One of the use cases we’ve been exploring with our clients has been employing targeting intelligence from social media to derive better value from physical surveillance operations.
Typically when physical surveillance has been employed, the day(s) in which the surveillance will be carried out usually receives little in the way of consideration. It is very much a scatter-gun approach, essentially hoping to gain usable evidence from a random sample of data. In a slightly more nuanced approach, the surveillance is conducted to coincide with a date and time known to the organisation ordering the surveillance, commonly when the target is attending medical appointments set up by the organisation. Such evidence has limited persuasive value given the conditions under which the activity was performed (ie essentially a court ordered attendance). Anecdotally, the value derived from physical surveillance is decreasing as individuals become more aware of surveillance generally in their day to day activities ie CCTV cameras on every street corner.
The solution is better targeting of physical surveillance. Social media can be a powerful tool in that targeting process. Establishing patterns of behaviour (eg regular attendance at locations/events) or collecting data about upcoming events (eg domestic or international travel, social functions) through a social media investigation can provide valuable intelligence for targeting physical surveillance.
An illustrative example of this came recently where intelligence was developed through social media sources that a plaintiff would likely be attending a social event which their claims should preclude them from. The client had ordered a general social media investigation, but the operator recognised the opportunity presented and provided the initial intelligence to the client. Physical surveillance was organised and as it transpired, the operation was successful, garnering detailed and lengthy material of a significantly persuasive nature. It is expected that this single instance of targeted surveillance will have a substantial bottom-line outcome, and represents a fantastic value return for the client.
Importantly, many hours of physical surveillance had already been conducted in this matter without return. The targeting intelligence provided by the social media investigation has dramatically changed the RoI on the physical surveillance operations in this matter.
Whilst such opportunities will not always present themselves from social media investigations, more often than not our investigations develop actionable intelligence for targeting physical surveillance. If you are using physical surveillance routinely, you should be looking at ways to derive the greatest value from those operations.
