Good day Ladies and gentlemen, what we're going to do today is surveillance awareness. This is less than nine of nine. So this is the the end of the event one road, we're going to produce a more detailed, advanced course in the near future. And we're going to be covering more face to face things like interviewing techniques, interviewing skills, but also how to get out and meet people how to plan that. So you can be safe and secure and also how to run some humans, calm operations, but if you're in the business world, you might want to call them something slightly different. But to help you to lessen the risk of meeting people that you may not have met before, who you haven't had a chance to assess their access, motivation, point of contact and capability.

So I'm looking forward to Do that, but there'll be course three, that'd be a bit more advanced than this one. So the aim of this is to introduce you to who may be watching you and why now talking about you, as we'll call you, the handler, and also the source, bearing in mind that we're going to cover in a few minutes. There's a wide range of people who who are out there watching other people for nefarious business, and there's law enforcement types. So depending where you are in the world, this may or may not be a particular concern. But at the end of the day, there's always criminals out there to introduce you briefly how to identify surveillance. And this may be a subject you'll want to introduce to your sources.

So it's valuable that you've got a working knowledge of surveillance awareness. For instance. I mentioned Syria in the past I've worked with sources in Syria, Yemen and Libya. There's always someone watching someone. And if your sources a little bit more aware, then they're a little bit safer, a little bit more secure. So it makes them streetwise if they're a little bit more surveillance aware.

And just bear in mind throughout this, that this is about awareness. So it's about improving your understanding and your sources understanding of surveillance. And it's not surveillance in itself that's much, much larger subject and much harder to teach online. It's not counter surveillance where you're trying to counter people following you and watching you. And it's not anti surveillance, which is going through some drills, if you think you're being watched, like a spiderweb, for instance. This is a little bit of awareness training.

And that's pretty much it because the rest are very complex subjects and we'll take a whole lot more time. And video memory to teach those subjects. But it's it touches on some of them. So why would we be a target for surveillance? If you hark back to the start of this course, we talked about risk assessments. And there's another course that I produced more, much more security related.

That's about making risk assessments. You need to look around you and say, who's going to be watching me and start making a list? And some of them will be a bit bizarre, and some of them not so much. And then you look at that list. What's the likelihood they are actually watching you, and then prioritize that list? So, we're gonna look at how there'll be watching you.

Now the who could be a long list from back snatches to the CIA. And whatever other intelligence gathering organization there are in the country you live in. And nowadays, it's pretty much guaranteed that at some point your emails, your phone calls, your texts, your every other electronic transactions will be monitored by some organization somewhere in the world. It absolutely mean does not mean that you're up to something nefarious or criminal. That's just the way of the world since 911. Pretty much.

So take for granted that on a day to day basis logicals if not all of them, your emails, your text, I'll be monitored. Outside of that. Criminals, street criminals, people are going to rob you in the street if the opportunity presents themselves will carry out a moderate amount of surveillance. Because at the end of the day, they do not want to get caught So as criminals, I would suggest that the prime reason for being more surveillance aware more advanced criminals, organized crime will also carry out surveillance as well. People who want to break in your house, they won't just walk past and run up the doorway, kick the door in. I mean, it's a possibility, but 99 times out of 100.

They'd like to carry out some form of surveillance. They want to see if you have dogs, they want to see if you have lights alarm systems, see if you're in the house, most of time, they don't want you to be in the house. Not all the times, obviously, most of the times, so they'll carry out some forms violence and you may be able to spot them at certain points of their surveillance gathering, or information gathering and surveillance. So it depends where you live in the world. Police intelligence security agencies, like I mentioned, I've got a job to do and depending on who you are, they may or may not be working And I'm not trying to scare the living daylights, I'm focusing more on criminals, criminal gangs, and depending on where you are terrorists, so it's pretty much anyone with a hostile intent against you. They're a direct threat to surveillance or somewhere where you may be visiting and may be visiting a US company in Africa that is actually a target, you could be indirectly involved, you may never know you just knock in the door, you have your meeting you come away and but they may there may be some indirect surveillance on you as part of that that business trip.

