Intelligence-led Policing Research Articles

Frontex 3.0 — rewolucyjny czy rewelacyjny — legislacyjno-policyjny paradygmat bezpieczeństwa granic Unii Europejskiej. Paneuropejska interpretacja i implementacja Intelligence-Led Policing

Frontex 3.0 a — revolutionary or revelatory? — legislative and policing paradigm of security of the European Union’s borders. A pan-European interpretation and implementation of intelligence-led policingThe article contains an analysis of the origins and development of new regulations concerning the European Border and Coast Guard of 2016 and 2018 in order to better understand its tasks and development in the light of the European policy objectives and European law. The authors pay particular attention to the state of ontological uncertainty and lack of security manifested by the residents and states of the European Union. Thus they consider the challenges to the Union’s internal and external security. They analyse new initiatives, both legal and political, the aim of which is to limit the threats associated with uncontrolled irregular migrations, organised crime and terrorism. Examining the EU’s new proposal concerning the European Border and Coast Guard, the authors point to its main objects, innovative nature of the proposed solutions as well as a substantial policy change that can be seen in the new proposal. When analysing the proposal and its amendments from a criminological perspective, the authors indicate a new interpretation of the concept of intelligence-led policing as well as its implementation with regard to the EU’s border and security policies, both in their internal and external aspects. When examining the most important premises of the organisational, institutional and operational mandate of the EBCG, the authors not only examine the establishment of the EU’s new border police, but also confirm the need to define a strategy for the operation of the Service, especially with regard to its operational activities and intelligence, in order for the Service to effectively and fully implement its mandate, at the same time making a major contribution to fighting threats to a broadly defined security of the EU terrorism, uncontrolled migrations, organised crime. What is essential to this is the introduction of a sustainable — respectful of cultural differences but also effective — way to create policing policies as well as use of new technologies to monitor borders, in line with the adopted intelligence policy. In addition, further bi- and multilateral cooperation with relevant bodies and services of third countries should be maintained and developed, especially taking into account the existing good cooperation practices. In the article the authors analyse the regulatory framework of the new regulation specifying the role and threats of the new Service with regard to personnel and insufficient financing, and point to other difficulties associated with the insufficient implementation of the solidarity clause so far. They also point to the urgent need to formulate a methodology, strategy and relevant training enabling border guards to use the so-called cultural profiling taking into account the migrants’ cultural and ideological differences as part of their statutory activities, and at the same time ensuring the highest standard of fundamental right protection.

Conservation-based intelligence-led policing

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of interpersonal relations on the implementation of an intelligence-led initiative within a rural, conservation setting.Design/methodology/approachThe data for this study are gathered from semi-structured interviews (n = 79) and field observations within five study sites that are managed by the Uganda Wildlife Authority.FindingsThe findings suggest that while law enforcement and community conservation rangers viewed intelligence operations to be necessary, there was general discontent and distrust toward intelligence rangers. This was largely due to the actuarial and perceived activities, roles and responsibilities of intelligence rangers and the belief that intelligence rangers reflected more of an internal affairs unit rather than one focused on intelligence gathering.Research limitations/implicationsThe credibility of the data provided by respondents can be called into question; however, extensive efforts were made to establish rapport to help alleviate these hazards.Practical implicationsFindings from the current study highlight the importance of considering and managing interpersonal relations when implementing intelligence-led initiatives.Originality/valueThe current study is unique in that it examines crime in a non-traditional setting (a developing country, Uganda), with a non-traditional crime type (wildlife crime). Additionally, literature examining the impact of interpersonal relations on intelligence-led policing is limited.

