Avoiding Being Targeted

If a driver has the correct attitude, then he will always be traveling at the correct speed for the situation, the road condition, the weather condition s. He will then have no need for excuses such as "All of a sud­den, he will never have to report that he has driven into a stationery vehicle or solid object, or that his vehicle has "left the road" and entered a field. He will never need to worry about his braking abilities, the effectiveness of his ABS or having to steer around hazards while braking. If this sounds too good to be true, then you have just realised how few of us actually do have the correct attitude when it comes to not wanting to be involved in another driver's  accident.

Virtual Surveillance

Where constant visual contact is not always necessary, there is always the option of surveillance by way of electronic tracking.

The same is true of avoiding being targeted. If you are to be subjected to counter surveillance for what­ ever reason, you will have to first become "visible" to your pursuers and if you have followed the sug­gestions and principals made throughout this manual, you will find that this may not be an easy thing for them to do. Likewise, if you have invested in a "tracker" device for "virtual surveillance" purposes, you will be far less visible and so almost impossible for your opponents to detect, let alone tail.

Take sensible precautions in any case, from the obvious points mentioned earlier such as parking dis­cretely to using a "grey" vehicle. You may also consider the additional possibilities such as vary ing the personnel and vehicles used for the moving surveillance and making journeys other than tailing using these vehicles to give  the impression of norm al activity. Establish patterns of behaviour that disguise your true purpose, while avoiding patterns that give away your intended activities. This may sound ex­tremely obvious, but it by far the simplest way of avoiding the need for anything more extreme in terms of losing a tail or preventing potentially dangerous contact or physical threats to yourself and your opera­tives

Bear in mind that if you are being watched, then your client was more than right in employing you as it appears that his suspicions were well founded. Give this information to your contact by discrete means and you may well find that the surveillance is called off. You should also take note of as many aspects of the opposition as possible in order fa be able to provide a report of their activities to the authorities if an when the time comes.

There is also the possibility that your client has employed you for just this purpose - because he is under surveillance, or thinks that he is, and would like to discover who or why this is occurring. In this instance, the boot is on the other foot and you are the one with the advantage as they will not expect you to be watching or countering their efforts. In this instance, do precisely the same in terms of precautions and gathering information - your client may well require you to give evidence of the activities of these people and if you have hard evidence in a visual form, especially video, he may even be able to call them off before any further harm is done.

This may sound very much like a scene from a "cold war'' film, but it is very much a part of modern surveillance operations. Industrial espionage has never been greater, trade embargoes are constantly being circumvented, employers are more likely to check on senior staff if they fear a hostile take-over, the list is endless. In each case, the use of trained personnel, such as yourself, gives you a whole new field to explore and in the commercial world, one useful counter-surveillance operation can lead to on­ going regular work on the other side of the fence. Finally, you must consider the private client who em­ ploys you to watch a spouse or partner. Never discount the possibility of the other partner feeling simi­larly aggrieved and employing an opposite number.