By Greg Bartlett

For many law enforcement agencies ranging from the Federal government to the local private investigator, tracing the movements of a suspect can be both time consuming and dangerous. Covert surveillance, GPS vehicle tracking eliminates both the time and danger of tracking a suspect.

Prior to the advent of GPS vehicle tracking devices and systems, a suspect’s movement could only be accomplished by following the suspect. This involved the investigator physically following the suspect. There are several dangers inherent to this practice. The first is that the suspect can recognize the surveillance. If this happens, two things can occur. First the surveillance will be blown. The second and more dangerous is that the physical safety of the person performing the surveillance can become compromised.

The traditional method of following the movements of a suspect involves multiple vehicles and a team of investigators. This traditional method requires considerable resources both in manpower and cost. This method can be highly inefficient and even with the resources expended on the tracking may not produce the desired results.

The covert installation of GPS vehicle tracking devices reduces the cost of assets expended by an order of magnitude. The covert installation insures that the subject of the surveillance is unaware of the device and will never observe a team of investigators following them. This produces a sense of security to the suspect who will go about their normal daily activities without any care.

A single agent who has the ability to track the location of the suspect from a remote location can monitor the GPS vehicle tracker. This remote location can be located at a desktop computer in an office or a laptop computer that is in another vehicle. The utilization of a single agent to record movements of a suspect significantly reduces the cost of surveillance.

Many wealthy people employ private agencies that insure the safety of the members of their family. When a member of the family leaves the home, the inclusion of GPS vehicle tracking devices in the family vehicles insures that the security team is never out of contact with the principle’s vehicle in heavy traffic. Should visual contact with the principle vehicle be lost, GPS vehicle tracking devices will tell the security team exactly where their principle is.

Covert surveillance through the utilization of GPS vehicle tracking provides a safe, effective and cost savings way to monitor the movements of a subject. The inclusion of these tracking devices in the inventory of the investigative department is a must have for any agency.