Those within the loss prevention field have observed the trend to deviate away from hiring private investigators (PI) to do your organized retail crime (ORC) surveillance projects to teaching your in-house investigators within a structured surveillance training program. The cost and complexities of PI contracts has switched to expanding the skills and knowledge of your own investigators. This has proven beneficial to retailers in many ways.

The success of an ORC surveillance team requires proper training in acting, clothing choices, vehicle choices, mobile and foot techniques, communication skills, use of props, eye locations, aggressive driving techniques, and dozens of other related subjects. The major benefit of this training is as a team-building exercise where trust is developed within the team, which promotes their functioning as a single specialized unit.

Proper training focuses on a team approach for setting up on the subjects' homes, following them and their associates all day long, gathering evidence within stores while they are stealing merchandise, following them to their storage locations, and then notifying the police to arrest and provide the search warrant to recover retailer's property. Major organized shoplifting rings have been broken by the ORC investigators performing these skills while mobile and on foot surveillance.

In Canada our training is now mandatory with Winners, Purolator Couriers, The Gap, Old Navy, Canada Post, Sears, The Bay, G4S/Securicor, and other companies dealing with organized retail crime. In the United States we have worked with T.J.Maxx, CVS Caremark, The Gap, and soon, Rite Aid and Barnes & Noble. These companies understand the need for proper ORC surveillance training. The training offered by private investigators does not provide this team method. The average PI usually does not have experience following major criminals as quite often most of their surveillance is single vehicle and insurance-related subjects.

When properly trained, the ORC investigative team will address two primary goals—minimizing the chances of losing the target and reducing the possibility of detection. Surveillance cannot be accomplished without a team of three to six vehicles, frequent switches of the vehicles following the subject, proper use of shade vehicles, and safe "eye" locations. The rest of the team must be positioned properly to continue the follow out of the area. Also required are discreet foot surveillance and the use of props by the operative doing "the acting."

With over thirty years of policing experience and years within the elite police surveillance unit, these skills have been passed on to over 1,000 corporate investigators during our three-day intensive surveillance training courses. After four hours in the classroom, trainees practice these skills following instructors that the students do not meet until the end of the day in a detailed debriefing. A variety of highway, city, and country driving is combined with foot exercises in malls, the streets and several large stores. There are no designated lunch, gas, or washroom breaks. The practical training is intensive, fast-paced, and challenging as real-life situations are used to push the team to improve daily. The instructors use "drops" within stores and on the streets to ensure the students remain close enough while maintaining safe observations relevant to the follow.

The sophisticated thief of today is well aware of surveillance and is on the lookout for the follow on a daily basis. He will exercise counter-surveillance methods and employ lookouts while inside your store. This is all the more reason for the need for proper training and addressing these scenarios within the practical training portion of any course. I have worked the most suspicious criminals and with a properly trained team, we have gone undetected while watching a bank robbery in progress, a murderer returning to the crime scene, and a terrorist in the process of his extortion. They all had no idea that a properly trained surveillance team was watching their every move.

Additional, I have worked projects with organized shoplifters that employed lookouts. We were able to watch the stock being hidden in their empty bags and the linen being stacked under the baby in the stroller. We also use a "black light" spray to mark their stolen stock in their cars while they were on a return trip back into the store for more. None of this could have been accomplished without a top-notch surveillance team. All of the surveillance techniques are the same whether following a major thief or a homicide suspect.

The ability to blend-in at all times, remaining calm, and not attracting attention to yourself is essential. These can be acquired skills and the training will correct any improper behavior. Anyone can follow a subject, but to do it professionally, unnoticed, and as a team will reap the benefits with a successful surveillance project.

A structured organized retail crime investigative team has become a necessity for many major retailers. Team surveillance, built on proven law enforcement strategies and skills, is the newest tool in the ORC investigator's toolbox.

Hal Cunningham is the principal of Surveillance Consultants. A former Toronto Police Staff Sergeant and member of their elite surveillance unit, Cunningham has been teaching surveillance techniques for twenty years. He is also an expert witness on surveillance in courts. Cunningham is author of the surveillance manual The Art of Shadowing and a contributing writer for Blue Line Magazine. He can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or 416-716-3107.