Surveillance Request Guidelines

Once a decision has been made to conduct surveillance, it is crucial that the surveillance investigator be provided with the following information to have a successful surveillance operation and provide you with the details you need:

• The correct subject’s name and spelling. It is not uncommon for the wrong information to be sent resulting in loss of time and additional expense to locate the correct information;
• It is not always possible to provide a photograph of the subject; however, a good physical description would greatly assist in identifying them;
• If vehicle information is known, then every attempt should be made to provide it;
• If specific dates for the surveillance operation are required, it is important to discuss this with your surveillance investigator;
• Attempts should be made to provide the full civic addresses for your subject and not post office box addresses. This again reduces the costs involved in locating the subject’s residence;
• Be clear in your instructions when permitting the use of pre-text telephone calls to your subject. This could be important if a lawyer is involved;
• It is important to inform the investigator if your subject has retained a lawyer and who is named in the “Statement of Claim’. If a lawyer has been retained, pretext telephone calls are not allowed and contact between the investigator and the subject, including his spouse and others occupying his residence may not be permitted;
• Be clear in reference to the time period you require the surveillance to be conducted. (i.e., start and finish times); and

If dates, times and places of appointments are known, it is important that they are provided to the investigator.