer than usual periods of coverage. Also, the surveillance team may need to travel to the area to gain further situational awareness of the environment. This includes, streets, locations of interest and importance to the target’s habits and whereabouts, traffic patterns, contact with local law enforcement to inform them of their presence and so forth.
Is the target typically more active during the day or in the evening? During the week or on the weekends?
An assessment of when the most advantageous time would be to cover the target must be considered. There is no use covering a target when you know for certain that the target is likely to remain static at their residence, or some other location, for an extended period. Unless the goal is to identify others who may come to visit the target. As in the target is hosting a gathering that would provide insight into others who may also be of concern or future targets themselves.
Information on a new target may be extremely limited, and as such, a surveillance team may be asked to cover them at a random time and date to assess their schedule, habits, contacts and whereabouts. This can, and usually is of vital importance to an investigation in the early stages.
Targets of opportunity arise when surveillance is being conducted against one target, but another known target is recognized by a member of the surveillance team in an area or location that is being monitored at the time. This may result in some of the team peeling off to conduct surveillance against the second target. Additionally, if a target has contacted an unknown person, members of the surveillance team may continue to observe the activities and movements of the unidentified individual, until such time as identifying information may be acquired.
Is nighttime the right time for surveillance?
Surveillance can begin in the evening hours or start anytime and continue late into the night. The cover of darkness provides its own set of challenges to a surveillance team. One of the most obvious being difficulty to fully identify or continue to keep an eye on the target, their vehicle or maintain a static location without bring attention to themselves.
During the day, natural light assists in differentiating between a blue van and black one, but this may be less so in the evening or late at night, leaving a team to rely on headlights, taillights or other distinctive features of the target and their mode of transportation. However, the cover of darkness also provides the same benefits to the surveillant. As vehicles and individuals may be less likely spotted or remembered if they aren’t as noticeable in broad daylight.
