Undercover Disguise Methods For Investigators

The road to master of disguise is a difficult and exciting one, fraught with equal parts danger and intrigue, but fortunately you don’t have to go it alone. The book you now hold in your hands will serve as a roadmap through the disguise terrain; novices and masters alike will find in these pages invaluable wisdom, advice and guidance previously unavailable in such a concise format. Recent years have seen unprecedented technology advancements. However, investigation and intelligence agencies still need field personnel; they need feet on the ground. To be effective, investigators and clandestine service persons need strong tradecraft skills that include the ability to disguise themselves. This book presents undercover disguise methods that came into focus in the clandestine services of World War II, evolved during the Cold War, and today features modern innovations. Here the reader discovers the latest disguise technologies, traditional and innovative methods not taught by police academies or included in college law enforcement and criminal justice curriculums. Customary purposes for disguise include to avoid recognition, support a pretext character and the corresponding undercover operation, prevent somebody accurately describing the agent, and to thwart physical surveillance. Naturally, some disguises are quicker to implement than others and some are more believable. Some disguises withstand prolonged close-up scrutiny, whereas others are suitable only when viewed briefly or from afar. The authors have removed the mystery and made short work of carving out a path for anyone looking to hone their craft in the art of disguise, ensuring success for all who are daring enough to pursue this road less traveled.

This updated and expanded new edition is a significant revision of the second edition, presented 14 years previous. This edition provides the most current information about surveillance methods, supporting photographic equipment, and vision enhancing products. Although physical surveillance remains an intuitive art regarding the secret visual observation of a person, activity, or location, important new science and technology improved the tools and with that came enriched tradecraft. Physical surveillance may be urban or rural, stationary or mobile, foot or vehicular, or occur on public transportation. In fact, one surveillance operation can feature several or all of them. This edition presents the latest methods, which investigators continually adapt to the immediate circumstances. Updated chapters include: Surveillance Applications, Vehicular Surveillance, Stationary Surveillance, Undercover Surveillance, Vision and Aids for Vision Extension and Enhancement, Surveillance Photography, Tips for the Surveillant, and Report Writing. In addition the text is richly illustrated with important and helpful examples. Because physical surveillance precedes virtually all organized criminal and terrorist attacks, security personnel need the capacity to detect surveillance and that requires truly understanding it. Written in a style that professional investigators prefer, the information is presented quickly, decisively, and to the point. Whether the reader is a novice or veteran investigator, in law enforcement or civil investigation, this unique book offers a complete, cohesive, and expert text on the subject of physical surveillance. It represents the most current and authoritative resource available.

In everyday life we identify faces regularly and seemingly with great ease. One might assume this to be a straightforward and highly accurate task. However, we are poor at identifying the faces of unfamiliar people, who we have never met before, despite the fact that many important everyday tasks depend on this. Forensic face matching requires the comparison of two face photographs, of a person who is not known to the observer. This seemingly simple task is critical for a wide range of security tasks, such as person identification at airports and borders, passport issuance and renewal, and criminal identification in police investigations. Despite its ubiquity, face matching is highly prone to error, even under conditions that are designed to maximally facilitate this task. For this reason, face matching has been studied extensively in Psychology, with the bulk of the research conducted since 2010. 'Forensic face Matching' provides readers with a wide-ranging, detailed, and critical overview of facial comparison and face matching, providing insights into its application, efficacy, and limitations in occupational settings, and of current scientific knowledge of this task.

Informants are an invaluable, often instrumental aspect of criminal investigations, but they do present certain management issues. In the necessarily clandestine world they inhabit, the imposition of institutional control presents unique challenges. Lack of training and communication among law enforcement professionals tend to ensure the same error

This unique text has been written as a practical reference for detectives, crime scene investigators, and prosecutors on how to recognize a staged scene and how this offender behavior could be used as evidence in subsequent trials. The book is designed to help those actively engaged in conducting criminal investigations identify the red flags or those common findings at a crime scene that point to the scene being staged or altered and thereby assist the investigative process. The text is not only research based but also includes the authorsf 30-year experience and personal observations in conducting hundreds of different crime scene investigations ranging from homicide and death, burglary and other property crimes, to rape and other sexual crimes. This experience also includes interviewing hundreds of victims and suspects, and conducting investigations from initiation of cases through prosecution. The authors have located hundreds of examples of staging and have included many of them as case studies throughout the text. Many of the case studies presented are based on the authorsf personal involvement in them. In addition to defining and categorizing the various aspects of staging, the reader is also introduced to new terminology describing the different elements of staging based on offender motive and the dynamics of the events. Other major discussions include primary and secondary staging as well as the two subcategories of primary staging: premeditated and ad hoc staging. Staging by individuals other than the offender and victim, described as tertiary/incidental scene alterations, are included as are several chapters on a variety of crimes and how to identify the red flags relevant to them. A final chapter is written especially for prosecutors and offers suggestions and references on how the concept of staging might be introduced in court. A very thorough Appendix provides reviews of many appellant court decisions from across the U.S. and Canada specifically addressing issues of staging.

