SURVEILLANCE BOOKS
Surveillance is a small and specialised industry. Some Government departments conduct a lot of surveillance, but their training and techniques are often hidden from public view. There are few good textbooks available in the private sector, with few directly addressing the Australian market.
This textbook was written by Ashley Keith, who was Chris Cooper’s first PI training instructor in 1989. No offence to Ashley, but after more than a decade this book is a little dated. It's smaller than "Behind the Private Eye". In addition, Ashley’s book has a much broader scope and encompasses far more factual investigation material than just surveillance. This is an all-rounder training textbook, rather than focusing on a specific area.
This is a great textbook, written by Peter Jenkins. This is a more recent release, which is focused on covert surveillance. The book covers some surveillance areas in slightly more detail, such as photography, working in large teams and counter-surveillance - though these areas are more suited to government surveillance than standard PI work. The book is only 400 pages, and many of these are images and illustrations, so it has a lot less text than "Behind the Private Eye". It was written for the British environment which has different laws, terms and methodologies to Australia. It doesn't fully cover some surveillance topics such as detailed background checks, pretext calls, garbage searches and many other techniques that a well trained PI should know. Peter's book covers more detail on physical surveillance equipment, where "Behind the Private Eye" covers more detail on surveillance techniques.
Written by a veteran PI, and Special Forces instructor of many years experience. Focused solely on surveillance, with a comprehensive 544 pages of detailed PI techniques. Illustrated with numerous real case-stories to highlight clever PI methods described, which include social engineering techniques based on human psychology. Unlike others, "Behind the Private Eye" provides many pages of sample content free, to enable readers to assess the quality of the material. It was written for the local Australian market and environment, and is currently being assessed as a possible Australian Government approved training resource for many nationally recognised surveillance courses.
There are no surveillance textbooks books which currently have government accreditation.
Investigating Made Simple $34.95
Written by Garry Maher, this is a very good investigation book, but it doesn't cover surveillance techniques. Rather this book is focused on the more formal areas of statement taking and interview techniques, and other forms of factual investigation. It is quite complementary to "Behind the Private Eye" and should be considered by any professionally focused investigator. This book is similarly noted as approved training material for many Nationally recognised courses.
Behind the Private Eye should not be viewed as the only appropriate training book, but rather the best textbook in the highly specialised field of surveillance. A good PI should consider reading all these books to be educated in all aspects of investigative work.