How do private investigators do surveillance?
How do private investigators do surveillance?
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How do private investigators do surveillance? Well, you may be surprised to learn all the ways a private investigator does surveillance. First, let’s define surveillance as it reads on dictionary.com:
- a watch kept over a person, group, etc., especially over a suspect, prisoner, or the like
- continuous observation of a place, person, group, or ongoing activity in order to gather information
- attentive observation, as to oversee and direct someone or something
How do private investigators do surveillance of a person?
There are many ways private investigators do surveillance of a person, but the most common way is using a video camera. Getting video evidence of a person doing something is part and parcel of a private investigator’s job and this video of a person might end up in court as evidence.
Private investigators will follow people around either on foot, using a car, or public transportation and the skillful part about this is being able to video tape a person without them noticing and without attracting the attention of other people.
Clear, steady video footage is the hallmark of a professional private investigator.
How do private investigators do surveillance of a place?
Private investigators are often hired to place buildings or areas under surveillance for the purpose of gathering evidence. Many times, they will park their car close by and simply record using a video camera.
If extended surveillance is required, a private investigator might rent a vehicle and install a hidden camera and a DVR (Digital Video Recorder) and leave the car parked where it has a direct view of the place being placed under surveillance. Then, once a week or so, the private investigator will come by and replenish the batteries, and obtain the surveillance footage for their client.
How do private investigators do surveillance of a thing?
IF the “thing” to be surveillance is a building or stationary item then the methods above will work just fine. But, if the thing to be placed under surveillance has a tendency to move, then a private investigator will often install a GPS tracking device on the item and monitor its movements by computer.
This is very common when private investigators do surveillance of a vehicle. They simply place a GPS tracker on the vehicle and watch everywhere it goes using tracking software on their computer, from the comfort of their office chairs. This technique is often used to when private investigators do surveillance of cheating spouses. The GPS tracker saves the client a lot of money compared to having a person follow the cheating party.
How do private investigators do surveillance remotely?
Sometimes, when private investigators do surveillance they have to do so remotely. In these cases, they will either use cameras with remote monitoring abilities or they will gain access to a location’s cameras that give them a viewpoint of the area they are trying to monitor.
How do they access to these cameras? Usually, they simply ask. Most businesses are happy to let someone have access once they know that the purpose is to make the area safer and possibly more secure.
As you can see, when private investigators do surveillance they have a number of tools and methods at their disposal and during some cases they will use all of these methods and more. The key to being a successful private investigator is knowing when and where to use the correct surveillance equipment to the evidence required for you, their client.
If you want to to have a no-obligation discussion with a professional, caring private investigator who can share what is possible with surveillance, then just call (800) 867-3930 and speak to someone who will be happy to answer any questions you have. There’s no obligation. If you are looking for affordable licensed private investigators in Atlanta with 20 years of experience assisting individuals, attorneys and corporations feel free to contact us here. You can also view a portion of our extensive client list here, and see here what actual clients say about Eagle Investigative Services a private investigator in Atlanta, Georgia.