Surveillance and Covert Operations
Purpose and proportionality
Surveillance is used to verify activity, corroborate statements, or gather evidence that cannot be obtained openly. Candidates must understand the difference between static and mobile surveillance, physical and electronic monitoring, and overt versus covert methods. Each carries legal and ethical constraints, and the least intrusive effective method should be preferred.
Planning and documentation
Good surveillance requires a written objective, a defined scope, legal review, risk assessment, and a communication plan. Understand the importance of contemporaneous logs, time synchronization, and continuity of observation. Covert operations demand additional controls: authorization levels, cover-story discipline, and protection of sources.
Traps in questions
Traps include assuming that public-place observation is always unrestricted, ignoring privacy expectations in private spaces, and treating a single observation as conclusive. Another trap is failing to document gaps in observation, which can undermine the value of the surveillance.
Rule of thumb
Apply the "necessity and proportionality" test: is surveillance necessary, is the method proportionate, and is the intrusion documented and authorized?
Worked example
An investigator suspects an employee is working elsewhere while on sick leave. Open-source review is attempted first; when insufficient, authorized public-place observation is conducted with a contemporaneous log, time-stamped images, and documented gaps. Findings are reported as observations, not conclusions about medical status.