PMCI - September 2015

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pmcimagazine.com TRAINING: CROPS TRAINING: CROPS LEVEL 4 URBAN SURVEILLANCE COURSE It’s 2300hrs on an overcast Saturday night in September, and the students on the CROPS Level 4 Urban Surveillance Operators Course are deployed onto the ground to conduct a live technical tracker placement, and their target vehicle is parked in a semi-rural location. The students move their overwatch team into an outer cordon position, with a QRF vehicle ready in case it all goes wrong. The deployment pair conduct their final communications check before stepping off, the plan to insert across the fields towards the gable end of the targets property, using the tall hedge line to conceal their movements, the Number 2 continually scanning the target area with NVG’s ensuring no movement is seen; as they reach the property boundaries they roll down their balaclavas, don their black latex gloves and boot covers before going on plot to execute their mission. Minutes later, the code word is heard over the net indicating the placement has been a success, and that phase two of the surveillance mission is now set for tomorrow morning... Commercial surveillance is one of the largest growing industries both in the United Kingdom (and indeed worldwide), and is been conducted by hundreds of individual’s at all different levels across the country. PMCI have been closely following the company known as ‘CROPS’ as they progress within this industry and more so their delivery of intense training packages, this small but highly professional company are taking covert commercial surveillance to another level! Having spoken to Ben, the “top man”, in person, PMCI discovered a whole lot more about their set-up. PMCI: So Ben, tell our readers more about your Urban Surveillance Course, where it started, and what makes it different to all the others? CROPS: Before we start, let me make it known that conducting surveillance alone is never ideal, we do not condone it, and should always where possible be deterred. However, in the commercial arena this practise is 9 out of 10 times the norm, and takes place far too often. It’s our role to make sure students leaving CROPS are competent lone operators. Having taken our time, and with our real life surveillance experiences, we have been able to develop an Urban Surveillance Operators Course like no other on today’s market. This refreshed course is well overdue, giving the current syllabus taught by the old and bold providers a good kick up the ass. We pride ourselves on being the ‘new generation’ of surveillance training provider who still, unlike many, conduct over 250hrs of live surveillance tasking’s each and every month. It’s these current and every day experiences we encounter on the live surveillance that we filter back into our courses. Our instructors come from military and police surveillance backgrounds; this gives them a good grounding in the commercial arena. However, our course like previously mentioned is very different from others. We haven’t done what others have, and ripped off the old ‘Type W’ course delivered to operators working in Northern Ireland, our course concentrates on the ‘commercial tactics’ of working in pairs and alone. 4
PMCI: Ben, what makes CROPS different from the rest? You mentioned your course contains specialist contents not delivered by others, can you tell us more? CROPS: Of course, we have to teach the foundation stuff like foot follows, the only difference is that we concentrate more on operating in pairs and alone, and with the ability to gather covert video footage at the same time. Our mobile tactics are again adapted to the environment our students will find themselves operating in; commercial surveillance is very different to that conducted by law enforcement and the military, we know this first hand when they arrive at the school on day one. Like we say to all of our students, working in a 3 man team or above is very rare! If they can complete the given tasks over the period of the course, alone, and without compromise, they have the making of a good commercial surveillance operative. The more specialised subject that we deliver are: • Defendable space and extreme dead ground within • Subjects magic box and avenues of movement • Methodology and the understanding of nonaggressive perspective • Architecture and how it effects the mission planning • Technical surveillance deployments such as concealed camera platforms within vehicles and the latest methods to vehicle tracking (no more magnets for us!) PMCI: I guess anyone wishing to learn more about these bullet pointed headings should sign up for a course? CROPS: 100%, we always tell our students that they have invested money in bettering themselves, why give that new found knowledge which they have paid for, away for free! PMCI: Ben, so where are your courses held and in which part of the country? CROPS: We have a purpose built training facility in which we deliver all of our training, our large classroom is home to walls filled with surveillance information covering both Urban and Rural tactics. We provide lunch on all of our courses as well as the usual refreshments. The minute students walk through our door they know they’ve made the right choice! Our facility is set within 200 acres of private farm land just south of the midlands, this making us ideally positioned for students traveling from both far north and south of the UK. We are out of view to prying eyes and can conduct our training discreetly and professionally at all times. PMCI: Do you hold open days? CROPS: No, We don’t believe in smoke and mirrors, or aggressive sales tactics. Should anyone wish to visit us, they just need to email and arrange a date. We are happy to show people what we have to offer in real time. PMCI: So is your Urban Surveillance Course open to anyone? And if I was to do one, how many students would be on the course with me? CROPS: The course is open, although saying that, we do hold the right to refuse individuals onto our courses if we believe something is amiss; we are not reckless and happy to train just anyone, we must be sensible. Of late we are finding most of our students are from the military resettlement scheme ELCAS or from overseas countries who are wanting to learn from us, our commercial skills. We are also training other closed communities in these commercial tactics, which are very different, and in some cases undetectable to regularly training individuals conducting a counter role. Failing to understand the non-conventional tactics we teach in the commercial world could enable the ‘unwanted’ to remain undetected! Our ideal class size is 4 students with a maximum of 6, this ensures our students receive the best quality instruction throughout their time with us. We are not a factory churning out hundreds of ill trained individuals into this arena every year. I have heard of some providers running class sizes of 15 with only 2 instructors! Crazy, absolutely mind blowing when you consider that, the student to instructor time must be non-existent. I fully understand that a business is there to make money, and a part of that is our aim too, but for us at CROPS, it’s about our brand name and introducing quality trained individuals into the arena, not crap! PMCI: So Ben, tell me. After completing the course, and should I have passed, is it recognised in the industry? CROPS: YES. Students completing our course, and achieving a pass will receive the Level 4 Award in Covert Urban Surveillance Operations, our course is not just an attendance one, if students fail to meet the grade, they fail the course. TRAINING: CROPS pmcimagazine.com
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PMCI - September 2015

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