Has anyone seen undercover operation before?

SideWinder

SideWinder

SideWinder

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Not a conspiracy thread! :p

I watch a lot of crime TV shows and obviously its always a bit silly when you see people sitting in a car with binoculars or peaking through blinds in a tall building observing.

BUT has anyone seen an undercover operation? Perhaps all of a sudden plain clothed officers have jumped out of a crowd and arrested someone quickly? Or something that you have had a second glance at?

Obviously they are trying to not be seen...so no funny comments. ;)
 
I used to work for a firm that instructs operators to follow and film individuals (for civil litigation purposes, so nothing exciting, certain there will not be any arrests), so the footage would be them coming out of their homes, going shopping, all in public spaces.

In like 8 years I've known it I never heard of any of them being found out.
 
SideWinder said:
I watch a lot of crime TV shows and obviously its always a bit silly when you see people sitting in a car with binoculars or peaking through blinds in a tall building observing.
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That's more of a stakeout, not an undercover op... and it's usually private investigators you'll see doing it.

I've seen actual undercover ops, but it's mostly been Trading Standards officers (sometimes accompanied by u/c Police), and then only because I was friends with some of the TSOs.
 
Once in a street in London - few plain clothes guys trying to look inconspicuous and given away only by their radio earpieces (this was long ago, I expect the technology has improved now). Jumped on some guy and arrested him as he came out of a shop. I was waiting outside another shop waiting for my wife to try on clothes etc; was all over in a minute or two.

Then another time at a job centre. I was working above it (DWP IT project) and the security guard from the job centre below told us to stay in for the next hour (we had a shared entrance with the job centre downstairs). Turns out a guy wanted for armed robbery had signed on to Job Seekers and was coming in for a compulsory interview before he got the benefit. Armed coppers were waiting around the corner in a non descript van. When matey arrived the security guard let them know and they set up just outside while he had his interview. They pounced on him as he left. All over in seconds. Apparently used to happen quite a lot - when the cops were after someone they'd check the local job centres to see if they had signed on. Probably doesn't work nowadays as its all over the phone.
 
Never knowingly seen an undercover operation, but have seen a few other interesting bits of police activity:
  • My parents getting stopped at a temporary checkpoint on a road near Dover, and the car given a cursory search (more of a search than it actually got going on the ferry) on our way back from a family holiday. Never explained why they were stopping cars, were only stopping certain ones though.
  • My dad being stopped by a police roadblock in the middle of nowhere in the highlands at about 1am, while we were travelling up for a few days walking / climbing. A few police approached the car rather quickly, and after shining their torches in and talking to my dad a bit decided we weren't who they were after (I presume they were hoping to catch a drug runner or something...).
  • Drove past a large yard once, and looking down into it there were about 15 police officers all lying flat on the ground. Just round the corner there were a bunch of cars too. You couldn't really see into the yard fom any other angle, presume they were waiting to jump out and ambush someone, maybe with the intent of driving the cars out to block the road and then rush someone with all the officers? Seemed like an odd setup for doing that though, no idea what was actually going on.
 
I've heard and then seen video footage of an undercover operation with people sitting in cars video recording at a distance i.e. people attending a meeting.
 
GreatAuk said:
Never knowingly seen an undercover operation, but have seen a few other interesting bits of police activity:
  • My parents getting stopped at a temporary checkpoint on a road near Dover, and the car given a cursory search (more of a search than it actually got going on the ferry) on our way back from a family holiday. Never explained why they were stopping cars, were only stopping certain ones though. [..]
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My guess would be that they had a description of a car and/or occupants, probably vague and probably of uncertain reliability. It was blue...or maybe black...and it had 4 doors and probably wasn't an SUV...that sort of thing. What you'd expect from an eyewitness account. Or maybe nowadays some poor quality security video that narrows it down somewhat better.
 
I knew a guy who was selling coke to an undercover for nearly a year until they threw him in jail. The cop was good, I didn't clock at all.
 
Seen the TPAC/pinch or whatever I forget the name where they use unmarked cars to surround the suspect vehicle before they know what is happening a couple of times.

One place I work we had someone come in undercover to talk to the director as they wanted to observe criminal activity in a nearby premise, but our building didn't have a good enough view. I quickly figured out who their undercover people where when they were hanging around the area.
 
My father was arrested by an undercover team who mistook him for a player in drugs gang. He went into town to do some banking (back in the 90's so cash was king and had to be paid in and drawn regularly), decided to sort out the cash before he parked up outside the bank so pulled over behind a lorry in the street round the corner, got the cash out and was counting it out ready to bank.
He had parked behind a drugs lorry that was staked out waiting for the owners to return...
They swooped in, arrested him and drove him and his car 40 miles away for questioning. We were all worried as he'd literally just popped into town and disappeared off the face of the earth only to surface late that evening to tell us what had happened (no mobile back then). No apology, I think they were annoyed at springing the trap on him and no petrol as they had driven his car down with them.
 
Saw 4 men jump on a guy casually walking down the street once, turns out they were cops. He was resisting a little and then they realised he had a knife on him and they weren't playing around and just smashed him into a wall.

Quite interesting.
 
Was walking down a train platform in Paris when a dog came running up to my partner and I. Dog made a fuss of her, and she, being a dog lover, made a fuss back. I immediately clocked on but it wasn’t until the five plain clothes french coppers identified themselves that she figured it out.
They helped themselves to the leftover weed we had smuggled (actually, we completely forgot it was in her bag) from Amsterdam and gave us a warning.
 
When I was a kid some police asked to hide in my parents hedge because they were watching a house down the street.

Not a happy story - what they were watching, and what they eventually caught, was a child abuse ring.
 
I've sorta been part of one involving work.

We were having vehicles vandalised (bricks etc thrown at drivers/windows) which cost the company a fortune, not only in replacement PSV glass but in lost revenue from cancelled journeys & time vehicle was off-road being fixed.

We have a 'Trojan bus' for this specific task (shared with other operational areas to keep costs low). Looks like a normal bus but windows are 'armoured' and covered with two-way 'advertising. Looks a little like this:

JB04ylF.jpg


Inside there are a number of hi-res cameras and usually a compliment of police officers ready to jump off and grab the little darlings.

I was 'volunteered' to drive it one evening.
 
See tons of undercover cops in tube stations just after the barriers, just look like a couple of normal folks waiting for someone, until some scrote jumps the barriers and they stop him/her. I used to enjoy spotting them, you could always tell when they were around as you'd have all the shady characters on the other side of the barrier trying to figure out what to do. Nowadays the coppers have body cams, it's hard to miss them.

Also seen a few randoms on the streets tackle people to the ground and flop out some handcuffs.

Also had "inspector sands" a few times on the tube, think three times in the 16 years I've used the tube. Never known what for though.
 
Resident said:
I've sorta been part of one involving work.

We were having vehicles vandalised (bricks etc thrown at drivers/windows) which cost the company a fortune, not only in replacement PSV glass but in lost revenue from cancelled journeys & time vehicle was off-road being fixed.

We have a 'Trojan bus' for this specific task (shared with other operational areas to keep costs low). Looks like a normal bus but windows are 'armoured' and covered with two-way 'advertising. Looks a little like this:

JB04ylF.jpg


Inside there are a number of hi-res cameras and usually a compliment of police officers ready to jump off and grab the little darlings.

I was 'volunteered' to drive it one evening.
Click to expand...
sounds like great fun! Where can I volunteer?
 
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