UpStream’s surveillance team was featured in the November Clip of the Month following surveillance on an Italian citizen involved in litigation filed in the U.S. This assignment featured unique factors that presented opportunities to employ a few advanced techniques overseas.
Multi-crew surveillance
Because of the narrow, one-way streets of Northern Italy, and because the subject owned a motorcycle, multiple investigators were deployed on this assignment. The subject’s ability to quickly turn and bypass traffic was countered by multiple surveillance vehicles running a rotating tail.
This proved extremely effective and allowed our investigators to capture over an hour of footage showing the subject riding his motorcycle in a single day.
Public records
U.S. background data vendors have essentially zero coverage overseas. Moreover, the digitization of public records is a generation behind the U.S., even in advanced industrialized countries like Italy. Navigating the local Lombardy bureaucracy was critical to obtaining public records.
The team uncovered filings related to the subject’s carpentry business outside Milan before initiating surveillance. This verification allowed us to accurately predict the route the subject would take during his commute and position our investigators accordingly. Our local records searches also revealed a prior injury claim filed in Italy for the same body part involved in the subject’s U.S.-based litigation.
Summary
A thorough understanding of the locality and the availability of records can prepare surveillance teams for success even before deploying boots on the ground. We continue to find that subjects who return to their country of origin, or vacation overseas, have reduced surveillance awareness because of the perceived safety of distance. As a result, larger investments in overseas surveillance have been paying dividends for U.S.-based clients.