Unmanned Surveillance – The New Standard?

SPONSORED CONTENT: The Future of Unmanned Surveillance

photo by Hustvedt
photo by Hustvedt

The rapid development of unmanned surveillance for military use raises many questions: What will this mean for the private sector surveillance industry?

What will this mean for us as private investigators?

Not since the introduction of GPS to the private sector has a technology so drastically changed the tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs) of how surveillance operations are conducted.

What we talk about when we talk about “unmanned surveillance

Toy UAVs

First let me define what I’m not  talking about: I am not  referring to the many unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that hover over suburban homes across America.  These private-sector UAVs are little more than toys – primarily, remotely controlled helicopter variants with minimal flight times that fly at altitudes far too low to be covert.

Realistically, UAVs offer little in the way of obtaining useable video.

Sure, “real” UAVs exist; but they’re cost prohibitive and, more importantly, aren’t lawful for private-sector use.  The reality is, useful UAVs will likely remain out of the reach of PIs for the long-term for a variety of reasons: FAA regulations, violating reasonable expectation of privacy, political fallout, and cost.

Cheap “Hidden” Cameras

I am also not  talking about the $99 hidden camera you find online. Sure, you can tape a stick camera to a tree outside a subject’s residence.  But can you view it real-time?  Can you see where the camera is pointed?  Will the subject even be identifiable in the video?  The answer to all these questions is likely NO.

The Future: Hi-Def, Real-Time Surveillance

What I am referring to when talking about unmanned surveillance is high-definition systems that stream in real-time, are controllable in real-time, can track a moving target, and (since they are real-time) can be used to trigger departures for mobile surveillance.  Add intelligent analytics to the mix, and you can sift through days of unmonitored video in minutes.  They’re available for vehicle deployments or in pole mount/tripod deployments for outside the vehicle.

So what’s the benefit to these amazing gadgets?

The answers are simple and many. The systems can be dropped into any vehicle in minutes, allowing sedans with no window tint, or any variety of vehicle for that matter, to be used as a surveillance platform.

Have you been getting burned on surveillance? Perhaps it’s because the target sees you sitting in the vehicle or because your vehicle is so “blacked out” by limo tint and curtains that anyone with a sense of awareness is immediately spooked.

Unmanned platforms eliminate that problem. Use a standard vehicle, and anyone can see it is unoccupied.  My surveillance firm has “smoked” countless cases where our competitors in manned vehicles have failed because we’ve been able to set up with unmanned vehicles and pole cameras. I know this because we have clients that have assigned cases to us that were previously assigned to other firms with no results after countless days of surveillance. Give us a day with our unmanned platform, and we’ll give you useable, high-def video.

Unmanned systems also eliminate the paranoia factor that can plague a human operative. Many PIs experience the concern of being caught in the backseat of their surveillance vehicle. This causes them to abandon ideal setups and consequently miss crucial activity by the subject. Unmanned platforms eliminate this problem as well as the discomfort a PI experiences during bouts of hot summer or freezing winter days.  I much prefer to sit comfortably in my car, running the A/C, off the “X”.

Finally, and most importantly in my opinion, every PI should have this tool in his arsenal because the competition is using it. Small businesses and nationwide firms are slowly recognizing the importance of unmanned technology and are starting to implement it into their daily operations. This trend will continue.

Don’t get put into the unfortunate position of losing a client because they turned to a PI firm that is using the most up-to-date surveillance technology. I can attest that most of our new clients have sought us out due to this capability.

We can’t control what our target does—nobody can. But we can and should pull out all the stops to obtain video when subjects are in the public space. It’s our job, and it’s what our clients rely on us for. We consistently obtain usable video in more than 90 percent of our surveillance cases. Unmanned technology is instrumental in achieving that objective.

About the Author:

Zach Grove is a former CIA Operations Officer who left the agency in 2010 to open Armada Global.  Armada specializes in surveillance services incorporating unmanned platforms with human teams.  Armada also customizes and builds unmanned platforms for fellow PIs and law enforcement.