The nature of difficulty in surveillance will be determined by the reason for the surveillance. Some cases are easy to conduct while others are relentlessly hard. To the layman, surveillance seems a simple or fun task, but that is not always the case.
There are certain types of cases that lend themselves to a physical surveillance. Most commonly, divorce or personal cases and insurance or worker's compensation claims. Physical surveillance investigation requires delicate tactics, skills and planning.
First, in divorce or personal cases it is usually the spouse or significant other wanting their partner spied on for suspicion of an affair. These cases get quite sticky for me. It is very hard for me to prove someone is cheating without actually getting up close and personal, or even getting almost into the bedroom with the video camera. The fee goes higher the closer I have to get!
Next is the insurance or worker's compensation claim. I love these cases, especially when I prove someone has lied on a claim about being injured. Meanwhile, the badly injured person is miraculously able to roof a house or move heavy furniture. This really gets me hot under the collar, but it is all the more satisfying to catch a person in the act, especially when time is money.
Aside from filming on surveillance, there are three basic skills involved. These are positioning, tailing, and patience. First, in positioning myself on a stakeout I must stay far enough away as to not make the subject suspicious of my presence, yet still be able to see and film them. After a few times on surveillance I learned the valuable lesson about positioning. In a case I had on a worker's compensation, I sat in surveillance at a house of a claimant who had an injured neck and back. After an all day session I realized the entire time I had sat there watching, the man was in his back yard building a new workshop. The next day I had to return
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