Chapter Five :: Counter Surveillance

"The role of the double agent is simple. He gets paid twice for spreading the same ru­mours about both his employers.”

In the unlikely event that you are discovered while on surveillance, or that you have been retained to in­vestigate a particular person - and that person is in a position to respond - you may find yourself on the receiving end of some surveillance of your own. This may be to secure confirmation of who your client is or to attempt to block or prevent your surveillance by whatever means are at their disposal. Whatever the reason or eventual outcome, it is vital that the possibility is recognised and accepted as soon as pos­sible in order to take the most effective countermeasures.

One important aspect of discovering this is yet another branch of the observation skills that we have al­ready mentioned. In this instance, you need to be aware of your surroundings, of other vehicles that seem to be lurking for no good reason, or that follow the same route that you and your target are taking. If you are alert to the possibility, this may be relatively easy - except for one thing. We have already mentioned that drivers are generally poor at absorbing information about their surroundings, what we haven't mentioned is that you may be one of those drivers. While you are occupied trying to keep your­self hidden and stay safe, you may find yourself being tailed and monitored in just the same way. To re­duce this risk, we need to analyse observation skills in even more detail than we have covered so far.

This may seem to be taking a daily event and subjecting it to in-depth analysis, which in a way it is, but in order to drive from A to B safely, this may be exactly what we need to do. It simply is not enough to expect everyone else to look after our safety, or to even think about us at all. A common quote is that for every four cars that you pass in the street, only one driver’s aware of your presence. This is based on the fact that you can only concentrate fully on one thing for 15mins out of every hour, that you have numerous other distractions outside the car, inside the car, inside your head, that  require your attention as well'. As a surveillance operative, the figure is likely to be lower except on the one thing you are being paid to watch, your target. This makes following you an easier task than you could ever imagine.

Kinaesthesia

A behavioural term for the sensory  feedback felt by the body from external  sources.

Forveal Fixation

The medical term for  fixing your point of vision on one object  rather than scanning for hazards. Often the object is the car ahead which then leads to re-active driving and a very late response to impending hazards.

A more realistic figure is that you may only be aware of one other vehicle in every ten! This is caused by two areas Kinaesthesia and Forveal Fixation. Both are closely related and between them the driver   has very little chance of being aware of external hazards unless he is either deliberately making himself aware or has received an external warning to raise his awareness. You will have noticed that this is not specifically a Pl problem, the most common explanation of any vehicular collision, for example, begins with the phrase "all of  a sudden ". It's as if other vehicles just suddenly appear and cause a collision - when in fact in the vast majority of cases, their actions were predictable and avoidable with only a mod­icum of additional pro-active thought. In the case of counter surveillance only at the point of contact be­ tween yourself, the target, and your pursuers will there be a sudden realisation that you had seen them before, but simply hadn't realised that they were in fact watching you. There are several levels of cau­tion that we need to look into here, we should begin with prevention before we discuss the cure.