Practice and Ethics of Intelligence-Led Policing - Essay Example

Practice and Ethics of Intelligence-Led Policing (ILP) Introduction: Intelligence-led policing is referred to a crime reduction strategy supported by law that is based on a combination of crime analysis and the criminal intelligence such that crimes can be effectively determined and reduced. The main purpose of the strategy is to reduce the crimes preventing the offenders from committing them. In order to implement the strategy, it makes use of different off-the-record data and information regarding crimes as well as criminals, and detailed analyses are made on this collected information such that tactical policies may be adopted for purposes of crime prevention and reduction. The concept of intelligence-led policing is broad in its nature and concentrates more on sharing of information and coming down to effective solutions for different levels of crime (What is intelligence-led policing?, n.d.). The origin of the concept of intelligence-led policing was in the United Kingdom (UK). The basis of the concept was to target offenders since in general it was found that more attention was given to crime determination rather than targeting the offenders who commit those crimes. Thus the concept was more oriented to the problems leading to the criminal activities (What is intelligence-led policing?, n.d.). Making use of intelligence in crime analysis has the ability to utilize the available resources in strategically targeting offenders and try to prevent crime (Intelligence-Led Policing: The New Intelligence Architecture, 2005, p.4). However the ethical considerations of this policy are equally significant. The present study focuses on the practice and ethics of intelligence-led policing and determines whether this policy should be the future of law enforcement. Need for Intelligence in Crime Analysis: Intelligence as can be associated with the analyses of crimes can be referred to the availability of information that is analyzed as well. Thus raw information that is collected does not represent intelligence. Intelligence is when the data is assessed and analyzed and used for the purpose of crime detection, prevention and reduction. Intelligence in such respect can be either tactical or strategic. Tactical intelligence enables the accomplishment of particular inquiries. Strategic intelligence on the other hand, focuses on the broader insights of the crime investigation and thus takes into consideration the entire plan and manpower involved in the process. While tactical measures are meant for immediate actions, strategic intelligence is considered and planned over a significant period of time producing effective solutions to crime related problems (Intelligence-Led Policing: The New Intelligence Architecture, 2005, p.3). The primary need for intelligence arises in making effective decisions, planning of measures, strategically targeting the offenders and thus preventing and reducing the crimes and their effects. Collection of information, processing them and using the power of analyzed intelligence are required and prove to be significantly useful in most of the agencies working under the law enforcement power. The need for intelligence based crime detection and prevention became more significant after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack in the United States (US). Thus, now, the large amounts of data being collected and processed prove to be an effective measure in order to analyze the crimes. The different forms of collection of information involve physical surveillance that may be either conducted by an individual or through videotaping, electronic surveillance that can be conducted through trapping or tracing of information, use of secret informers, operators who remain undercover, reports from newspapers or other sources of media, as well as public records (Intelligence-Led Policing: The New Intelligence Architecture, 2005, pp.3-6). Intelligence-Led Policing: The Origin and the Process: Although some of the law enforcement agencies might assert that they have been using the intelligence-led policing in their analysis of crimes since several years, it has been obtained that before the 1990s the use of intelligence in the detection and prevention of crimes was rare. It was earlier used depending on the individual cases particularly with intentions to gather information. Some of the factors have been studied that provides suggestions to the modification in crime analysis from the earlier investigation-led policing to present day intelligence-led policing (Ratcliffe, n.d., pp.1-2). One of these factors was the gap that occurred in the early investigations based crime analyses in the 1960s and 1970s in the US and the UK that was unable to determine the huge range of crime effects and proved to be failing to initiate an effective justice system. The second factor that could be realized to have impacted the intelligence-led policing positively was the increasing use and dependency on technological advancements based on information technology. The third factor was the pressure that had arisen for greater managerial professionalization. This was initiated as a result of more secured inspection on the activities of the police and investigation departments by the government thus increasing the pressure on their effectiveness. A final issue that gave rise to the increasing need for intelligence-led policing was the increasing level of crime that is serious and organized in nature. Thus these issues led to the emergence of intelligence based crime detection policies that could make effective use of available resources and reduce the level of crimes (Ratcliffe, n.d., pp.1-3). The process of intelligence includes six different steps: planning and direction, collection of information, processing of the data, analysis, dissemination, and reevaluation. The first step assesses the already available resources and determines the further information that would be required to be collected. Collection of the information is the most frenetic task of the entire process. Earlier the dependency was only on the labor. However in the present times, their effort has been lessened to some extent with the help of the technological support. The processing of the data involves going through the collected information and distinguish between the useful and useless data thus ordering the needed data in a logical manner. The analysis step significantly