A Study on Measures for Strengthening Intelligence-Led Policing Using HUMINT

A Study on Measures for Strengthening Intelligence-Led Policing Using HUMINT

Community policing and intelligence-led policing

PurposeDespite increased scholarly inquiry regarding intelligence-led policing (ILP) and popularity among law enforcement agencies around the globe, ambiguity remains regarding the conceptual foundation and appropriate measurement of ILP. Although most scholars agree that ILP is indeed a unique policing philosophy, there is less consensus regarding the relationship between ILP and the ever-present model of community-oriented policing (COP). Consequently, there is a clear need to study the empirical distinctions and overlaps in these policing philosophies as implemented by US law enforcement agencies. The paper aims to discuss these issues.Design/methodology/approachData were gleaned from the 2007 LEMAS and 2009 NIJ Intelligence surveys. A total of 227 unique police agencies in the USA are included. A series of bivariate, exploratory factor analyses and structural models are used to determine discriminatory or convergent validity across COP and ILP constructs.FindingsThe goal was to answer the question: are these two policing philosophies are being implemented as separate and distinct strategies? Results of our exploratory and structural models indicate that COP and ILP loaded on unique latent constructs. This affirms the results of the bivariate correlations, and indicates that COP and ILP have discriminant measurement validity. In other words, COP and ILP are conceptually distinct, even when implemented in police departments across the USA. Implications of these findings and suggestions for future research are discussed.Originality/valueThis is the first study to empirically test the discriminant or convergent validity of COP and ILP.

Hoteliers as crime control partners

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to present evaluation results of Operation Galley, an intelligence-led policing (ILP) intervention that sought to proactively address the problem of drug dealing from hotel rooms by engaging hoteliers as crime control partners with the Queensland Police Service.Design/methodology/approachOperation Galley, a randomized control field trial, rank ordered and matched 120 hotels on size, star rating, location and estimated degree of suspicious behaviour. Hotels were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: Operation Galley hotels who received a procedurally just letter, followed by a personal visit with detectives; the letter-only hotels who received the procedurally just letter; and the business as usual hotels.FindingsUsing repeated measures ANOVA and general linear models, results of the 12-month trial indicate that the Operation Galley condition led to an increase in police engagement with hoteliers, increasing the recognition, reporting and police enforcement of drug offenders.Practical implicationsThe Operation Galley trial demonstrates that the ILP approach helped foster positive engagement between hoteliers and detectives. The approach cultivated hoteliers as crime control partners and thereby increased the flow of human source intelligence, helping police to better target and respond to drug dealing problems in hotel rooms.Originality/valueResults of the Operation Galley trial demonstrate that hoteliers can be leveraged as crime control partners, providing important human source intelligence about drug dealing and facilitating the capacity of police to better respond to drug problems in hotels.

The benefit of intelligence officers

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the extent to which intelligence officers integrated at the patrol level contribute to successful case outcomes through information sharing.Design/methodology/approachThis study utilizes multinomial logistic regression to analyze the outcomes of three years of Intelligence Officer Reports (IORs) submitted by officers trained in the Phoenix Police Department’s Intelligence Officer Program.FindingsThe majority of IORs are either tangible case successes or intelligence successes that have the capacity to become these, as opposed to non-successes. The type of success is impacted by a number of predictors. These include case categorization, nature of crime, information-gathering methods and perceived validity of information. Perceived reliability of information was the only non-significant predictor.Research limitations/implicationsThe study suggests the benefits of looking at multiple predictors of success in understanding the value of information gathered by intelligence officers in the field. Limitations include a fair amount of missing data and potential lack of generalizability to other agencies. Future research will also consider alternative ways of measuring success and the nesting of reports within officers.Practical implicationsThe study provides insight into key factors for optimizing tangible case outcomes when institutionalizing intelligence-led policing at the patrol level.Originality/valueThis is the first study to consider how intelligence-led policing at the patrol level may influence case outcomes, and, in turn, what factors may contribute to this. Findings provide some initial considerations for optimizing desirable case outcomes.

‘Well-kent Faces’: Policing Persistent Offenders and the Possibilities for Desistance

This article focuses on the policing of adult persistent offenders and its implications for desistance. It integrates the findings from two qualitative studies undertaken in Scotland on the experiences of those considered ‘persistent offenders’ and the police. The article’s contribution lies in its close analysis of how adult persistent offenders and the police interact, examining factors before, during and after their encounter. We show that the police’s enforcement focus is a significant obstacle to desistance, especially as enacted through intelligence-led policing and the lack of positive discretion towards ‘well-kent faces’. However, we also note that frustration with this approach is emerging within Scottish policing and argue for a relatively modest re-orientation of police practice towards a recognition of signals of desistance.

