How to conduct International Surveillance Investigations

As a surveillance operative when I first entered the surveillance industry, I deployed all over the world on surveillance tasks, working as a subcontractor for other companies. From memory, I have worked in India, Dubai, Kenya, Hong Kong, Singapore and most of Europe.

Surveillance Team Travel & Transport

International surveillance operations require a great deal of preparation and planning. Firstly, entering the country. All operatives generally travel to the country on separate flights from different airports on different days to avoid being associated. The operatives are then required to stay in different hotels to once again avoid associating. The next issue is vehicles. The vehicles need to be a none garish colour and be a make and model that there are plenty of on the roads. In some countries, vehicles come with a driver. You can’t simply hire a vehicle and drive it yourself. They generally also have GPS vehicle tracking. In these situations, a ‘fixer’ will be required before the operatives enter the country to arrange vehicles without a driver.

Operational Communications

SIM cards next. In most countries other than the UK, you can’t buy SIM cards without showing a passport and registering them. In this situation we will require the fixer again to provide SIM cards on arrival into the country. I find it odd that in the UK that we are still able to buy a SIM card with cash and there is no requirement to register it.

Surveillance Team Makeup

Whilst deployed in India and Kenya, white faces were few and far between, so being a team of white surveillance operatives was far from ideal. Before we travelled to these countries, we arranged for a number of local former military personnel to join us. We then spent a week providing them with basic surveillance training as they would be driving us whilst we were in the back of the vehicle out of the way behind dark tinted windows. They would then be required to deploy on foot as required as they can blend in with their appearance without gaining attention. Our role was merely as operational commanders in each vehicle, making the decisions and giving the orders to ensure the operational objectives are met.

Surveillance Team Communications

Due to attempting to travel under the radar and not to gain attention from the authorities, we don’t take radios and the vast array of imagery equipment that we would usually utilise in the UK. So, for means of communication whilst deployed, we will generally use an app on a smartphone called Zello. This effectively turns your mobile phone into a 2-way radio. The communications are secure and can be deleted down at the end of each day. The only issue is that these use data, so a large data plan will be required on the SIM card so that we don’t run out of data and can’t communicate. Text communications between the operatives can be done on various other applications such as Threema, Signal, and Telegram.

Do you require an International Surveillance Investigation?

If you require an international investigation, then please look no further. Titan Private Investigation Ltd are experienced and highly professional at what we do. Alternatively, if you have read this and think you would enjoy this type of work, then you might be interested in training with Titan. Titan delivers an array of surveillance courses in association with the Institute of Professional Investigators, which can be found on our training pages. Titans training team are all former Police surveillance operatives and trainers with operational experience in both the public sector and private industry.

International Surveillance Investigations, who do I contact for further advice?

For further advice and information in regard to international investigations please feel free to speak to us for further advice and in complete confidence.

London Private Investigators – Call the Titan Investigations London Office 020 39046622
Birmingham Private Investigators – Call the Titan Investigations Birmingham Office 0121 7162442
Cambridge Private Investigators – Call the Titan Investigations Cambridge Office 01223 662022
Derby Private Investigators – Call the Titan Investigations Derby (Head Office) 01332 504256
Leeds Private Investigators – Call the Titan Investigations Leeds Office 0113 4574066
Leicester Private Investigators – Call the Titan Investigations Leicester Office 0116 2436520
Nottingham Private Investigators – Call the Titan Investigations Nottingham Office 0115 9646950
Manchester Private Investigators – Call the Titan Investigations Office 0161 3023008
Sheffield Private Investigators – Call the Titan Investigations Sheffield Office 0114 3499400

Alternatively, you can contact us directly using our fully confidential contact form at enquiries@titaninvestigations.co.uk or chat directly using our Live Chat facility and one of our private investigations team will get right back to you.