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Once upon a time, a television reporter was given a difficult assignment. His boss wanted video and audio recordings of the meetings of a semi-covert, allegedly terrorist organization. Worse still, the meetings typically started outside in daylight and ended indoors after dark. Quite the challenge, even for the most skilled surveillance expert.
The reporter wanted to complete this task with his body intact, so he used the network’s huge budget to purchase a custom-made major-trauma cast containing a VCR, a regular subminiature camera and an infrared camera. His disguise and the professional appearance of his equipment’s undercover outfit allowed him to safely hobnob with the scum of the earth for hours and record every minute with both video and audio.
Perhaps the most commonly heard reason SIUs and investigators do not use the latest technology for video and/or audio surveillance is the high cost of the equipment and the limited use each piece of equipment would have. It is difficult to justify spending more than $60,000 for a surveillance van that the organization may use only sporadically. Also an organization that has only one such van runs a much greater risk of exposure by parking the same vehicle in a neighborhood for several days.
As one investigator said, “Everybody owns a baseball cap camera.” It has gotten to the point that some of the “bad guys” are suspicious of anyone wearing a baseball cap.
The cost of alternative concealment techniques can escalate rapidly. For example, the latest development—an eyeglass camera—uses a fiberoptic tube. The tube alone costs nearly $6,000.
Currently, the technology for surveillance seems to be evolving rapidly with steady reductions in size and power requirements combined with increases in picture and sound quality. These advances allow the investigator to set up his equipment at a greater distance and to use better concealment techniques. Additionally, there has been a steady increase in the sophistication of unmanned surveillance equipment.
The expense of this technologically advanced equipment is justified by the need for ever more sophisticated techniques. This has resulted in the use of high-tech equipment being concentrated in those groups with the largest budgets—law enforcement and the media. Coincidentally, these are the same groups that have the widest leeway under the law to use covert methods. In California, for example, the use of covert audio recording is essentially unavailable to anyone other than these two groups.
I recently met with Jacqueline Beaudette, of Flashpoint in San Diego. Beaudette believes the best way to increase the use of advanced technology is to make it available to the industry on a low-cost rental basis without the large capital investment involved in buying such equipment. Much of the equipment Flashpoint rents was developed for specific media or law enforcement situations. Beaudette believes when investigators and insurance companies can rent such equipment on an as-needed basis, they will easily see the value in investing a few hundred dollars to develop evidence in a case.
The secret, of course, is to rent a “turnkey” piece of equipment. Everyone has experienced the frustration of buying a new VCR and then having trouble installing it: the remote doesn’t work with it; there is a missing connector; the clock won’t stop flashing 12:00. The same is true of surveillance equipment. A baseball cap camera does no good unless it is hooked up to a well-concealed working recorder.
One investigator tells of an insurance fraud case she worked on. She was sure that the claimant was doing automobile repair in his home garage; but what she really needed was some good video of him lifting heavy equipment and pushing cars around. Since this was a very dangerous neighborhood, she was loathe to risk life and limb by sitting in her car for several days while she waited to catch the allegedly disabled individual working. A surveillance van with bulletproofing and automatic cameras would have been perfect, except that she knew she would have trouble parking the same van in this neighborhood for a number of days.
What the investigator really wanted was access to a varied fleet of surveillance vehicles with either manned or unmanned capability. Sadly she lacked the financial justification to spend over $200,000 on this case. With no video evidence the case never went to a jury and the perpetrator continues to collect his disability payments.
For the typical investigator, the ability to pick up a piece of equipment that requires no installation, connection or fitting is crucial. The ability to change the style and concealment of this equipment quickly and inexpensively could be a lifesaver.
During a visit to the new Flashpoint headquarters in San Diego, founder John Hancock related how a medical specialist was consulted to ensure that their casts were perfect. This is the kind of specialized detail that makes a camera and recorder set-up in a body or arm cast nonsuspicious to even the most paranoid suspect.
Typical equipment for rent from Flashpoint includes “cast-cams”, “teddy bear cams”, “boombox cams” and tracking gear. There is also a full line of countermeasure equipment. At the moment the defense side of the surveillance game seems to be in the lead. Advanced detection equipment can identify almost all the surveillance equipment on the market.
The kind of “James Bond” tracking gear that allows a vehicle or package to be tracked electronically from up to a mile away on the surface or 80 miles from a plane typically retails for $20,000 or more. There are reports from around the country of investigators making good use of this equipment. While purchase is probably financially unsound, rental can make this technology available to any investigator on a sporadic, as-needed basis.
One of the most interesting developments in the video surveillance field is the availability of quality infrared (IR) lasers, and the impending introduction of thermal imaging video that is compact and rugged. Combined with third generation night vision equipment, the IR lasers can surreptitiously illuminate and view activity in total darkness from a distance of over 300 meters. Currently, even in California, IR surveillance seems to be no different from regular, visible light surveillance from a legal standpoint. There appear to be no definitive laws or court judgments in this specific area, so this could change any moment.
Both Mitsubishi and Fluor are working on promising thermal systems. The pictures produced by these units, which require only the natural heat of a body to function in total absence of light, now look like regular black and white pictures rather than the old color blotches of previous thermal systems.
© Copyright 1995 Alikim Media