Can threat assessment help police prevent mass public shootings? Testing an intelligence-led policing tool

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine whether threat assessment, an intelligence-led policing (ILP) tool, can prevent mass public shootings.Design/methodology/approachIn order to gauge the potential effectiveness of this ILP tool, the authors conduct a retrospective analysis of 278 mass public shootings that occurred in the USA between 1966 and 2016. This retrospective analysis allows us to determine how successful threat assessment protocols could be in preventing mass public shootings by examining how successful this tool would have been in identifying the offenders in our data.FindingsThe results show that threat assessment has the potential to be an effective tool in the ILP arsenal to identify and prevent impending mass public shootings. However, our results also point to several obstacles for the effective implementation of this ILP tool. The underreporting of threats and using the content of threats and characteristics of threateners are problematic in correctly assigning risk. The authors make suggestions for how to overcome these obstacles.Originality/valueThis study makes several contributions to the intelligence-led policing and mass murder field. This is the first study to test the potential effectiveness of an intelligence-led policing tool to prevent mass public shootings. Additionally, this is one of the first studies to examine the leaks, types, context and follow-though of threats made by mass public shooters in the United States. Consequently, it provides unique information on the foreshowing behaviors of mass public shooters.

Intelligence-Led Policing in Practice: Reflections From Intelligence Analysts

Intelligence-led policing (ILP) is a managerial law enforcement model that seeks to place crime intelligence at the forefront of decision-making. This model has been widely adopted, at least notionally, in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia. Drawing on interviews with intelligence analysts from two Australian state law enforcement agencies, this article contributes to the relatively small body of literature that has examined ILP in practice. The article identifies three relational themes that inhibit the successful implementation of ILP: analysts and data, analysts and tools, and analysts and decision makers. Furthermore, it calls attention to the need to better understand the structure and operations within law enforcement agencies, including the similarities and differences among organizational units, in order to better understand how these nuances shape the practice of ILP.

The use of intelligence-led policing in combating technology-based crimes in South Africa

The use of intelligence-led policing in combating technology-based crimes in South Africa

Intelligence and Informatization: The Rise of the Ministry of Public Security in Intelligence Work in China

This article describes why and how China’s Ministry of Public Security has reemerged as an intelligence actor, its structure and surveillance capabilities, how it deploys these, and to what ends. The ministry began to reform its intelligence structures in the early 2000s to reestablish “information dominance” (zhi xinxi quan 制信息权) over an increasingly fluid, networked, and technologically sophisticated society. The ministry’s intelligence reform agenda comprises two integral parts. “Public security informatization” (gong’an xinxihua 公安信息化) describes how the ministry has adapted to the proliferation of IT by transforming the way it collects, analyzes, and disseminates information. Meanwhile, the ministry’s adoption of an “intelligence-led policing” model (qingbao zhidao jingwu 情报指导警务) has led to the implementation of an “intelligence cycle” (qingbao liucheng 情报流程) in public security work, aimed at bringing about effective information management. Today’s public security intelligence system (gong’an qingbao tixi 公安情报体系) ensures that the Chinese security state is able to effectively utilize the oceanic volumes of data entering government systems to better surveil and control society.

Constructing an Automation System to Implement Intelligence-Led Policing Into the National Police of Ukraine

The paper analyzes implementation of intelligence-led policing into the National Police of Ukraine. The architecture of analytical system is proposed based on the analysis of state-of-the-art in the National Police of Ukraine. The mathematical apparatus is considered for the future components of the analytical system. Successful implementation and application of new methods of criminal analysis will allow expanding it to the entire system of the National Police of Ukraine in the future and to actively use analytical methods and technologies that provide efficient investigation of criminal offenses.