brings out the meaning that each of the collected information carries along with them thus converting the information into intelligence. The process of dissemination involves letting the needed intelligence reach the investigation organizations for their proper use in crime analysis. Reevaluation technique is used finally to determine whether the intelligence obtained from collected information is effective or not (Intelligence-Led Policing: The New Intelligence Architecture, 2005, pp.6-7). The study of the origin and process of the intelligence-led policing give an understanding that there is a need for intelligence based crime analysis since processed information provide with in-depth understanding of the crimes thereby helping in strategically determine policies to prevent and reduce crimes. However, whether this technique is really effective can be learnt through its present practice as well as the ethical considerations that are focused on in the further sections of the study. The Practice of Intelligence-Led Policing: In the present times, the policing of the crime detection and analysis are found to rely more on the intelligence such that offenders can be targeted and crimes can be reduced. This has become more essential with the increasing rates of crimes that are affecting the security measures of the public in general. The effectiveness of the intelligence-led policing has been obtained since raw data has no meaning unless it is analyzed and its meanings are determined (Cope, 2004, p.201). Significant criminal activities are the primary focus of the intelligence-led policing technique. On identification of the crime, the offenders are targeted for the purposes of investigation and trial. In the US, the developments of fusion centers that serve the needs of multiagency policies have benefited the measures of intelligence-led policing. These centers enable to transport information to the departments that require them, e.g., patrol officers, detectives, management and other investigation agencies (Intelligence-Led Policing: The New Intelligence Architecture, 2005, p.9). If the policing are good, it is considered to be effective in lessening the activities and impacts of terrorism. In the UK, a National Intelligence Model (NIM) is based on intelligence-led policing that considers that the positive effects of the use of intelligence leads to safety and security of the community as a whole as well as reduces and controls the rates of criminal activities. Considering these outcomes, the objectives of the model include establishing a process of task and coordination, developing core intelligence products that would drive the operation, determine rules for training and development at different levels of policing, and develop systems that would develop the process of intelligence (Intelligence-Led Policing: The New Intelligence Architecture, 2005, pp.9-10). The NIM in the UK is a business model through which the intelligence-led policing are implemented in the country. The practice of the intelligence-led policing can be understood from the three levels in which the NIM works. The first level is the local level where the teams of policing in the local areas are responsible in handling their crime issues collecting information and using intelligence from the local sources. In the next level of level 2, the operations of the NIM occur across cross borders such that offenders performing at more than one jurisdiction can be targeted. Level 3 is meant for the crimes that are more organized and serious in nature. Such crimes might occur at the national or even at the international level. In order to implement this entire process, analysts are responsible in creating such products of intelligence that can be suitably fit into the processing of information to achieve the desired goals (Ratcliffe, n.d., pp.12-13). In the Britain, the focus has been to integrate the intelligence-led measures with the crime analysis techniques through legislation forces. However, outside to the UK, the practice of intelligence-led policing has been found to be less remarkable. The positive reports in this regard reflect on the effort that police departments are making in order to shift to the process of intelligence-led policing. New Jersey State Police (NJSP) provides with an example, where efforts have been made to integrate the analysis of crimes with intelligence-led policing in order to effectively utilize the technique in targeting the offenders of crimes and strategically determine measures of preventing and reducing crimes in the community. NJSP incorporated the intelligence-led policing with intentions to improve their state of crime detection and prevention policies (Ratcliffe, n.d., pp.13-14). Ethical Considerations in Intelligence-Led Policing: Ethical decision making is a significant issue in the processes of community policing and intelligence-led policing. Considering community policing, the ethical considerations are primarily based on the development of confidence between the public and the community. However in case of intelligence-led policing, the ethical issues are more concerned with the authenticity of the information being collected by the different law enforcement agencies that might infringe the rights of the citizens seeking information of the terrorism activities in a nation (Intelligence-Led Policing: The Integration of Community Policing and Law Enforcement Intelligence, n.d., p.43). The concern of maintaining ethics has been considered to be significant since several years. If an organization has to incorporate the intelligence-led policing then it needs to take care of the fact that the rights of privacy of the common people are protected to the greatest extents possible. This also includes protecting the privacy of the offenders. Thus it proves to be important to have a team of operators who might check the ethical aspects associated with information before it is made public or being allowed to be used by law enforcement agencies. In most cases strict guidelines are thus used for the purpose (Hess, Orthmann & LaDue, 2011, p.55). Considering the intelligence-led policing in the UK, it has been learnt that the NIM is associated with the process and that the ILP is not directly integrated with the crime analysis technique (Wakefield & Fleming, 2009, p.178). This might also give rise to ethical considerations since there might be doubts among the common people in regard to the activities being