49EYE SPY INTELLIGENCE MAGAZINE 76 2011

SURVEILLANCECONFIRMING IDENTITY AND OCCUPANCY

Eye Spy provides background notes on some ofthe investigative avenues available to surveillance

officers when faced with a difficult and aware target keen to hide his true identity and location

TRADECRAFT

erifying a target’s identity andpresence quickly in a certainlocation and/or accuracy of anaddress can be a difficult task. In an official surveillancesituation, whilst speed issometimes essential, anV

incorrect call, especially one made during anon-going counter-terrorist operation can be amatter of life or death. One only has toexamine the case of the unfortunate Brazilian,Jean Charles de Menezes, who was shot deadafter being mistaken for a dangerous al-Qaida terrorist in London in 2005. Even profession-als make mistakes. De Menezes’s containedflat in an apartment block that was beingsurveilled, and misidentification by an officer,proved critical in this case.

Before considering some of the tactics used toproperly identify high-profile targets whosesole objective is to remain out of sight, it’simportant to understand the nature andseriousness of a particular case will always determine just how many officers andresources are deployed.

Confirmation that a target or ‘person ofinterest’ has been located and properlyidentified allows the intelligence process to develop, depending on the objective of thetask in hand. On a commercial level, if thesurveillance is simply to confirm occupancy,then the operation has achieved all its primarygoals. If such a positive call forms but part ofa far more complex government investigation,where counter-terrorism or counter-espionage officials are deployed, for example, then it may

be just the beginning of another intelligence-led process. And it’s to the latter scenario thatwe examine and afford more prominence here.

Equally important in these tough days ofrecession is to ensure valuable time, moneyand resources are not wasted on a surveil-lance operation that by definition may involveseveral operatives and agencies. This isparticularly true at a government level, but commercial enterprises don’t want to getbogged down in a protracted investigation thatachieves nothing. Spending days, perhapsweeks at an incorrect address or monitoringthe wrong target is not an option. However, ifthe person stays put and is inclined not to venture outdoors, confirming his or heridentity then becomes just a little trickier.Nevertheless, such actions will be

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