Being followed? Tips to find out

Techniques Involving Vehicles

The techniques involving vehicles are quite similar to foot surveillance techniques. These can use multiple vehicles which will likely be in radio contact and can't drive into a restaurant or theater. Also the surveillant knows your vehicle and knows if you leave it you'll have to return to it sooner or later.

Basic alertness applies here as well. Pay attention to your surroundings and as you enter your vehicle, look around. Take your time, try to spot someone looking at you.

If you locate a vehicle that looks suspicious but is parked facing away from you and there is someone sitting in it, but they are sitting on the passenger side obviously waiting for someone, your internal alarms should be going off all over the place. Same thing if you see a couple deep in the throws of a passionate kiss. There are many techniques used to throw you off balance, make you less suspicious. Take note of these vehicles as you may soon see them in your rear view mirror.

A tail following you in daytime is easier to spot than one at night, but at night you are also harder to follow. Make sure that you check your vehicle frequently as it is common practice for operatives to mark a target vehicle in several ways. A target vehicle can easily be marked with reflective tape, by knocking out a red taillight lens which then lights a bright beacon that can easily be followed from a distance. Also, tape on a tail light can mark your vehicle. Sometimes license plate lights are disabled. Infrared paint has been put on a car roof and infrared lights have been put under a rear bumper. A simple camcorder with night vision will pick this up very nicely. These are by no means all the techniques used, but certainly the most common. Simply check your vehicle regularly.

So, now you're in your vehicle and moving toward your destination. You see a vehicle a couple of cars back that you noticed on your street, but now the amorous couple are concentrating on you. There are several options available to you. The first should be to just confirm that you are indeed being followed. My recommendation here is to casually make a turn and see if they follow. Several more turns should fairly well tell you what you already suspect. If you have time you might want to do this several times. Doing this maneuver may tip the surveillant that you are on to them, but if done calmly and deliberately, perhaps as if you were hunting an address they may not feel threatened.

I can tell you that targets usually pay no attention to what is around them and if you don't try to lose a surveillant you probably will not, unless you want to. In my experience, over the years, the quickest way to lose a tail is to let them know

without a doubt that you have burned them. Once this happens they will terminate surveillance and possibly pick it up again in a day or two. If you are the prime suspect in a serious crime it will be a little harder to shake a surveillance team and in fact if the team you catch leaves, there could realistically be one, two or more teams looking from farther away or even a street or two over. There may be a team waiting to pick you up enroute to your destination or even waiting for you at your destination.

If you have "high level" surveillants following you it is possible to keep driving until you pick them all off one by one as they move into better position. The next team will invariably pick up when the prior team gets burned. Burning a team can be its own reward and if its a single team on a divorce surveillance there is really no risk involved.