Surveillance is the art of watching someone, some place, or some object in order to document and identify any contact, activities, or whereabouts.
Why do we conduct surveillance?
Surveillance is conducted to prevent a crime, to obtain evidence of a crime, to obtain evidence of wrongful actions in a civil suit, to document an individual’s location, to document activities in or around a specific location or building, to obtain information to be used in an interrogation, to gather intelligence as a basis for future action, and to obtain information to be used in court.
Types of investigations that require surveillance:
Missing person, worker’s compensation, cheating spouse, vandalism, recurrent theft.
What are the different types of surveillance?
The types of surveillance that fit with individual cases vary. Private investigators have to decide which types of surveillance are best suited by understanding the case and the desired outcome of the surveillance. The nature of the case will dictate whether the surveillance will be mechanical or human, whether it will be covert or overt, and whether the surveillance will be stationary or mobile.