Surveillance is always considered the most “exciting” part of being a Private Eye and indeed it can be. Especially when working on high level cases but it is in fact a very difficult thing to do that involves a lot of skill built up through experience.
It is simply not possible to sit and watch someone and think they will not see you! Our expertise lies in the ability to position ourselves with minimum visabilty while being able to maintain a direct “eyes on” position at all times. Including if we have to move for one reason or another. This all takes planning in advance.
We will go and have a good look around well before the job is to take place to ensure we know where everyone is and where we will move and how ensuring the minimum of error whilst on the job.
It should be remembered that surveillance is entirely dependent on the person(s) we are observing. If they move, we move. If they do not leave the house, we stay. I often get asked how long the job will take and this, of course, is a difficult question to answer for these reasons. As an example, if I am working on a fidelity case and the target and “other” leave the premises and walk down the road, this alone is no evidence at all. The target could say 100 different reasons as to what they were doing. We need incriminating activity as evidence and I need the target to take such action that I can document. I can not walk up and ask them to kiss while I take a picture! So the surveillance question of how long will it take is the same question as how long is a piece of string.
To be as accommodating to our clients as we can, we normally work out budget limits etc before we commence the job. Surveillance is an excellent tool and yealds the correct information 90% of the time so its worth the time and effort.
