WEST COAST DETECTIVES INTERNATIONAL
UNDERCOVER OPERATIONS TRADE CRAFT
During the 60s through the 90’s our Undercover Division was one the busiest of our agency. With thousands of cases there was every variety of illegal activities you could think of. With a team of over 100 men and women in this division we would on some occasions have 3-5 agents in the same company working different shifts.
The undercover agent placed as a normal worker, that fit the employee profile of other workers, proved the most effective tool to finding out what was going on inside a company/s work force and stopping illegal activities.
As an interrogator it made my success close to 100 percent of getting confessions out of the suspects. I would usually start my interview by disarming them, talking about their job at the company how they liked it and found out about their family. They are getting relaxed and feeling that this is not going to be so bad. Then I say just so you know we have been waking you up and putting you to bed for some time. I think I know most of the story but why don’t you fill me in on all the details.
I would go on with something like as long as you are truthful with me in this room, I can help you but if this goes to the authorities it will be out of my hands. As I would set and watch the person, I would see their face expressions tighten and their Adams apple quiring and in most cases they would start with a defense of why they got involved in illegal activities.
In a few cases they would say what are you talking about I have done nothing wrong. Then I would open my file filled with pages and I would flip through and say let see on Friday April 4 at 4 pm you were driving down Fifth Ave and you turned on Chase street and went to your home and took boxes out of the truck into your garage. They would fold.
Maybe 1 out of a hundred or so would be Con wise and just deny and say take your best shot, thinking I was bluffing. I would call in the local detectives who I had on standby and send them off to be booked.
On occasion we would work government related cases and the following is one of those cases. The “Trade craft” we used was developed over time with trial and error. In our corporate cases usually only 2 or 3 people right at the top of the client company would know about the placement of the agent, with one being the HR director. In the government cases it was even tighter and the HR hiring person would not know, which called for the agent to get hired on their own.
To be successful in this approach we would have the client give us everything they knew about the hiring person and anyone the agent would be interviewed by. Then we would do a full profile on them about how they wanted new hires to look, act and the background they liked for them have. We would then spend hours with the agents developing their cover stories. In the case that I will be posting later we have 3 agents being placed inside the “G” client and all three of the agents were hired very quickly after their interviews due to their pre interview briefings and role playing.
CASE SUMMARY COMING SOON