A descriptive, practical, hybrid argumentation model to assist with the formulation of defensible assessments in uncertain sense-making environments: an initial evaluation

This paper presents the preliminary results of our initial, descriptive, practical, hybrid argumentation model, designed for the use by criminal intelligence analysts (from now on referred to as analysts) working with sophisticated visual analytical software in uncertain sense-making environments. Analysts are required to create exhibits (as evidence) for a court of law or as input for decision-making in intelligence-led policing. These exhibits are required to be accurate, relevant and unbiased. Eight experienced criminal intelligence analysts from West Midlands police and the Belgium police evaluated a low-fidelity prototype resembling the first-order argumentation concepts of our initial argumentation model. The evaluation was to assess the applicability and practicality of the first-order argumentation concepts within our model. The preliminary results presented in this paper indicate that most of the first-order argumentation concepts are both applicable and practical and that the participants would use such concepts to construct their rationale from the onset of an analytical activity, if it were included as part of a software application.

Police Reforms in Slovenia in the Past 25 Years

AbstractSince 1991, policing in Slovenia has been characterized by several police reforms aimed at bringing the police closer to the western democratic style of policing. Initial reforms were symbolic, but important: they involved the renaming of the former militia (milica) to the police (policija) and the changing of insignias. Institutional reform reached its milestone in 1998 with the adoption of the new Police Act, which significantly changed police powers and introduced a civilian oversight of policing. The General Police Directorate became an autonomous body within the Ministry of the Interior. The year 2013 saw the adoption of new police legislation aimed at achieving decentralization, defining cooperation between the police and local communities by emphasizing problem-solving, community policing and intelligence-led policing. All legislative changes and efforts to improve policing in Slovenia are reflected in police training and the level of education required for entering the police increased from secondary school to a higher education qualification. Studies on efforts related to police reforms are also presented.

Značaj analitičkih organizacionih jedinica sektora za analitiku, telekomunikacione i informacione tehnologije u primeni policijsko-obaveštajnog modela

Establishment of the intelligence-led policing presents a significant improvement in the performance of operational, intelligence and analytical activities of the Ministry of Interior since it is based on consolidation of all available resources, capacities and potentials with the aim of ensuring more efficient, effective and economical suppression of crime, especially its organized and serious forms, in addition to suppression of the most serious forms of endangering public safety. Construction analytics that are crucial for the implementation of intelligence-led policing is currently performed in several organizational units of the Ministry, which makes it difficult to coordinate the development of criminal- intelligence and planning documents, which is as a necessary condition for the full implementation of the model. Therefore, the paper provides adescriptive account of the analytical organizational units of the Sector for Analytics, Telecommunication and Information Technology which, along with the organizational units of the General Police Directorate, have an important role in the implementation of criminal intelligence activities, especially in respect of planning, data collection, processing and analyses, which are all prerequisites for generating quality criminal intelligence products.

Working Towards Intelligence-Led Policing: The Phoenix Police Department Intelligence Officer Program

Since October 2014, the Phoenix Police Department has been implementing an innovative program to integrate intelligence into patrol operations through the use of intelligence officers (IOs). The program involves the use of IOs trained to focus on information gathering and reporting to intelligence analysts as part of their daily patrol activities and working collaboratively to use intelligence to solve recurring problems. We provide an overview of the IO program and the literature on intelligence-led policing that guided its development and describe implementation efforts to date. We also discuss evaluation efforts to assess the impact of the program on intelligence gathered, officer activities, and crime, and provide initial results on effects of the program on officer attitudes from two waves of survey data, which suggest patrol officers are generally supportive of the program.