So how there are various means of carrying out surveillance, initial surveillance of say someone's house or someone's place a business can be done on Google Earth and Google Maps A lot more information can be found out online now about the person, the place routes to and from places to stop and wait for you when you leave your house and so on and so forth like that. Generally it's broken down into two means. So I would say it's technical. They may have cameras and videos, if they're really going to town on you. They may be concealed, concealed in a vehicle parked outside your house or wherever you are. Or they may be in your house, they may be using your cameras nowadays in your house.

And nowadays, suddenly, the cameras and videos are so tiny, it's very, very unlikely you're going to spot them unless you're doing a proper search. So technical means is very difficult to counter. And of course the cyber surveillance, access and your computer accessing computer records and the email And the phones and the texts, and all that sort of stuff. Remember, on the last lesson, tasking and training, I mentioned metadata. If you're sending photographs with metadata on their hidden data on the photograph that shows where you took it, say outside your house, then that that's a giveaway. So is the date and time you were there.

So it goes back to the old rule of never putting on Facebook, what your travel intentions are, because criminals can get a lot of information about and wait till you've left. Wait till you got any holidays and then just break in and ransack your house and take all your stuff. So looping back to technical and very, very difficult to counter. Physical is a lot easier and that's where most of you criminals are going to is going to be in that space. Could be foot could be, they're going to follow you on foot. Simple follow up just like you see on the TV.

Where is one person behind And they're going to follow you see where you go. If you're unaware, then that's pretty simple. So that's one point where you definitely need to be aware if you're being followed by someone. A simple follow can get together a lot of information about you, your routines, your patterns and your trends. And again, bearing in mind I was talking about the cert source and their security and their their awareness of surveillance. They can bid on the car, or bike, motorbike taxi, any means of which they can follow you around.

We're looking unobtrusive. So tax is always a good one because depending where you live, there's always a lot of taxes around. So using a taxi means that they will just blend in to the background you'll never notice them. So what should you be looking for? In a surveillance I mentioned a few things. You may be able to spot if they're poor or average.

So criminals won't necessarily be very good at surveillance. They'll carry out They'll do it. But it doesn't mean that they're experts at it, it means that that's just a little process they do to ensure that they will get away with whatever crime they want to do. And so you should be easy, it should be easier for you to spot them. Experienced surveillance teams, such as a government intelligence or security organizations can be very advanced. And it's highly unlikely certainly European in the US if if there's a government or a police surveillance team on you, it's going to be very difficult for you to spot them.

But that's, that's a different matter. Same techniques, but a different matter. Technical cyber surveillance is going to be pretty much impossible to detect. Unless you're a tech expert or tech savvy and these things you're not going to know if they've been on your machine or watching through your laptop. So laptop camera. Or they're just siphoning off the information and copying information cloning your phone so on and so forth.

So that's that's much more of a much more complex and technical and extremely difficult to detect type of surveillance. But it's something you could scratch the surface of in a protective sort of way by using something encrypt your email, or using proton mail for instance. So using WhatsApp when you're when you're messaging people, yeah, for business between yourself and source, it's something to consider. So what are we looking for looking for unnatural behavior. So when the street, someone who's a little bit too close or far away, you see more from corner to corner? Who's there when they shouldn't be there loitering on corners doesn't fit in that that location that place where they are criminals for instance, quite often Shift a, they don't like to be in the same place for long periods of time because the police may spot them as well.

So they're going to be potentially a little bit anxious. So they're going to be acting out of the ordinary. So unnatural behavior is a good good spot. And it's a simple spot. So when the surveillance operator criminal reacts to a target or behaves in a manner, which is not consistent with their surroundings, and maybe they've used the bus stop to sit and watch outside your house, or outside your place of work, and you notice him or her bus comes by bus leaves him or her is still sitting there. That's unnatural behavior unless they wait for the next bus, of course, the next number.

But that quite often happens. They'll stay in the bus, bus stop for shelter, and it gives them a bit of a cover story. If they're stopped by the police. What are you doing here are waiting for a bus Okay, difficult to argue with that one. And but if bus goes by and another goes by and another goes by and they're still sitting there, then something's wrong. You make eye contact if they've identified you as someone who lives in a house that may have some high quality TVs, if you turn around on them one day when you're walking down the street and they make eye contact with you, that's an indicator possibly that you're you're imprinted in their brain and it's their their response is not natural.