directed by the two programs in integration. The primary concern of ethical issues in relation to the intelligence-led policing arises with the protection of the rights of privacy of the common people or citizens of a nation as well as the offenders. Thus while an association intends to focus on an integrated method of crime analysis and criminal intelligence, these ethical issues also prove to be equally important. This is more because the criminal activities are associated with the impacts on the community and the common people as a whole and the crime analysis is intended to bring into light the identification of the offenders such that they can be targeted towards reduction of the crimes. Thus, if the ethical considerations are not involved, the processes might not prove to be successful. Law enforcement agencies often tend to break the rules that are necessary to be followed thus creating corruption in the system (Hess, Orthmann & LaDue, 2011, pp.55-56). Such corruptions might affect the overall positivity of the process and could also lead to doubts in the minds of the citizens in regard to the protection of their rights and security. To consider all these factors simultaneously, it can be realized that although the process seems to be effective in the prevention and reduction of crime across the world, yet the ethical issues need to be more taken concern of in order to have a clean and dependable system of intelligence-led policing as followed by different law enforcement agencies. Intelligence-Led Policing: The Future: Although the study of the intelligence-led policing seems to provide with several positive attributes of the program, yet the benefits of the program in the real life cases are yet to be known significantly. UK studies reflect that there have been certain problems in the implementation process of the program. Technical, organizational as well as cultural factors have been considered significant issues creating difficulties in the implementation process. The problem has been with the rapid adoption of ILP. Issues have also arisen in regard to the use of confidential information collected by paid informants. The use of informants has been existent in the system of policing since longer times. However, the confidentiality of the process has created issues in several organizations. This has proved to be more expensive as well (What is intelligence-led policing?, n.d.). While on one side, difficulties in the implementation have been observed, on the other hand, the ILP has proved to have positive effects as far as crime analysis is concerned. It can be considered as a new standard for crime prevention and reduction. The concept of ILP being focused on all forms of crimes, and trying to use relevant information in the most useful manner can be considered as an effective tool to protect the world of the offenders by targeting them from before. It can be realized that in the present times, the world being more advanced technologically, even the offenders are advanced in their ways of attacking the world. Thus, in order to fight them, equally or more advanced measures need to be welcome in the system of crime control (Intelligence Led Policing: A Valuable Law Enforcement Philosophy, n.d.). Thus over viewing both sides of the ILP process, it can be said that these should become the future of the law enforcement in every country. However, in order to be successful the law enforcement agencies need to focus more on the weaknesses that they still possess in terms of difficulties that if removed would widely open the prospects of the intelligence-led policing. This would in turn enable the crime analysis process to become significantly easy and protective leading to prevention and reduction of crimes by analyzing them before the offenders can commit them. Conclusion: The study has been focused on the concept of intelligence-led policing that in the present times has been proved to be of significant importance as far as the crime analysis and crime prevention is concerned. The process combines the effects of crime analysis and criminal intelligence together to strategically determine ways that can detect crimes, target the offenders and prevent crimes before they can occur. The practice of this concept has been observed across the world in the US and the UK. However, certain difficulties in the implementation of the process have also been obtained. Ethical considerations have also been considered significant with respect to the policing process. Keeping in view the positive impacts of the intelligence-led policing in the crime analysis and crime prevention policing, it can be concluded that the technique being depended on technologically advancement and the correct use of information, proves to help the world in terms of crime control. However, the negative aspects need to be taken control as well in order to have a successful program in tune with the needs of the community protection. References 1) Cope, N. (2004), ‘Intelligence Led Policing or Policing Led Intelligence’, British Journal of Criminology, Vol.44, No.2, pp.188-203, available at: http://www.jmu.edu/icle/pdf_files/Applied%20Research/Towards%20an%20Information%20Driven%20Organization/Intelligence%20Led%20Policing%20or%20Policing%20Led%20Intelligence.pdf (accessed on March 9, 2012) 2) Hess, K.M., Orthmann, C.H. & S.E. LaDue (2011), Management and Supervision in Law Enforcement, Connecticut: Cengage Learning 3) Intelligence-Led Policing: The Integration of Community Policing and Law Enforcement Intelligence (n.d.), usdoj, available at: http://www.cops.usdoj.gov/pdf/e09042536_Chapter_04.pdf (accessed on March 9, 2012) 4) Intelligence-Led Policing: The New Intelligence Architecture (2005), ncjrs, available at: https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/bja/210681.pdf (accessed on March 8, 2012) 5) Intelligence Led Policing: A Valuable Law Enforcement Philosophy (n.d.), innovative-analytics, available at: http://innovative-analytics.com/docs/IntelligenceLedPolicing.pdf (accessed on March 9, 2012) 6) Ratcliffe, J.H. (n.d.), Intelligence-Led Policing, available at: http://jratcliffe.net/papers/Ratcliffe%20intelligence-led%20policing%20draft.pdf (accessed on March 8, 2012) 7) Wakefield, A. & J. Fleming (2009), The SAGE dictionary of policing, London: SAGE Publications Ltd 8) What is intelligence-led policing? (n.d.), jratcliffe, available at: http://jratcliffe.net/research/ilp.htm (accessed on March 8, 2012) Read More