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Smile, you’re
on covert camera
by Heather B. Hayes
for
Virginia Business
April 2003
Sure,
it’s probably not a good idea to spy on your daughter’s
visiting boyfriend with a camera stuffed inside a teddy
bear, as Robert de Niro’s character did in the
movie “Meet the Parents.” But how about the
teen-age nanny who takes care of your toddler? Or the
nursing home facility where your mother has experienced
unexplained bruising? Or the group of employees who
can’t account for all those office supplies gone
missing?
Luckily,
the secret-agent teddy idea is not some Hollywood fantasy.
First Witness, the country’s leading supplier of
covert wireless cameras, specializes in surveillance
solutions for those with a clandestine need to collect
evidence of wrongdoing.
The
company, based in Mount Sidney, caters to both law enforcement
and the general public, so clearly the stuffed-animal-as-spy
is not an appropriate choice for every scenario. In
recognition of this, First Witness offers a diversity
of detective devices. Among its products: a clock, smoke
detector, houseplant, pager, pencil sharpener, boom
box, and sports bag. Customers can also purchase the
wireless unit by itself for inclusion in their object
of choice, according to First Witness President Scott
Cline, a former city of Waynesboro police officer.
In
fact, First Witness’ corporate mission to help
catch a thief (or napping nanny) came out of Cline’s
own experience as an undercover agent. While working
on the local Virginia Drug Enforcement Task Force, his
attempts to record drug buys on camera were stymied
by stationary surveillance equipment. “We’d
have a camera in the car or a camera in a motel room,
but if the person wouldn’t get into the car or
walked out of the motel room, we couldn’t make
an arrest,” he says. “It was frustrating.”
In
his spare time, Cline built himself a tiny camera that
could be placed into any variety of background items
— and moved at will. Eventually, other local task
force officers began asking about the device and, in
short order, Cline was in business.
First
Witness has since moved beyond the wireless covert camera
— which accounts for 40 percent of the company’s
$3 million in annual revenues — and into more hard-core
enforcement types of surveillance systems. But buyers
of these products possess the same creative spirit as
do owners of the covert camera: In Afghanistan, for
instance, U.S. troops ingeniously placed First Witness
wireless transmitters inside the caves of Tora Bora,
enabling them to see terrorists around corners.
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