| After watching the target make a right turn at the intersection, the command vehcile continues straight through the intersection. The agent has, however, alerted one of the layup vehciles that the FBI has prepositioned at major decision points along the target's route. As you can see from the illustration above (click here to see the illustration) this is a very potent maneuver. The target sees the car that has been following him continue throught the intersection. He starts to question whether or not he was actually under surveillance- perhaps he was just "imagining things". As a result, the layup vehicle is often able to pick up the follow without attracting any suspicion. Cheating. The image shown below shows a variation on this maneuver. Instead of pulling in behind the target, the layup vehicle acquires command of the target by pulling out ahead of the target. This is called a cheating command. It has fooled a lot of suspects of FBI investigations. A hard target, however, will eventually notice a telltale pattern of vehicles on side streets who pull away from the curb and turn the corner in front of him. (This is how you detect surveillance teams- by watching patterns of behavior around you.) Commit vehicle. In order to further disguise their activities, the FBI often utilizes a commit vehicle, as shown in the illistration below. The commit vehicle is prepositioned at a major decision point along the target's route. The FBI agent in the commit vehicle is charged with watching the approaching target vehicle. His assignment is to observe when the target has committed himself to a specific route. Hence the name commit vehicle. Because he is parked in a parking lot, driveway, or side street, his presence is difficult to detect by the target. Using a tactic like this allows the layup vehicle to be parked out of sight as shown in the image above. At the appropriate moment the commit vehicle cues the layup vehicle to begin moving. This permits the layup vehicle to smoothly enter the situation and acquire command of the target without attracting attention of the target. The target does not see the layup vehicle pull away from the curb- he only sees what appears to be just another vehicle in the normal flow of traffic. BACKGROUND-A significant portion of the FBI's training program is devoted to timing. Agents must become proficient at judging distance and time during surveillance operations. If the agent in the commit vehicle does her job properly, she can cue the layup vehicle to enter the situation in a manner that is invisible to the target. FBI recruits spend weeks learning these skills- and an entire career perfecting them. The FBI denies that Seattle, Atlanta, New York, and Philadelphia are key training areas for their vehicle surveillance teams. End of article #1 next page |
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