What is your tell?

During my seven plus years working undercover, I had an opportunity to glimpse into people's perspectives on firearms and how to best carry them to keep John Law from finding them. As you can imagine, some of their thoughts on the matter were tough guy rhetoric, while some was very basic but effective. On occasion, I was around some guys that had enough knowledge and experience to be potentially more dangerous than average. The ones that had survived threats from rivals and learned from experience had much more skill. This is one of the times that made me step up my own game.

I was working a 1%'r biker case that went on much longer than it needed to. This was years before the television series and before the masses wanted to be suburban gangsters. I was in a local club house drinking at their bar with some members, including the club's president. I was the loan "citizen" in attendance. The bar was on the second floor. There was one way in. The door was always locked and the misguided "Probate" had the key in his vest pocket.

By this time I felt pretty safe within my role, as safe as I could with my escape route being a second floor window. I wasn't trying to get a patch or buy a machine gun. For that time I had good backstops. I was carrying a Sig P230 strong side. No holster, just rubber bands around the grips to keep it from falling down my pants. In addition I was carrying a J-frame .38 in Thunderwear as my last ditch gun. Most likely not the set up I would use today. I had a transmitter taped to my person, not where you think, and I had a some Intel types in the surrounding neighborhood monitoring it. Still, my constant mental companion named paranoia would often show up and this evening would be no different.

As we sat there the conversation shifted from the latest scheme to make money to when the "Feds" would have another roundup. This type of chatter came up every few months.

The "Trooper" sitting next to me mentioned that he was mainly concerned about informants, because he could spot an undercover a mile away. He said it was easy to spot the undercover because cops always wore white socks. Of course, I was wearing white socks. Another member a couple bar stools down told him that wasn't reliable. He said the way he spotted cops was by looking at the belt on their pants. He went on the make his case that cops were cheap and didn't make a lot of money, so they would wear their uniform belt from underneath their gun belt. If you looked close enough you could see where the "Keeper straps" left marks on the belt. In his estimation this was a sure fire way to spot the man.

By this time I was seriously wondering if they were talking about this for my benefit and if I should start executing my window escape option. I'm writing this so I guess it wasn't about me.

Another round of beers and the Pres says "You guys are idiots, you need to look for the physical". With the glow of the CCTV monitors behind him, he stood up and said "if you think somebody is a cop watch his forearm". He stepped back from the bar and tapped the right side of his torso with the inside elbow and forearm area of his right arm. He explained that cops are paranoid about loosing their gun or having someone take it. As a consequence, they learn to subtly make sure it's still in the holster every now and then by touching the butt of it with their arm. He reasoned that UC's had to get years of experience in uniform before going under cover. They developed habits in uniform they were never able to break, because they didn't know they were doing it. He said he learned this by watching law enforcement whenever he got the chance and scolded his guys for not making more of an effort to protect the club.

My hives were going to come back any minute and I had pushed it enough. I said my good byes and the probate let me out. As I walked thru the alley to my truck I was astounded at the simplistic lens I had been using to spot people carrying weapons. Essentially I looked for bulges in clothing. The president had opened my eyes. I began to understand that there was so much more involved and I had been limiting myself. I started training myself to observe mannerisms, not just watching for printing from a hidden weapon. Weeks later I actually caught myself doing the very same unconscious "forearm check" .

These days I carry concealed enough to comply with policy and the law. I don't consciously advertise that I'm carrying. I know some of you have a well developed eye for spotting others carrying weapons. What are the biggest giveaways you see? Bad habits, especially subconscious ones, have a way of creeping in over time. If you could watch you for day, what would your tell be?