Effective PIs know how to maneuver
Not everything can be taught. Either you have it or you don’t. That’s the way it goes, sometimes. As far as private investigators are concerned, they have to possess a certain set of skills that allows them to get the job done without blowing their cover. They know how to approach certain situations and know how and when to move and where to move to. They know the props they might need. They know how to stay in character. They know the signs to look for.
They know how to maneuver.
Training is necessary. That part is sort of like music theory. It provides explanations. It tells them what is happening and tells them what to do and why they’re doing what they’re doing. The actual surveillance is the test. Private investigators must apply what they’ve learned in training and use whichever tactics are applicable, because they may not all be necessary in a given situation. The answers aren’t laid out, so it’s up to them to decide what to do and how to do it. ♦
Transcript:
…so when I go out on a surveillance, and I know Charles; this is Charles Boneh. He’s a surveillance operator that works with me. He has his own company out of Miami. He has similar training but from a foreign government.
When we go out on surveillance, we just don’t pull up our car, sit, and hope the guy comes out of the house or, you know, that sort of thing. I remember a job that Charles did for me, I think it was up in Stuart or one of those places up there, where his training was able to get the goods of the person…he was outside, up the street, maybe 50 yards up from the house. He’s watching it. But he’s also listening. He’s looking at what’s going on. And he hears this noise coming from the back of the house.
So, he leaves his surveillance position and drives around the corner and starts going up this little hill. And he looks back down at the house and hears the person that we’re trying to surveille, in the swimming pool, a young lady who says she cannot bend, she cannot use her back, she’s in all kinds of trouble and distress because she was in this automobile accident. And here she is, diving into her pool. Charles is sitting there videotaping her, you know. She gets out of the pool, gets up on her lounge chair, and she starts stretching her legs, touching her forehead with her legs, and Charles has got her all on tape.
Now, I believe that any other surveillance operator would’ve stayed in his static position and waited til somebody came out the door to get in their car to go follow them wherever they were gonna go. It’s a difference in training.
So, make sure that your P.I. that you’re using to do surveillance specializes in it. He’s got some skills. He knows how to manipulate. He knows how to be a chameleon. He can change colors, change looks. He’s got a variety of cameras, not only handheld, but hidden, a buttonhole in your glasses, in your baseball cap. Whatever the situation may need. Because your player may get out of the car and go into a mall. Well, hey, this is the best time. Let’s get in there with a hidden camera and follow this person around while they’re carrying bagloads of stuff when they say they can’t carry anything. Or doing their shopping, standing on their feet when they say they can’t walk. These are the different kinds of skills that I’m talking about.
