The elusive suspect had countered the manufacturing site security'sreactive measures for the last 3 months. Dogging the well placed butineffective overt closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras, the unknownsuspect gained access to the administration's offices and finger-paintedanti-corporation slogans along the walls with red paint for the fourthtime. Even after increasing physical security patrols to that area, thestealthy suspect made his mark on the walls expressing his discontentfor the company's stock price.

An often simple, butmiscalculated solution to this type of investigation and others like itis the use of covert video cameras.

Catching your criminal redhanded and much like an undercover sting operation on COPS can dowonders for solving your investigation. However, there are manytechnical considerations you need to know before you join the CIA'sblack ops team.

CovertSurveillance Part One: Cameras

As you may have experienced withyourown CCTV system, not all cameras are created equally. When shoppingfor a covert camera there are four main factors that need to be decidedupon before you set up:

• size
• resolution
• lux level
• and power consumption.

Size is an obvious part to focus on due to your covert setup, butnot always a must. Cameras range from large bricks to fingernail-sizepinhole 2.9mm lenses. You will also find as the size of the cameradecreases, often times the resolution and lux levels get worse and theprice goes up. With that said, I always leave size on my list of needslast. Cameras can be hidden no matter what the size, and will be moreeffective with high resolution and a low lux level.

In a worldwhere everyone has a digital camera or HDTV, many people alreadyrecognize the need for high resolution images. This should be nodifferent with your covert camera. The last situation you need is tocatch a criminal act on video but then be unable to identify theindividual clearly due to the poor resolution from your cheap camera. Tocombat this, always make sure you are getting a camera that captures740 x 480 lines of resolution or more. Anything less and you may have ahard time making out details, especially in low light situations.

Speaking of low light, cameras are rated by their ability to useillumination to see. This is called the camera's lux level and any legitvendor will have this information about their cameras. The lower thelux level, the better the camera works in darkness. Typically you willfind very low lux level cameras to be black and white or to have thesupport of infrared led lights attached to the camera. Be sure to checkthe lighting of the area you plan on recording for any changes (timers,sun going down, etc) before setting up your surveillance.

Lastlyyou need to think about the camera's power consumption. Although not asimportant as resolution or lux level, don't forget about this step.Depending on your camera deployment you may resort to using ac adaptersat a nearby electrical outlet, battery power or even solar power for theremote locations. Sometimes you may find the perfect and only placementfor your camera, but no electrical outlet that you can use unnoticed.In this case a battery pack (I like using an R/C car battery pack) mightbe useful and knowing the camera's power consumption information canhelp you set this up. Again, a reputable vendor will have thespecifications for voltage and you can easily calculate the battery lifeyou can achieve with different battery sizes (9 volts, R/C, golf cart,marine batteries).

One word of advice in shopping for covertcameras: Never buy "nanny cam" setups online. Ebay and other vendorsoften place cheap pinhole cameras with no resolution and high lux levelsin what appear to be ingenious setups like clock radios, lamps andteddy bears. Although creative, the bad quality cameras, high mark-upprices and the fact the clock you just purchased doesn't blend into theoffice your suspect knows better than you, will leave you throwing itinto a junk box never to see the light of day.