So that's that's always a good one. And they may cover up by actually approaching you say, I know you and your No, you don't. Or you can question him say where From where do you know me from? If they look away and naturally so you've turned, seeing them and they look away? People don't normally do that. People may avoid your clients but no on surveillance, it's a little bit more pronounced because they're all keyed up.

They're following you. You've just turned around on them. And their responses do something unnatural. So look away, quite obviously obvious searching in a pocket. So stop and go. Now looking for my phone and trying to do something that offsets my behavior.

Poor positioning seven bus stop to long standing in one place standing on street corners, standing outside houses. It's It's amazing. But criminals can be that obvious. Inappropriate clothing. So if they're wearing raincoats on a sunny day, because surveillance can take a long time, if you're watching following someone, it could be hours and hours and hours. The morning was nice in the afternoon.

It could be rainy so surveillance people tend to carry lots of white weather cold Whether gear with them. So if it's inappropriate for the time of day or the area they're in, then that's an indicator. It's actually draw your attention running to catch you up. If you go around to cross the road or going round a corner quickly and then a lot further behind than they want to be run to catch up is always a bad a poor surveillance indicator. talking to themselves while they're using comms radios were harder to detect these days because a lot more people are speaking on their phones openly when they're walking down the street, but that's a possible indicator and it certainly piques my my attention, but there is definitely a lot more people nowadays doing it. profile.

There they come into the folio into a shop where they look out of place. That happens quite often. They've only got so many clothes that They can wear, sometimes they wear, they carry a change of clothes with them, or at least a change of jacket and a hat. But if you go into a shop where they look out of place, that's a good indicator. Now all these indicators will stack up to something triggering in your mind to say, hey, I've seen this guy before, or I think this person is following me. Next, we looking for just that little bit of a trigger that signal from your brain brain say, something's not quite right, I think could be unfollowed.

And that's what the awareness is all about. It's a long list of unnatural behavior, but it's pretty much anything that stands out and draws your attention. Now, that could be anyone in the street, totally innocent, but that's fine. You make a mental note of it. If you've never seen them again, great. But you make a mental note of it and you do see them again, that's when you know, or at least suspect heavily that you're being followed.

Excuse me, so what are you drawn to? Obviously, the one way They bright colored socks. Why is that because they don't blend in. It's colorful we respond to color. So anyone who's experienced in surveillance won't be following you with a bright red or bright orange jacket. A criminal is not very good at it.

Who wants to follow you, mate? That's something to watch out for. But typically surveillance operators have very little sort of hooks that you can identify them they'll generally be average height, average build, you know, average hair cut may have a bit of facial hair, not generally, that close will be average, there'll be dark gray is blackish. Brown is blend in tight colors. And badges such as North Face badges will be covered up. So they're all indicators to look out for.

Repeated sightings the same person Time and time again, this is a little bit too obvious. But government or police events teams, for instance, we'll have 1012 1418 people It all depends who will rotate. And the next time they come round to follow you there boy different clothes a hat, they may have even have some different makeup on false mustache or they've shaved the mustache off. But criminal groups, for instance, will only have a small amount of people who are reliable enough to do this more relaxed type of surveillance. So repeated sightings. That's why you have to look at what they're wearing as well as what they look like.

Same individual scene on separate locations, and there's no logical explanation. If the guy works in the same area as you then there's a logical explanation. But if this guy seems to be following you, he looks a bit like a scumbag because he's a criminal and you've seen him two days running. Three days running or as close to your car a few times, then you know is up to something. So it could be something to do with distance target sees the same individual, I tell you being you in one location several hours later another and it's a bit of a distance away. That's a coincidence that should trigger something in your mind.

Or if the target visit separate several premises in close proximity to where you've been or where you are, and you see the same individual in each three banks in the high street, then something's going wrong. Yeah, they're obviously following you or their actions indicate they're they're taking some interest in you potentially. And you're looking for the opposite side of the norm. Do they fit in? Are they normal to the area? Otherwise wearing the wrong clothes?