Bombs and Bombings is the definitive text regarding the construction of bombs and the motivation for bombings in the U.S. Although some law enforcement-sensitive material is excluded from this book, it still presents a thorough understanding of why bombs and bombings remain a constant threat. The chemistry of explosives and how such affects the performance of explosives are an essential part of the text. The reader is taken through a short course on explosive engineering and the chemistry of explosives. A brief history of bombings provides insight as to how improvised explosive devices were used to shape history and how the situations of the early 1900s are repeating themselves today. While many believe that suicide bombings are something seen only in the Middle East, this text explores the suicide bombings in the U.S. and the motivation of the bombers. Various profiles of several famous bombers such as the Unabomber and the Mad Bomber are reviewed along with other psychological issues that might inspire bombers. The use of bombs to disperse radioactive materials in the radiation dispersion device configuration is addressed along with the technique used to disperse chemical and biological agents with explosives. Booby traps, especially those targeting law enforcement, are explained, and methods to detect booby traps are developed to allow a rudimentary understanding of the process. Methods to identify clandestine laboratories manufacturing explosives or other drugs such as methamphetamine are identified providing the reader with an understanding of the items to identify and differentiate the types of laboratories. Numerous bombings are examined providing an insight as to why and how the attacks were successful. Mitigation techniques such as using alcohol resistant aqueous film-forming foam to suppress blast and fragment formation are explained along with deployment methods. The text is richly illustrated with photographs depicting IEDs, explosives, and booby traps to assist in the identification of suspicious objects, suspect packages, or potential mail bombs. The book provides and overview that those involved in law enforcement, security, and counterterrorism will find elucidating and beneficial in bomb-related operations and mitigation efforts.

For the past 40 years, the majority of law enforcement personnel could depend on regular salary increases, better health care, and pension benefits while reaping the advantages of belonging to an organization that was learning how to gain and use political power. However, these peaceful and untroubled days are over. Police unions, despite their best efforts at the bargaining table, now find themselves preparing their members for layoffs, pay and benefit cuts, and more restrictive working conditions. Leaders are trying to fight back against the well-financed, organized efforts to weaken the public sector unions, eliminate collective bargaining rights, end defined benefit pensions, and privatize the job. Police unions must change the way they do business if they want to survive. This book identifies how to mount an effective political campaign, the complexities of confrontations, and the reasons police union leaders fail. The book is divided into five primary parts, each of which explores police union management. Part I focuses on the myriad of police challenges, Part II examines the three reasons union leaders fail, Part III examines the ability to embrace reforms, Part IV discusses the future of policing, and finally, Part V evaluates the national and international perspectives on the current issues that impact policing. Areas of discussion include officer-involved shootings; stopping the growing racial divide between law enforcement and citizens; complex issues concerning body cams; how to use social media effectively; mastering a certain leadership style; changing the culture of unions; more diversity among leadership; and motivating membership. By following the superb analysis and creative ideas for solutions in this book, police labor leaders, law enforcement personnel, and policymakers will see the quality of their efforts improve remarkably.

This unique book concerns those veteran inmates who have failed to complete a readjustment process and who continue to wage their own personal wars to regain a sense of normalcy – those veterans who have not yet redeployed home from combat even though they have relocated to the inherently traumatizing confinement setting. Aside from identifying factors that will help those seeking to be aware of the unique problems of incarcerated veterans and those advocating for them, the book attempts to help these individuals as well as correctional professionals understand veteran inmates and their “unique” needs, which stem from military service. The text offers that programs must be implemented flexibly despite operational and budgetary challenges. The book clearly provides guidelines to develop relevant programs that do far more than simply warehouse troublesome individuals. Major topics include: components of veterans’ readjustment; military discipline and military discharge; the relationship between military service and crime; criminal manifestations of military service, war zone deployment, and combat trauma; veterans’ benefits and outreach during incarceration; popular approaches to divert veterans from confinement; attributes of veterans’ groups in confined settings; institutionally-based programs for veterans; veterans’ dorms; and urgency in the preparation for the coming “storm” of veteran offenders. This book, which represents years of research and the author’s experience as a military lawyer in both prosecution and defense, is an important reference for a variety of readers, including law enforcement and first responders, corrections professionals, mental health providers, lawyers, judges, and anyone who desires to understand the challenges faced by military veterans in conflict with the law.