Intelligence‐led policing and change in state law enforcement agencies

Abstract

PurposeThe events of September 11, 2001 forever changed policing with state and local law enforcement now playing a central role. In this new role many agencies have begun to re‐assess how they best fulfil the demands of homeland security and provide traditional law enforcement. Intelligence‐led policing (ILP) has been advocated as one approach with the potential to confront both terrorism and traditional crime problems; however, the degree to which ILP has been widely embraced remains relatively unexamined. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate whether level of involvement with homeland security related intelligence subsequent to 9/11 has had a significant impact on interactions between state and federal agencies, and facilitated organizational change in state law enforcement agencies.Design/methodology/approachUsing data collected from a survey of state law enforcement agencies, the paper examines whether involvement in homeland security and the allocation of resources toward intelligence have had an impact on organizational change consistent with ILP.FindingsFindings suggest increased involvement in homeland security significantly increased interaction between some state and federal agencies and significantly impacted organizational functions of intelligence, grants, and planning. However, contrary to expectations, allocation of resources had little impact on levels of interaction between agencies or broader organizational functions.Practical implicationsFindings suggest that while advances are being made which are consistent with ILP, improvements could be made in the role of theory and evidence‐based practice in driving reforms. More thoughtful distribution of homeland security grants targeting organizational change may be useful in stimulating such efforts. The findings are instructional in how the contemporary context and emerging trends such as ILP are likely to affect organizational change. Specifically, they suggest that if ILP is a desired model for reform in policing, further incentives to pursue its objectives may be necessary.Originality/valueMost studies of ILP focus on case studies of single agencies. There are no studies which explicitly examine the degree to which principles of ILP have been reflected in organizational change within a broad sample of agencies. The present paper assesses such changes within a national (US) sample of law enforcement agencies.