Crossword Genius

Catch someone involved in electronic surveillance? (4)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

espy

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'catch' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'electronic surveillance?' is the wordplay.
'electronic' becomes 'e' (as in e-mail or e-books).
'surveillance?' becomes 'spy' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'e'+'spy'='ESPY'

'someone involved in' is the link.
This may not be right. Some or all of it may be part of another bit of the clue.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for espy that I've seen before include "Catch a glimpse of" , "Spot at a distance" , "Observe (arch.)" , "Detect" , "Catch sight of (poetic)" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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