observer's instinct, or jdlr

The most valuable tool a Surveillance investigator, Security officer or law enforcement agent has is his own observational ability, together with the ability to recognize when something does not fit.

We call this “JDLR.” It stands for “just don’t look right,” which is a simple enough concept on its own. However, JDLR embodies everything that an experienced observer knows. It takes into account all his experience with observing people, his experience with the activity he spends his time observing (such as gaming, shopping malls, rock concerts, crowds of people, whatever), and puts it all together into one big program that can observe and immediately identify when something, someone or some action just doesn’t fit.

In this we are similar to hunters, or experienced combat personnel. A hunter scans a brush-covered slope and immediately sees that what another may think is a dry branch is in fact the antler of a deer poking out from his bed. A soldier takes over a sentry position in a combat zone, and halfway through his watch notes that instead of one rock at the base of that hill, there are now two; rocks don’t walk around, so he sounds the alarm, or at least gets on the horn and gets it investigated.

What each has done is spot something out of place, some configuration that was different. But what is really important, here, is that neither one ignored the little voice that said “Hey, wait a second here. What’s wrong with this picture?”

In the casino business, or any other, we tend to become complacent, and we stop paying attention to the little things. But a really sharp observer will still be shocked awake at some little unexplained thing: the five o’clock shadow on the woman sitting opposite the big-money player, or too many people watching that game, or the fellow who keeps looking directly at the cameras. The guy who looks as though he slept under an overpass carrying a new shopping bag from Nieman-Marcus, the two players on a table game whose arms were held against their chests, the bulge under that character’s jacket and the man wearing an overcoat on an August day in Las Vegas.

Any one of these things can be nothing at all, can be simply explained away. But the sharp observer pays attention, and when he notes something like this that doesn’t fit, he looks further. Much of the time he finds that there really is a simple explanation. But every once in a while he finds:

	The woman with the five o’clock shadow is a man in drag, concealing his identity as a well-known card counter.
	The crowd of people around that roulette game is in fact a distract-and-grab team, who are about to grab the purse of the foreign lady who bought in at the table from a large roll of cash.
	The fellow in the slots area who keeps looking at the cameras is attempting to use a cheating device on a slot machine.
	The guy with the Nieman-Marcus bag is a bucket thief.
	The two people holding their arms across their chests are switching cards.
	The guy with the bulge in his jacket and the one wearing an overcoat are about to pull guns and hold up the casino cage.

Each one of these is taken from a real-life incident. In every single case, the people on the scene, both guests and staff, ignored or simply did not see the outpoints.

In half of those cases, a sharp Surveillance Investigator spotted the outpoints prior to the action and was able to prevent the action or catch the criminal because of having seen that little point. He saw something wrong and investigated further.

It goes further than this. In any occupation that involves repetitive motion, the person develops learned motor skills, things that he or she doesn’t have to think about doing that are the same over and over again. What about when, as you are watching some veteran dealer on a game, she hesitates halfway through picking up the losing bets, or makes some unexplained flub like dropping chips? That should be enough to cue the Investigator that this dealer is thinking about her motions, and she needs to be watched very closely. He might find she’s just having a bad day, but she might be paying the rent from the casino’s pocket.

One learns what “normal” looks like in the environment one watches. All that remains, after that, is to notice it and look further, when something “just don’t look right.”

JDLR.

Copyright © 2002 by Jim Goding. All rights reserved. Duplication in any form, electronic or otherwise, without the express written permission of the author is forbidden, is a violation of the proprietary rights of the author and is actionable under law. This article may be purchased for a nominal fee by clicking on the following link.

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