Video Surveillance

Techniques & Strategies of a Private Investigator on Video Surveillance

Video surveillance by a licensed private investigator requires a series of specific techniques & strategies to effectively document and collect video evidence of a subjects daily activities.  Observations, usually made from a distance, are documented with an high definition (HD) video camera.  These investigations are usually one of the following types: divorce, cheating spouse / matrimonial disputes, insurance fraud, medical malpractice fraud, personal injury fraud or products liability. These surveillance videos serve as an extremely valuable tool to the parties involved.

The private investigators surveillance video’s function is to communicate information about the subject to the end viewer.  These viewers can be attorneys, insurance companies, doctors, employers, medical experts, wives, husbands, adult children, family members, etc…  In order to for these surveillance videos to communicate to the viewers effectively a series of techniques and strategies must be used by the private investigator to maximize clarity and results.

Some techniques and strategies a private investigator can employ to achieve high quality professional surveillance videos are:

• The private investigator must have a well framed out scene of the subject and locations.
  • This is a camera operating technique employed to get the zoom feature optimized for the distance to the target.  If the camera is zoomed in too tight, the image may be cut off at the top and bottom missing opportunities for the subject to demonstrate their capabilities.  This also results in some videos appearing shaky.  If the camera is zoomed out to wide than vital details may be lost due to inability to see them in great detail.

• The private detectives video frames and scenes are in focus and steady.
  • Video that is in focus is easy to digest and understand, when it is out of focus details are lost and viewer experience is diminished.  Handling the camera while on video surveillance can be challenging at times.  However the cameras stability must be accounted for as shaky video is unsettling to watch and hard to understand.  All video must appear steady and stabilized.

• A private eye must maintain good camera angles that show the subject’s entire body or focus of the investigation.
  • Camera angles determine the quality of a video.  If the angle is right than everything is clear and unobstructed.  If an angle is bad the video will not show the capability of the subject or the focus of the investigation.
  • If the investigation is in relation to an injury then having a camera angle on the correct side of the body is critical to get an unobstructed view.

• A private investigator must film with clean camera lenses and through clean car windows.
  • Most often video surveillance is conducted with a vehicle which must have clean windows.  Any grime or streaking on windows will negatively affect video work product.  Dirty lenses will produce similar dimensioned quality.

• A private investigator must film signs indicating the subject’s location.
  • Street signs, building signs and landmarks identify where the subject has visited during the course of the surveillance, eliminating ambiguity as to where the subject is or has been.

• The private investigator must film all the appropriate actions of the subject performing his activities of the day. This is the telling of the story, being both comprehensive and having continuity.
  • The surveillance video should have a beginning, middle and end. For example: Subject leaving home, arriving at grocery store is the beginning.  Shopping inside store and loading groceries into trunk of car is the middle of the story.  Subject arriving home and unloading bags into house is the end of the story.  All these parts must be in the video for it to make sense to any party who watches the video.  If any 1 piece of the surveillance is missing, the story will be incomplete and less understandable to the video viewer.

As demonstrated from this brief overview of video surveillance, it becomes obvious that one of the major challenges a private investigator (link to about page) is faced with to be successful on surveillance has a lot to do with the experience of the private investigator and his/her familiarity with recording video under sometimes stressful conditions.

About the Author

Adam Frasca is the lead private investigator at Davis Investigations, Inc. – For additional techniques and strategies, visit my blog.  For more information on video surveillance, I can be reached at (914) 472-5731.

Choosing a video Surveillance System: Part 1

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