Most of what is portrayed in losing a fellow surveillance operative who is being paid to pursue you is usually nonsense. The image that Hollywood would have you believe is one of car chases which result in the bad guys writing themselves off and so the good guy escapes with the glamorous client. The real­ity is both a lot less glamorous and at the same time easier to achieve with the correct degree of plan­ning.

Most tailing of vehicles is conducted form a safe distance, which leaves you with many possibilities for shaking off your pursuers. Stopping is the obvious choice, forcing them to show their hand and pursue on foot. If you have a friendly hide-away that you can use for that purpose, then do so. Your local bar or other hang-out  will  surely not mind  you  using  their tradesmen's  entrance  for a  discrete exit.  This can save a lot of hassle and does work as long as you make the visit appear to be genuine. There are, how­  ever,  other  methods.

In "Beverly Hills Cop" Eddie Murphy famously waited at lights to shake off a tail. He stopped on green and waited for the red to appear before suddenly accelerating and beating the opposing traffic. This is a good theory but totally impractical in all but a rare few cases. So many drivers jump lights anyway, you would be dicing with death and also make it clear that you are aware of their presence by carrying out the action. A far better approach would be to approach lights carefully and monitor the timing of their changes. If predictable it can allow you to slip through just as they are about to change and so leave the tail in a queue of waiting vehicles. You then have about 40 seconds to make yourself disappear - so do so discretely.

With the widespread use of roundabouts, this method is not always feasible, but another one is. If the pursuers are a few cars back and the roundabout large enough - you may be able to circumnavigate the roundabout slowly enough to appear behind them. However, you need to appear to be heading almost straight ahead to allay their fears and this may require a lane change in mid roundabout that would not make you popular with other traffic. Alternatively a 450 degree circumnavigation onto a road to the left of your present chosen direction can leave them guessing where you went. Again try to look as though your intention is to continue straight ahead, as any turn left or right can be verified from a distance.

Other "normal" junctions are also useful in that with modern traffic conditions it is often only feasible to allow one vehicle at a time to emerge. You can take advantage of this in many ways, emerging then slowing the traffic immediately to cause a denser bunch behind you can move your tail further back. Al­ternatively if they have y.et to reach the same junction, take another turn left or right and disappear be­ fore they do. Do not worry about parking to see them go past as this leaves you more vulnerable.

Other vehicles are an asset in that they are predictable in their habits and can be relied on to provide a moving road block where necessary. This means that driving into denser traffic is more use to you than heading out of town. Do not try any of the heroics shown on the TV as these are carefully orchestrated and utilise trained stunt-men. Instead you should concentrate on remaining in a crowd where you have the greatest number of safe options and the protection of other people if matters should escalate sud­denly. It is also easier to find a police car or station that can provide a method of avoiding danger to yourself if you fear that a hijack is being planned. Do not be so "macho" as to think that you can always deal with the situation - you may have no idea what is going to happen to you or how much risk you are in unless you can control the situation.