Intelligence-led policing: a comparative analysis of community context influencing innovation uptake

Abstract

The capacity of police organisations to adopt innovative practices is poorly understood. This paper examines the relative uptake of one particular innovation: intelligence-led policing (ILP), across four police areas in New Zealand. We used a survey of 286 officers and 32 depth interviews to explore police attitudes and perceptions of community context influencing the adoption of ILP. We found strong uptake of ILP was associated with a healthy relationship with local government and officer perceptions of more manageable demand for police services and perceptions of less complex and more stable operational environments. Strong uptake of ILP also mitigated the influence of neighbourhood factors on officer behaviour. Media relations, police unions and community relations did not influence or impair the uptake of ILP. In police areas where ILP uptake was patchy, officers tended to view their operational environment as more unstable and complex and were more influenced by neighbourhood factors. The uptake of ILP equipped officers with greater self-belief about their ability to influence the local criminal environment.