You will soon know what I mean by the title of this article! But first let me get to the importance of a Subject Study. A subject study is the complete and systematic study and analysis of the subject of our investigation. The purpose of the subject study is to learn as much as possible about the subject's character, personality, habits, lifestyle, finances, activities, and motivation, so that adequate planning can be accomplished to further an investigation or to conduct surveillance. In our investigations, much of this information is provided to us by our clients, and other aspects of the subject are learned by database searches conducted before the surveillance begins.

In conjunction with area casing which you can read about in an earlier article here, a complete study of the subject must also be accomplished to understand how he or she fits into the environment. The following are some factors to consider but are not all inclusive, depending on the type of investigation:

€ Detailed physical description of subject and her or his clothes and shoes. Photographs are extremely helpful, especially from the back and sides.

€ Finances, credit cards, spending habits, and location of banks used.

€ Mannerisms, personal habits, walk, gait (emphasis should be on peculiarities contributing to ready identification, particularly from a distance or from the sides and rear of the subject).

€ Description of any vehicles owned or used by subject, friends, relatives, and associates.

€ Transportation habits and routes used.

€ Hobbies.

€ How does subject spend leisure time?

€ Daily habits and routines.

€ Work habits and schedule.

€ Assessment of the probable degree of suspicion the subject may have toward being under investigation or surveillance.

€ Personality.

€ Motivation and ambition.

€ Character.

€ Arrest record and database checks.

€ Travel history and currency of passports.

€ Names, addresses, locations, and identities of associates and places frequented. An attempt should be made to fully identify all persons contacted by subject.

As investigators, we have been taught from the beginning that one of the most important aspects of an investigation usually is or can be the effective use of informants. It is no different in surveillance operations. As you can tell from what we have discussed here, preparation is certainly one of the key ingredients in a surveillance operation, and knowing how to adequately prepare for that surveillance and then doing it will go a long way toward making your job both easier and more successful.

MINIMUM MANPOWER FOR SURVEILLANCE

Having a team of trained investigators available to conduct a surveillance operation is great, but in almost all of the surveillances we conduct, we are forced to use only one investigator, or sometimes two, to conduct surveillance. It is a simple matter of economics. There is no reason we cannot conduct a successful surveillance just because we have limited manpower. Although it does reduce our flexibility in many instances, most often it is still done successfully. As proof, we do it every day.

Foot and vehicle surveillance are the keys to many surveillance situations encountered. In almost every surveillance operation, even the sparsely manned ones, we will be required to conduct some type of foot and vehicle surveillance coverage or, at a minimum, be prepared to conduct each type of surveillance if it becomes necessary.
Although surveillance could be conducted by a single investigator, the success of this will depend solely on the ability of the investigator and often on good fortune. The distance between the subject and the investigator is usually either too great or too far, and the subject must be kept in view at all times by the single investigator, which increases the risk of being identified as surveillance. A one-person surveillance does not provide for any flexibility.

The subject study is especially important in one-person surveillance operations. Knowledge of what to expect from the subject (i.e. where he or she normally goes, does, etc.) will help decrease face time with the subject and allow the investigator to increase the distance between herself or himself and the subject. One-person surveillances are usually most effective in situations in which counter-surveillance or suspicion of surveillance by the subject is unlikely. Very often it is advantageous to conduct a fixed-point surveillance with one person because it will often attract less attention than two people. There are some obvious drawbacks, however, such as no relief, more demand on concentration and therefore fatigue of a single investigator, and single-witness problems should the subject be observed doing something illegal. We try to overcome that problem through the capturing of the subject on videotape.

The use of at least two investigators greatly increases the chances of success because the second agent does allow for some flexibility. With two investigators, the position of an investigator directly behind the subject in a moving surveillance can be changed as often as possible and allows for relatively close positioning of the investigator behind the subject. The use of two investigators affords greater security against detection and reduces the risk of losing the subject. In foot surveillance, both investigators would normally be on the same side of the street as the subject, with the first being fairly close behind the subject. The second investigator is positioned behind the first with more distance between them. On streets that are not crowded, one investigator may walk on the opposite side of the street. Unfortunately, we are seldom afforded the luxury of a second investigator, and it is therefore extremely important that each investigator be the best investigator he or she possibly can be.

SURVEILLANCE VULNERABILITIES

Surveillance Requires Expertise
Surveillance does not mean that we just simply follow a subject. This is only one facet of surveillance activity. Surveillances should be conducted in a manner in which we try to make our subjects predictable, yet we avoid being predictable ourselves. Fortunately, subjects are human and therefore make mistakes on which we can (hopefully) capitalize.

In this section, let me discuss vulnerabilities, both ours and theirs. Although we may sometimes encounter counter-surveillance, many vulnerabilities are common to most surveillance operations and may be exploited to our advantage. We will look at the following areas related to surveillance vulnerabilities:

1. keys to detecting surveillance

2. surveillance dry cleaning

3. subject vulnerabilities

We will examine some of the areas that the opposition will focus on and review some of the possible ways we might be able to exploit the subject's perception of our methods.

Keys to Detecting Surveillance
3 Times & You Are Burned

As a general rule of thumb, a lesson we have learned from international counterintelligence surveillances is that foreign intelligence officers marked a person as surveillance if they spotted the person (or vehicle) three times, separated by time and distance. This does not mean that they did not mark people as surveillance the first time they were spotted if they were careless and obviously conducting surveillance, but the third time spotted was an automatic mark. You can also assume that even in insurance, criminal, and fraud surveillances, if the subject spots you three or more times, you are probably burned. To help detect surveillance, the subjects €key€ on several areas:

€ Commonalities

A lesson we learn from counterintelligence surveillances is that subjects look for things that do not change. Examples could be an investigator who changes his jacket and pants but not his shoes or glasses. Each investigator should carry at least one complet