Do they look like the wrong sort of person to be hanging around to If it's an affluent area where you live and he looks pretty poor or down run, it could be a criminal. It could be to normal as he described the typical surveillance operator, bland, bland, bland, gray, medium, high, medium, medium build medium age. Don't get me wrong. A lot of surveillance agencies use older women, all the men, younger women, younger men mixes and matches couples pairs out walking dogs. And so I can't cover everything on a surveillance awareness lesson. But being too normal in place is also a possible indicator and it could fit in with to normal in the wrong environment.

Like I said, with the surveillance clothing, darks, greens, browns, blending in time cards usually practical so that they may have a raincoat they can turn inside out. So the inside is different color, but if it rains, it can protect them. If it's cold, it can protect them. And they'll change hats, discard them or they might carry a bag where they keep some changes of clothing in anything they tend not to change or be able to change quickly is the shoes, things like watches, socks. So if you see the socks in there and may have changed their upper clothing, but they haven't changed their socks and their shoes, for instance, or the criminal era bling watch. And next time you see him he's wearing something different, but it's the watch that attaches your attention.

Earpieces, you can do a lot of communications now on your phone. So a lot of people are wearing earphones so it's not as much of an indicator as it used to be. But still, it could be a good means of surveillance, communication. And like I said the badges northface badges are covered up or something because if you see a badge with a unique story You see an item of clothing with a unique badge on it. You may remember that a lot easier than that the person. So next time you see that badge, you go, oh, okay, I've seen that before.

That's strange, because that's quite unique. So a lot of surveillance operators will black out their North Face badge or cover them up with a bit of tape. And that's always a good indicator. So some of the risks of problems under surveillance, if conducted so if you if you start, we're going to go through a few drills in a few minutes. If you do them in a crude manner, or they don't look relaxed, or it looks like you're actually doing some anti surveillance, then that can increase the game a little bit. So if criminals think you're you've spotted them and you're doing some anti violence drills, and then that could pique their interest and the same with government police security teams.

If you're doing Something that looks like you're doing some anti surveillance, they could start asking questions that have been more detail. So obviously, you can trigger an assessment that you're actively trying to avoid surveillance, and they've got something to conceal. So it's a 5050 call for you as to what you think is best misma lane aware. And you become certain that you'll be in followed probably by criminals who want to know what you're up to and want to know when you're going get your money from the bank, or is it a police and intelligence team? Why would they be following you so goes back to your risk assessment. But surveillance awareness is very hard to keep up does require a bit of focus does require a fair bit of stamina on your part, because you're looking at cars now in a different way you're trying to remember them.

Try and remember the people. Try and remember what routes you've been taken, what patterns and trends you've been setting set, leaving the house at the same time getting to work at the same Time leaving work at the same time getting home at the same time picking the kids up at the same time. all that sort of stuff that actually helps out someone who's watching you, you may want to start looking at and and changing and he can get paranoid. Some people do you know they, the more they look, the more they see people they think are following them where in reality there isn't anyone. So you have to be a little circumspect. You have to take care about all this.

It's just being aware. It's building up your awareness. It's building up your skill set so that you can also pass those skill sets on to the source. And so don't get over concerned by it. So look at our constant assessment, your vulnerabilities, why would someone be following you? Now for most of us, for me, for instance, it will be criminal criminals will want to know when I leave home so they can break in.

And that's easy enough they could watch the house when the car leaves that job done. They know I leave at that time and it'll probably pretty much be every, every day at the same time. But they have to sit watch my house to get that detail. So it's a it's a point where I could identify them. government organizations, are you if you are then obviously you gotta find them hard to spot unless they're really bad. And then what do you do about it?

It could be that you're in the wrong place at the wrong time. You've just walked through a surveillance police surveillance operation, and they pinged you as someone of interest for no particular reason and now you're being followed. Because you just walked ran that street corner into a surveillance operation. And you're now part of it, your target part. There's a variety of reasons why you might be picked up. But that's sort of, for that reason you would be written off quite quite quickly because surveillance takes a lot of time.

It takes a lot of people takes a lot of money and to keep following someone. So if you're really not not a valid target, then very quickly, they'll write you off and say, Yeah, not a valid target. Let's not follow them any further. They forget how they'll follow you. And experienced criminals or maybe experienced criminals, or crafty criminals. easier to spot, easier to detect, and even easier to deter, put them off.

