The 7 Principles of Surveillance - #5 NATURAL BEHAVIOUR

"Natural behaviour is our saviour..."

Contrary to popular opinion (possibly amplified by the film and TV industry), surveillance is not about trying to be invisible or hiding from the subject of interest. When performing surveillance, an operator will be seen, therefore what is vital is that they don’t look like they are carrying out surveillance, certainly to the target, but especially to third-parties who will be going about their lives in and around the areas the team are working in. Being able to carry out surveillance whilst looking natural is one of the most difficult aspects of the job, but it is crucial to keeping the operators, and the operation, secure. It is often easier to remain natural in some surveillance scenarios than others, and all surveillance operators and students will have areas where they are stronger and weaker in terms of their natural behaviour.

It is possible to set some general rules of what not to do but it is also largely down to the operator to not become target-focussed and forget about their external appearance whilst working. The primary rules are, no peeking, hiding or running. Peeking and hiding are the most obvious, with the point being that if someone sees you doing this it is very difficult to deploy a feasible cover story that explains why you were doing something so suspicious. Running draws attention if there isn’t a logical reason to be rushing such as running for a bus or whilst crossing roads to avoid traffic.

Natural behaviour whilst close-in to the subject can be difficult if you are not naturally good at being calm under pressure and multi-tasking as you are often having to deploy a cover story whilst simultaneously gathering information. Often, with inexperienced students or those who are not naturally comfortable with being in close proximity to subjects they find it difficult to not show signs of stress or discomfort that a subject with a high level of training and raised awareness would pick up on. Being able to relax, or at least look relaxed, whilst gathering information on a subject, especially one that you know poses a significant threat, can be one of the hardest aspects of surveillance.

On numerous occasions as surveillance operatives, the subject of interest has been so comfortable and unthreatened by our presence that they have actually initiated conversations with us that has led to the gathering of critical intelligence and evidence. This is undoubtably due to having a good profile and excellent natural behaviour.

In contrast, one particular subject that the author trained against was so talented at anti-surveillance that she identified multiple members of a highly-trained and experienced surveillance team just by drawing them into close situations where she knew they would commit in (rather than just containing the area) and identified them purely by their surveillance tradecraft and tactical positioning that they employed to gather intelligence on her. The subject's extensive training, that involved an intimate knowledge of surveillance tradecraft, meant that their natural behaviour became redundant as the subject was still able to identify them!

Hopefully such subjects are few and far between, and if we do come up against them we are aware of their capabilities prior to deployment so it can be mitigated against during the operational planning phase...