Police surveillance - do they really move into random houses for weeks on end?

[Percypigg]

Yes, I'm watching Viewpoint. I understand that surveillance is a real thing, police have a job to do etc.

What happens to the family who own the house? Do they pay for you to temporarily move out? How do you simply carry on as normal? How do they make sure that you and your inquisitive kids don't tell anyone?

It's weird but fascinating.

No idea about nowadays but back in the day....

Omg, I'd completely forgotten about that film.

It’s been a while for me but you use empty properties ( through the council / HA) or a private address - often the occupier is out for the day. I’ve never used one with a kid in.

I remember that film too. What happened to Richard Dreyfuss?? Is he still alive.

My friend's house was used by the police to watch the goings on in a park that the house backed onto. We were only told about it after it had finished (gobby teens) but the police set up in a spare room at the back of the house upstairs.

My friend's Mum loved it because by day the park was a great place, in the evening it was still fine but at night drug deals were happening so she was happy to see it stopped.

They did apprehend the dealers and had the crimes interrupted with well positioned coppers in the park in hiding. It was probably the most exciting thing that ever happened to us this was the 80s though, we had 3 tv channels!

@OnTheBenchOfDoom that made me laugh as I can imagine how, exciting it must've been then.

@Divebar2021 I figured that where possible, empty properties would be used but I guess in big cities its probably quite difficult.

They used the front bedroom of our family house in the 90s! The neighbours over the road (big posh suburban house) were suspected of being dealers. We definitely knew the police were there but they didn’t stay the night. IIRC DM thought it was very exciting. I’m going to ask her what happened.

@Percypigg

I’m in London and have been in a few empty properties... we have contacts in housing departments. I can remember one was so disgusting and I was in the kitchen really not wishing to touch anything. I imagine it was needing to be cleaned & redecorated before they got new tenants. Other than that we have vehicles we can use... I don’t think that’s giving away any secrets. Always nice to be stuck in the back of a van for 8 hours 😂.

Ugh, I hated the bloody vans. Always the females doing the actual surveillance, because it was the blokes who planted the van. Hours spent either freezing cold or sweating your tits off and peeing in front of your mate. Brill.

My favourite sitting up position was in a nunnery! They even provided a tea tray, which was terribly welcome! 😁

I can remember a colleague was giving evidence in court. For some reason the defence case rested on the fact that the defendant did NOT go to a location that was under surveillance. The barrister said to my female colleague that the reason they didn’t see the defendant was that she was shagging the other police officer in the van 🙄

ideally they use vans or empty office space and avoid being in residential properties
if they need to surveil from a residential property this is often via remotely controlled cameras.

They’d obviously never seen inside a van... no way would you be taking your knickers off

We once had a police officer knock on the door and ask if he could observe the house opposite. He set up in DS’s bedroom and stayed all afternoon.., very strange! Nothing seemed to come of it - he wouldn’t tell us what the suspicions are but even now, several years later, the slightly dodgy business (to do with cars) seems to be going on as normal. Oh well.

Gosh, thank you all. In my excitement, I'd sort of forgotten about vans being used. It must be so grim when the van/property is dirty and cold. Viewpoint relies on everyone leaving their curtain open!