Choosing a "Grey" Vehicle

To understand what a "Grey Vehicle" is, we must think of what we are attempting to do in terms of   stealth technology.

It is common knowledge now that "Stealth Technology" in the military sense is all to do with avoiding detection by radar and as much as possible visually . This means aircraft, ships, even tanks that will "disappear'' at night, so allowing night operations to be carried out in almost complete safety.

Stealth: a definition secrecy, furtiveness, covert, undercover, clandestine.

Fortunately for us, most targets are not radar equipped, so our "stealth" can be acquired more simply. In the popular media and in particular the world of cinema, the typical surveillance vehicle is the van. This may not come as a surprise to you, but how many of you already use a van for surveillance? Our vanity in wanting a flash motor for impressing clients or to look good outside of our office is often the deciding factor in our choice of vehicle - and these days the practical answer to many of our problems is a multi­ purpose vehicle, or MPV.

MPV's are usually considered to be vehicles like the Renault Espace or the Chrysler Voyager, vehicles with multiple seating and options for carrying other loads. These are fine, but if you were to try surveil­ lance in a typical MPV, the chances are you will  be spotted. Imagine the types of routine work we   are talking about, employee surveillance, the new trend of checking out the local area for a potential house purchaser or even more mundane, issuing summonses or writs. All of these may require you to follow your target until the ideal opportunity to serve the papers or take the photo arrives. In a typical MPV you could be a little too conspicuous, especially if the area you are operating in has very few of them parked at the side of the road.

If you are adamant that the nature of this vehicle means that it is what you choose, then ensure that you disguise it by darkening all but the front side windows and windscreen. At least then you can observe   from the rear of the vehicle in relative safety and when following your target, he does not have as clear an image of you in his mirror as he would like. Try also to opt for a used vehicle, and relatively common. to reduce suspicion. Even consider a halfway vehicle between your dream MPV and my ideal choice,    the van. Many vans are available in minibus format with an "executive" option that simply  offers the  seats and trim from the same manufacturers MPV in a larger body shell. This minibus then forms a bet­ter basis for disguise and blending with it's surroundings - as l shall explain later. 

For serious surveillance work, l would opt for the most invisible vehicle on UK roads, the Ford Transit  van. Think of the number of Transits you see today cruising the streets, carrying tradesmen, builders, deliveries, parcels etc. If you opted for a similar vehicle, it would instantly achieve the required invisible status and prove to be more adaptable than you would imagine. Transit vans provide better views over the traffic you are following, they also offer greater opportunity for spotting the signals given by your  tar­ get vehicle earlier, and in rural areas, allow you to monitor movements over hedgerows while remaining invisible.

In traffic, a van allows you to ride closer to your target vehicle than normal, allowing you to reduce the  risk of losing contact - something which few vehicles will let you do. (I do know of one London based op­eration who only use black cabs as their surveillance vehicles, for similar reasons, but they have draw­ backs - especially if the surveillance  then takes on a static form.)

Conspicuity

The ability to control how you are seen by other vehicles and how you can increase the number of vehi­cles/people that can see you in order to reduce the risk of one of them causing you a problem.

In general, the Transit allows you to control your level of conspicuity a feature which is essential in pro­fessional surveillance. As you read on you will realise that not only does it become important to remain invisible to your target, but it may become important to increase your visibility to other road users in or­der to maintain your position in relation to the target vehicle. What makes the Transit eve n more ideal is adaptability. Here is a vehicle which from the outside can look inconspicuous to the casual observer,  es­pecially if the colour chosen is white, but inside can offer an amazing level of options for adaptation into your ideal surveillance vehicle.

For practical purposes, consider a short wheelbase model , 2.0 petrol for this type of work is probably  more suitable, with a side-door as well as rear door or tailgate. Colour is important, white being the obvi­ous choice, but any common colour will suffice. Remember that the vehicle has to blend   into it's surroundings, so look at the most common van colours in your area. White and Red are the  most common nationally because as with cars, they are the easiest colours to sell on. BT Grey is another possibility, but whatever you choose, keep it plain, no stripes.

The vehicle comes with a large fuel tank as standard, which is designed for a long day of deliveries, so it works as a bonus on operations that are of indeterminate length. Likewise the battery is heavy duty and can sustain longer use of electrical equipment when the engine is switched off although personally I prefer to fit a second battery for this role in order to preserve the vehicles starting capability for emer­gencies.

You should consider how it's appearance can be altered if required. Magnetic or self-adhesive signs or logos can be carried to alter the vehicle's appearance if necessary. Taking turns at driving can give the appearance of different vans. There is even an operative who has had the two sides of the vehicle painted different colours, so he can appear to be a different Transit when coming from a different direc­tion. He keeps the front and rear white to blend in traffic and claims that nobody even notices the un­ usual colour scheme. Even his family thought for ages that he had more than one van!

Now for the interior. Most Transits have three seats up front. Replace the bench seat with a second  drivers seat and you have better access to the rear, better adaptability for the two operatives up front as . both seats will then be height adjustable, and more room to carry equipment between the seats - cam­ eras, monitoring equipment etc. The installation of a cool-box or camper fridge behind the seats or un­der the dash provides the necessary repository for refreshments and allows longer continuous  operation of the vehicle.

The "glove-box" of a Transit can accommodate a medium sized briefcase, or again a lot of other equip­ment. You can easily mount a scanner inside, or a video recorder for use with a micro camera mounted on the dash or the rear-view mirror. There are a plethora of after-market options available for customis­ing the cab to suit your personal requirements, from more comfortable seats to air conditioning   units.

The cab also is large enough to allow more personal comfort for long surveillance operations but the real bonus is what you can do behind the cab.

An ideal installation would involve a second row of seats installed, or two bench seats fitted facing one another. This increases your passenger capacity to eight operatives, with room for two to sleep if necessary, although bunks could also be fitted for this purpose. A table offers additional comfort, but also acts as your mobile office, simply by using a laptop with modem and GSM phone. This allows contact with your office, your client, access to databases or other information sources and most importantly allows routine work to be carried out while engage on remote or long operations.

Eventually you may feel the need to operate from your van full-time and so do away with a separate of­fice altogether. Again this is quite common practice, with a mailing address and hourly-rented office space fulfilling the more traditional requirements  of the business. This leaves  you free to conduct  more  of your work "hands-on" while still being able to function in your managerial role. The advent of the "Limo Van" in the USA has meant that more and more manufacturers are producing equipment that can be run from within a van using 12v power and the use of vans as mobile conference rooms is becoming a most cost effective method of conducting business across the USA.

In the UK, where we are more reserved about such things, there is resistance to any form of widespread adoption of Teleworking and in particular the idea of not having an office to call your own. We need to think more openly about this as office space is becoming more expensive and the necessity diminishes. Think carefully about how you could combine your routine business needs with your surveillance re­quirements. How you could offer a service to your clients which is both discrete and instant. In a busi­ness such as Private Investigation where time is literally money and clients often cannot afford to wait to resolve their problem, the flexibility of traveling equipped for any task is becoming more and more ap­pealing.