kkl The target's vehicle is shown in blue. The vehicles of the surveillance team are depicted in gray. The green rectangles represent urban terrain. The illustration is not rendered to scale. Distances in the real world are significantly greater. Furthermore, surveillance vehicles in the real world are never the identical make, model, and color. FBI teams use sedans, coupes, stationwagons, pickup trucks, vans, minivans, sport utility vehicles, taxis, motorcycles, commercial trucks, ambulances, 18-wheelers, and others. Specialized roles Each of the surveillance vehicles in the above illustration is charged with carrying out a specific assignment. Command vehicle. The command vehicle is tasked with maintaing visual contact with the target. The agent is said to have command of the target. This is a pivotal role. This agent keeps the other team members informed of the target's direction, speed, intentions, etc. Backup vehicle. The backup vehicle provides a fill-in function. Because the command vehicle is the vehicle most likely to be detected by the target, the FBI has devised a number of strategies that let the backup vehicle take over the command role, thereby allowing the previoua command vehicle to exit the surveillance box. Many suspects have been duped by this strategy, as you'll learn later in this article. Advance vehicle. The advance vehicle is like an early warning system. The agent provides advance warning of obstacles, hazards, or traffic conditions that would otherwise catch a surveillance team unaware. The advance vehicle also fulfills another important function. If the FBI has bugged your telephone or your office or your residence, they're likely to already know your destination. Naturally, the advance vehicle arrives before you do. Many suspects have been completely fooled by the undercover FBI agent who is already seated at the restaurant when the suspect arrives. Outrider vehicle. The outrider vehicles patrol the perimeter of the floating-box. Their assignment is to make certain that the target does not get outside the containment of the box. They also play a key role when the target makes a turn at an intersection, as you'll learn later in this article. Surveillance advantages The floating-box is a very powerful and flexible system. It allows the FBI to successfully respond to a variety of situations. The FBI is almost never caught off-guard. Recovery from mistakes. If visual contact with the target is lost, the box can collapse inward, enabling the agents to quickly re-acquire command of the target. (Whenever the FBI loses visual contact with the target, the surveillance team immediately executes a lost-command drill. The FBI has a number of strategies they use to re-acquire command of the target.) Quick response. The floating-box also allows the FBI to react quickly to a target who is attempting to evade surveillance. If the target unexpectedly makes a left turn, for example, the left outrider vehicle turns left and becomes the new advance vehicle. The other elements in the team shift roles a appropriate. More on this later. Signature shift. The floating-box makes it possible to quickly alter the signature of the team, making them more difficult to detect. In the previous illustration of the floating box system, there are five surveillance vehicles. At first glance one might assume they can be reconfigured five different ways if they switch roles. In actual practise, a team of five vehicles can be reconfigured 5x4x3x2x1=120 different ways. Not all of these configurations are usefull in the field, especially when the command vehicle's role is unchanged. In practise, about two dozen configurations are practical- more than enough to deceive most targets. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The FBI's stakeout box... A vehicle surveillance operation begins with a stakeout box. The FBI watches your office or residence, waiting for you to get into your vehicle and drive away. At that moment the stakeout box becomes a floating-box. The image shown below (image on next page- ed) illustrates the basic components of an FBI stakeout box. next page |
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