If they can't follow you or they can't follow you without being seen. Then you might be too risky victim for the criminal activities and some areas it could be kidnapped guy So criminals who are kidnappers, potentially they're going to be a bit more advanced, because that's their, that's their life, their life is to watch you to spot where you're going to be vulnerable. And at that point, that's where they're going to kidnap me. And whether I intentions, what do they want to do with the surveillance that's being carried out? Are they gathering intelligence? If so, for what reason?

Do they want to kidnap you? Or if the police arrested detain you? Is it for robbery or extortion? They want to approach you take your wallet off here. But again, they want to do it at a place that's suitable for them and safe for them. Worst case, of course, they want to assassinate you.

I mean, this is going on a little bit down, down the lines into excuse me away from a human, but you're looking at all these possibilities means that you're going through a credible risk assessment and you can identify with Where you where you may be may be vulnerable and who from? And another component is, where might something occur? What's your routine? Are you in the house a lot? Is it the house you think they're going to break into? and Rob?

Is it your office? Is it the inflammation, the office is your position at work, hotel choke points, such as places where you generally have to go through to get to the other side from A to B. And that's where they'll wait for you. You know, if you're going to pick your daughter up, and you always have to go through this set of traffic lights. That's a choke point. Do you go shopping the same place, same time, same day, use the same car.

Are you vulnerable there? Are you stuck in traffic a lot? Or do you walk a lot? What do you do? about it? You don't leave until this Too late.

Sorry, don't leave it until it's too late I and if you think you're being watched, tell someone about it. If the police are credible, where you live, tell the police have a plan. So if you think you're being followed while you're walking down the street, look for places of safety. I'm not talking just about police stations. But hotels, for instance, they may not want to rob you in the middle of a hotel, because they may have cameras or they may have police or they may have their own security or they may get seen and but react quickly. Don't leave it until it's too late.

So if you think you're being followed, go to somewhere safe if you walk in the same route that usually walk identify safe places run into someone's house. If it's the security services in your country, don't be obvious about seeing them but do something about it pretty quickly. You're always looking for the profile, their activity, the routine patterns and trends of behavior for you, and for your source when you speak to them about it if you do, and also the potential watches, what is their routine, if you think you're being followed, or they always outside your house are always outside your office till they turn up 10 minutes before you leave for work, or leave work, and they have the same routines that may identify who they are, because if they're confident, if they're thora, then it may be more of a police organization or kidnap gang rather than a street criminal.

So looking at some surveillance awareness skills, always check who's behind you, but not just behind you in front of you. So you're looking for identifiers and cars that you can remember in two days time if you see it again, or a week's time see it again. registration numbers granted They can be changed, but it's difficult. So you're looking at the make model, the color of the car, any identifying marks, has it got a dent in the front? Has it got badges? And who's driving?

How many people are driving? And do they keep right behind you? Do they? Are they in opposite lanes? And why are they suspicious? Because you've seen them before.

So now you start to look not only forward, but also backwards, which is where they're likely to be following you. If it's sort of a loose surveillance or a an unofficial criminal surveillance. It could be all around you. And you know, when you're walking along the streets, do the same thing, not just looking forward. But checking to size, check it to your rear. Occasionally, I'm looking at a shop window, you know, that old trick that you've seen in the spy movies actually works?

And then you're looking for so if you do that you're looking for their unnatural behavior. They're stopping they're avoiding eye contact. They're checking up It's and it's it's hard. So you have to look around and constantly be aware, constantly making notes, mental notes in your head about that person, that person. And again, they'll be looking at just men of 25 to 35 years of age, you're mixing and matching pretty much anyone who could be following you. So that's surveillance awareness.

When you're out in the streets, you're looking at cameras, possibly looking at people following them vehicles on bikes, walking behind, you're walking in front of you walking on the other side of the street walking on other streets that are alongside you. So you have to be careful 360 degrees it's very tricky. So once you think you're being followed, or you want to take some precautions about it. One of the ways of doing it is called box draw. This is a very simple example. But if you're walking along the streets as shown on this slide, you can take a detour.

