My Lips Are Sealed

Sydney Morning Herald

Friday September 7, 2007

Anne Fawcett

Secrecy and betrayal are necessary for undercover work, writes Anne Fawcett.

After weeks of chasing dead leads and playing phone tag, I've finally secured an interview with X, a former undercover and covert surveillance operative for the NSW police. But before the interview can go ahead, I have to submit to a list of demands longer than a Jennifer Lopez rider.

I can't meet X in person or tape the interview over the phone. When he does make contact, through a third party, he calls from a mobile phone in a public area with enough background noise to almost drown him out. I reassure him that I'm not out to expose his identity.

"I wouldn't have any trouble tracking you down," he says.

But there's little he can tell me without potentially jeopardising the safety of current operatives.

How do you become a police undercover operative? "There is a selection process, I can't say much," X replies.

Can you describe what you'd do on an average day at work?

"I don't want to give stuff away about how the job is done."

What skills do you need?

"I can't comment on that."

What if romance rears its head and you fall for your target?

"I can't comment."

The only thing X can confirm is that if you want to be an undercover operative, you must become a vault. Sharing the most trivial detail about work could cost someone their life.

"If you're the type of person that likes to go out and flaunt it and speak about [undercover work], it's not your job," he says.

X's family and close friends knew nothing about the nature of his work beyond the fact that he performed undercover and covert duties. "It was to protect them but me as well." This type of job is better suited to a single person than a family person, he says. The hours are dictated by the target. If you happen to be tailing an organised crime boss who drives from Sydney to Melbourne, you can't clock off halfway.

"It wasn't unusual to leave home and end up in Queensland for two weeks or Melbourne for a few days. It puts stress on your personal life because the [number of] people you can be seen with and socialise with is diminished."

Aside from the obvious occupational health and safety issues (fraternising with criminals and dodging the occasional bullet), burnout is common. A report by the Australian Institute of Criminology states that undercover operatives may experience chronic fatigue, emotional let-down with the betrayal of criminal associates, nightmares and work-related relationship difficulties.

The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation won't confirm whether the same concerns apply to its spooks. Its director-general, Paul O'Sullivan, addressed the subject on the organisation's website.

"One of the key findings of the 9/11 Commission Report was ... there was a lack of imagination in conceptualising that threat."

Consequently, ASIO is seeking intelligence officers who think outside the square and "bring imagination and flair to the task". Other desirable qualities include analytical skills, an interest in diverse cultures, ability to engage with people from a variety of cultural, ethnic, social and professional backgrounds, ability to speak foreign languages (or learn them fast), geographic mobility and IT skills.

Training is provided, though for what and how long, no one is telling. Macquarie University's Centre for Policing, Intelligence and Counter-Terrorism has a master's in policing, intelligence and counter-terrorism and a master's of international security studies. Subjects include the intelligence community and how it works, terrorist organisations and motives, and modus operandi.

If you would like to work undercover but operate independently, private investigation could be the way to go. The president of the Australian Institute of Private Detectives, John Bracey, says the stakes aren't as high as in government jobs.

"Often you're contracted to investigate stock losses or sabotage," he says. "It might be a company that makes refrigerators and massive amounts of whitegoods get diverted to employees' homes. You'd have an investigator who goes on the payroll, gets paid a wage, does the same job as everyone else, has drinks with the boys after work and you might use a body camera to film people stealing stuff."

Aside from the technical skills required to operate covert recording devices, a good private investigator must blend in.

"If you're working in a factory where your role is to drive a forklift well, you have to do a crash course in forklift driving."

The industry body is the Institute of Mercantile Agents. Its executive director, Alan Harries, says it's hardly the stuff of James Bond, reeling off a list of lowlights.

"Mixing with individuals outside your usual circle of acquaintances. Doing tasks - such as working in a factory - which you are not interested in. Sitting for endless hours in uncomfortable locations such as vehicles or in bushes. Waiting to observe behaviour which may or may not eventuate, always under the threat of being discovered," Harries says.

"The Australian investigations industry does not involve operators carrying firearms or engaging in hand-to-hand combat. Such concepts remain the fantasy of creative writers."

Covert sites

NSW police (www.police.nsw.gov.au)

* ASIO (www.asio.gov.au /careers/Careers.aspx)

* Centre for Policing, Intelligence and Counter Terrorism (www.pict.mq.edu.au)

* Australian Institute of Private Detectives (www.aipd.com.au)

* Institute of Mercantile Agents Limited (www.imal.com.au)

* Information on compulsory licences for private detectives or investigators in NSW (www.police.nsw.gov.au/sir)

© 2007 Sydney Morning Herald

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