Objective: A session is a run of 5, 8 or 12 routes. Each route takes you through several stops. At every stop you see a small crowd, and usually some traffic at the curb, for a few seconds. One person or one vehicle may be following you and will turn up at more than one stop. Your job is to notice it.
How it works:
- Each stop is shown for a set time, then it disappears and you move on
- After the last stop you see a lineup of five subjects who were on your route, people and vehicles mixed
- Exactly one of them may have appeared at two different stops — pick that subject
- Some routes are clean, with nobody repeating. On those, choose "No repeats"
- Tap or click a card to choose, or press keys 1 to 5 to pick a subject and key 0 for a clean route
Difficulty levels:
- Recruit – three stops, every route has a follower, and the follower looks exactly the same both times. Because a clean route cannot happen here, the "No repeats" button is not shown at this level
- Field Officer – three stops, some routes are clean, so you have to resist naming someone when nobody repeated
- Station Chief – four stops, clean routes, and the follower changes one thing about their appearance between sightings
Watch For setting: This is a separate control, not a difficulty level. With people and vehicles selected, traffic appears at the curb at every stop and roughly one tailed route in three is followed by a vehicle instead of a person. Vehicles come as sedans, vans, hatchbacks and pickups, and the lineup can contain both people and vehicles. Choosing people only removes traffic from the exercise entirely.
Tips:
- Do not try to memorize everyone. Pick two or three features per person, such as bag, hat and shirt color
- Skin tone, hairstyle or headwear, and glasses are the steadiest things about a person here. Clothing and carried items can both change between sightings at Station Chief level, so treat them as clues rather than proof
- For vehicles, body shape is the anchor. Roof fittings and side markings can change, and color is the easiest thing to misjudge in a hurry
- Scan left to right in the same order at every stop so your memory has a consistent structure
- A clean route is not a trap. Calling a tail that is not there is a real error in this exercise, just as it is in real observation work