And as soon as you're halfway up that first Street, stop and shop window, look around who's following you. Continue up to the corner, turn, right, same drill, stop, cross the road, maybe look around, continue the journey and then turn right. And then another, right, you're back on the same route. But use all those corners, all those junctions to be able to stop legitimately. I have a quick look around, see if there's anyone that you recognize that will follow you on the streets possibly, or that you've seen in recent times. Same same drill on the road.

This is obviously quite a live motorway type road but you just drive off onto the roundabout. You could stop up there. If someone's following you And then they're going to be pretty obvious. And then you're back on, you're back on your journey back in the same room. These are pretty basic drills. They're well known by surveillance teams.

And if there's more than one vehicle following you, then it's pretty simple. The one vehicle carries on, and he'll stop, maybe a mile up the road and wait for you to come past after you've done this drill. But, you know, it's criminals that are following you, then it's less likely they're going to be that aware or that skilled. And there's some deceptions. For kidnappings for instance, they might want to trick you into areas where they can kidnap you. Someone's broken down on the roadside, false police clothing, that sort of tricks to make you stop.

So you have to be very careful that if you're going to stop for a young lady like that, on the road, that there's no one else around obviously that you are going to jump out You've probably seen that trick in the movies, but it does happen in real life. So you have to be very careful. It may be that you stopped traveling at night because there's less people around, it's easier to kidnap someone, or carry out a criminal activity during the nighttime because criminals can escape a lot easier and it's highly unlikely though don't get seen. So some concerns to think about. You need to look natural and blend in. It's easier to follow someone with a bright red jacket or bright orange jacket.

So the more of the gray person you are, the harder it is to follow you. You and I are creatures of habit. But try where possible to avoid routine especially if you think you're being watched. If there are criminals out there, because if you leave the house at nine o'clock in the morning, then they know it they just have to turn up at 10 to I wait for you to leave and then fully to work or whatever they have to do. It makes the watchers job so much easier. Be confident when you're out.

Plan for eventualities and contingencies. If you think you're being followed then you know there's a large chain hotel, just up the road then make for that get inside, sit down cold please if necessary and it will be much harder for the watcher to do something about. Be constantly aware, it's very hard, but the more you do it, the more relaxed about it you get and the more away you get. So start to make notes of cars and colors and registration numbers. The people you see that you think are suspicious and bearing in mind you know, look at the things that are fixed on them. And like said watches, shoes socks on any given day will be the same appearances are going to change.

So looking at Very tight facial features like eyes and nose, and mouth heights a difficult one to fix. And if they're criminals, they're not going to make it that hard for you. So practice makes perfect. So in summary, find get back to that. Like I said, Be aware, work out, do a risk assessment who might be following you. And it may be that it's gonna be no one but a criminal.

And that's great. You know, no government, no police, no organized criminals, no terrorists, it's just possibly criminals out there. Bear in mind that it's for your source as well. So if your sources out working in some hostile environment, or potentially hostile environment or a bad crime area, give them some key indicators what to look for. Tell them to make sure not to wear their red jackets when they're out doing this where something is gonna blend in. Don't look wealthy, if it's a high crime area.

If they're being followed, this is what to do get into a safe area as quickly as possible, or get out of there as quickly as possible. As soon as you detect surveillance, do something about it. Look for patterns and trends of surveillance, technical, you may not see any indicators for And may all be done online or run in the background on your laptop or your phone. So again, it goes back to who would be doing that sort of thing. But physical on foot, and in vehicles a little bit easier to detect, especially if they're low level criminals. And they're the ones most likely to be carrying out some sort of nefarious activity against you.

Of course, it could be a combination of technical and physical, could be they're watching your phone listening to you for at the same time they've got some foot surveillance or takes a video of you. It all depends what they're doing it for what their reasons are. But initially, and the ones to watch out for the most will be criminal surveillance. And so that They can carry out whatever they've got to do, and get away from the situation as quickly as possible so they can spend your money. And that's it. It's a, it's a huge subject.

And it's one that's actually much better done in real life. So following someone around, teaches you so many lessons about how difficult it is, and but also how to detect it, and some techniques, but you've got to start you've got the surveillance awareness package. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me, and also anything about the course. Feel free to get in touch. I look forward to hearing from you. Thank you very much for attending this course and I'll be preparing the more advanced course in the very near future.

Thanks very much. Bye bye.