The True Facts of Surveillance

Surveillance is a tricky business. Most people think it is easy to follow a person from one place to another, as their experience has shown. However, these people are following "friends" and the "friends" are trying to stay visible so as to not lose their followers. I loathe the way investigative t.v. shows protray the surveillance. They show the investigator in a loud car following right behind the subject through dozens of turns without ever catching a red light or being seen. Investigators watch these types of shows the way Medical Examiners watch CSI, with a roll of the eye and a shake of the head at the unbelievability of it all.

To give an example of common surveillance pitfalls, look at this example. I attempted to follow my wife home from church one Sunday afternoon. She was aware that I was going to follow her, and she was not trying to lose me. She pulled out of the parking lot in front of a large wall of oncoming cars. I immediately lost sight of her and had to wait until the cars passed by to pull out onto the street. I sped up about 15 miles per hour over the speed limit, swerved in and out of traffic and caught up to my wife at the next traffic light. (Since I had a general idea of where she was going I was able to reconnect with her and continue the surveillance. If I had no idea where she was going I might have blown the whole case right from the start).

At the light she was 4 cars ahead of my vehicle. When the light turned green, all but one car in between us turned off. The one car that remained between myself and my wife was a BMW 7 series, a fast car in its own right, but it was obviously being driven by a man whose legs were too short as he was going 30 in a 45. Again, my wife pulled ahead and was able to make a right at the next red light. The BMW stopped for the light (of course) and waited until it turned green to proceed. I therefore had to wait as well, and by the time I turned I could see my wife's vehicle far up ahead about to get onto the freeway. I sped to the freeway ramp, and by the time I got onto the freeway, I could barely make out the back of my wife's vehicle going over the next overpass. As she was driving the speed limit, 65 mph, I had to drive 80 mph just to catch up to her in time to exit the freeway about 3 miles down the road. (This is pretty typical given speed ratios, so imagine a scenario where the traffic on the freeway is rush hour and the subject of your surveillance gets a good jump on you...you can see that the gig would be up pretty quickly).

At the exit, I was again two cars behind my wife's vehicle. We both made the next green light, but then she made it through a yellow and the person in front of me stopped short. I was blocked in by a curb on the left side and another line of cars on the right side. What could I do but stop at the light and wait for it to change. Consequently, the timing of the lights was such that my wife made the next 7 lights and I caught the next 7 lights. By the time I rolled into our driveway at home, my wife had been there for 4 full minutes.

If this had been a real surveillance, it would have been over at the point where my wife made it through the yellow light (the choke point). In this example, the only way I could have avoided that choke point was if I had been right on her tail, which is not always possible or preferred.

I have been doing surveillance consistently for 10 years, and this kind of thing still happens from time to time. A successful surveillance investigator utilizes 33% instinct, 33% discipline, and 33% chance to not lose a subject. If any of these factors are not present on a given day the job is over and the investigator is blamed for being an idiot. Surveillance is a tricky business, and the investigator needs to be duly compensated for the high level of skill required to perform the job successfully.

America's Love Affair with the P.I.

Private investigation has played an important role in not only shaping American pop culture, but also in shaping today's Criminal Justice system. Unquestionably heralded as the first private investigator in the U.S., Allan Pinkerton immigrated from Scotland and started the Pinkerton Detective Agency around 1850. His contributions were many, as he was reported to have stopped an assassination attempt on President Lincoln, formed the first secret service detail, and provided a company structure that would become the model used to start the F.B.I.

Allan passed his company on to his sons, William and Robert, and eventually it made it down to his great grandson before it left family hands.

Around the same time, Arthur Conan Doyle was bringing his character to life in Europe. Sherlock Holmes was highly popular from around 1887 to 1927. Here in America, we got our first taste of the crime fighting professional in True Detective Magazine, started in the early 1920's. Radio broke into the game in the 40's and 50's with soon to be classics like Sam Spade, The Shadow and Dragnet. The first crossover from radio to television was detective legend Martin Kane.

Since that time, there has been a natural progression of television detectives, including: Nick Charles, of the Thin Man Series; Perry Mason; Peter Gunn; Kojak; Columbo; Rockford; and more modern detectives like Matt Houston, Simon and Simon, Magnum P.I. and Spencer for Hire.

Whether or not these characters accurately portray the job of a private investigator is irrelevant to their level of popularity. Obviously America's love affair with the private investigator has solid roots and it is here to stay.

Cell Phone Hell - What Right to Privacy?

Many people are getting on the cell phone privacy bandwagon...including the gang from the Today Show. There are several issues at the heart of this controversy, the most important one being that there is no right to privacy granted in our constitution, particulary as it pertains to cellular phone data. I like to think that I operate an ethical business on an above average moral foundation, and my philosophy is that "if you aren't doing anything wrong, what are you worried about?"

The media would have you believe the majority of people using these online data brokers to obtain cell calls are criminals trying to find out who undercover police officers know. What a load of you know what... The majority of the people trying to get cellular phone data are: attorneys, skip tracers/ bail bondsmen, creditors, spouses, and professional investigators (working on behalf of one of the others). I asked my wife if she would feel violated should Verizon call up and tell her someone accessed her phone records. She said, "Violated? No. Curious? Sure." See, she isn't under the impression that she has some ultimate right to privacy afforded her by the supreme court or some other governing body. The cell phone companies even put a warning on your bill that says they are not responsible for your privacy!

So what should you do until the time comes that it is made illegal to obtain personal data on anyone for any reason? Here are some things you might consider:

• Get a password on your cell account
  
• Tell the company not to offer you any reminders of what your password is, should it be lost. (If you do this, make sure you write your password in a memorable place).
  
• Tell the cellular company not to release your bill over the phone, fax or email. Tell them if any changes need to be made, or if you ever need to view a bill, you will come into a local branch. (Good luck on them actually following your instructions though!)
  
• Tell the company you don't want any online access to your account.
  

That should keep you pretty secure, at least from casual inquiries into your account.

Private Investigator Misconceptions

As an experienced private investigator in Houston Texas, the 4th largest city in the U.S., I have gotten my share of unusual requests. In this business there is not much that cannot be accomplished with hard work and a bit of intelligence. But every once in a while someone's request just cannot be granted. I blame this on the fact that the public has a major misconception about what can and can't be done on a computer. You see shows like Sleepless in Seattle where all you have to do is type a person's name into a computer and it spits out endless information about their family, their job history, etc. That just isn't so. Combine that with images from Crossing Jordan, Magnum PI, Spencer For Hire, and other genre T.V. shows that incorrectly portray the role of an investigator or P.I. In the real world, Spencer would have gone to jail in the first season for breaking and entering. Even good T.V. shows will show a surveillance being conducted by an investigator sitting in a car with the windows down, in broad daylight, a block away from the subject's house, on a busy urban street, for hours at a time "unnoticed."

The reality is that while P.I.'s do have many resources for obtaining information, they are bound by the same laws of state (and laws of nature) as every other human on the planet. Most do not carry guns (too much liability if someone is shot) or conduct midnight meetings with snitches in back alleys. Most drive Camrys or mini-vans, not Ferraris or classic Mustangs, and most are in their 50's with a little extra weight around the mid-section and thinning hair on the top of their heads.

Still, real P.I.'s offer a tremendous service to the public, as well as attorneys, insurance agents, business owners, and risk managers. Even with the limitations that seem to get overlooked on T.V., an experienced investigator can get the job done.

Houston Investigator