The Path to Enlightenment: Limiting Costs and Maximizing Returns from Intelligence-Led Policy and Practice in Public Policing

Intelligence-led policing’s (ILP) promise to reform policing has attracted many to its cause. Based on empirical research, this paper challenges the validity of some of its claims and explains the ways that ILP may most fruitfully be employed. The research found that the success or failure of ILP depends on people and not on the ILP technologies, organizational structures, or processes that routinely receive attention. ILP may make perfect business sense in principle but human factors will always mitigate its prospects. Justifiably, ILP is the preferred strategy for combating organized crime or ‘professional’ criminals; the cost of investigations and intrusions into privacy can more readily be warranted. In the policing mainstream, an acceptable return on investment in those same methods is unlikely because the professional skills and specialist resources required to service them are in such short supply. Moreover, in liberal democracies their use is much more difficult to justify in social worlds that, properly, lie largely beyond the institutions’ control.

On Information Technology and the Safety of Police Officers

Police officers perform their duty every day under a constant threat of violence, and each year, as many as 50 police officers in the United States (U.S.) lose their lives in the line of duty. This study proposes that Information Technology (IT) could help to prevent violence against police officers. Specifically, we examine the relationship between IT and the number of police officers killed or assaulted in the line of duty. Integrating the literature on IT-enabled organizational capabilities with the criminology literature, we theorize that IT helps to develop an intelligence-led policing capability, which in turn helps to reduce violence against police officers. Our empirical analysis of 3,921 U.S. police departments shows that crime analysis and computer-aided dispatch are significantly associated with a decrease in the deaths of police officers. Computer-aided dispatch and in-field report writing are also related to fewer assaults to officers. Besides contributing to the nascent literature on the business value of IT in the public sector and the broader literature on the societal impact of IT, we expand the scope of the IS literature by theorizing and empirically demonstrating the role of IT in the occupational safety of organizations that operate in highly unpredictable, risky, and life-threatening environments.

Institutional Pressures and Isomorphism

Previous research employing an institutional theoretical framework posits environmental factors play an integral role in the adoption of police practices. The present study applies this framework to examine the adoption of intelligence-led policing (ILP). Data from a purposive sample of national intelligence personnel from 254 agencies are used to employ both a measurement and structural model to explain ILP adoption. Weighted least squares estimation is employed through an asymptotic distribution free function to estimate the measurement and structural equation models. Models exhibit good fit indices, while institutional pressures, among others, had a significant and positive effect on ILP adoption. Findings support the role of institutional pressures in the diffusion of police practice. Implications for future research and policy are discussed.

Effectiveness of Intelligence-Led Policing in the Management of Domestic Crimes in Kenya, A Case of Kakamega County

In Kenya, domestic crimes increase has not been met with adequate prevention involving Intelligence-Led Policing unlike other kind of crime such as drug trafficking and terrorism where intelligence policing has been deployed immensely. Kakamega County has recorded an increasing number of domestic crimes in the past decade (Kakamega County Police Headquarters, 2014) which threatens socio-economic development in the County. The overall objective of the study was to examine the practice of intelligence led policing with a particular focus on the management of domestic crimes in Kakamega County. The specific objectives were to: examine the nature of intelligence led policing, assess the effectiveness of intelligence-led policing in the management of domestic crimes, and determine the challenges that intelligence-led policing encounter. The study was guided by rational choice and social control theories. The study employed a descriptive survey design and the target population consisted of household heads, police officers, private security firms, chiefs and assistant county commissioners in Kakamega County. Purposively sampling techniques was used to select OCPD, DCIO, OCS, private security firms, assistant county commissioners, chiefs while random sampling technique was used to select junior police officers and household heads. In the total, the sample respondents were 293. Primary data was collected through interviews, questionnaires while secondary data was collected from books, internet, journals and newspapers. Validity was determined using content validity while reliability was done using test retest method. Data was analysed using descriptive and inferential statistic and it was presented in form of tables and charts. The findings revealed that Intelligence-Led Policing in Kakamega County was characterized by criminal informer, targeting of criminals unlike particular crime and holistic investigation of crimes using results-oriented tactics and strategies. The study recommends that government needs to commit more resources toward Intelligence-Led Policing so that police officers can be trained, equipment and technology can be procured. Further, there is need for police officers to come up with realistic performance indicator through the use of Intelligence-Led Policing products.