Itelligence Analysis, Research Paper Example

Law enforcement activity is highly necessary within the modern framework of crime prevention and deterrence, so it is highly important to understand all inner guiding lines and mechanisms that make it work. It is hard to imagine any law enforcement system without properly functioning intelligence operations that provide it with all necessary information for analysis, dissemination and usage. Thus, it is highly essential to outline the main inner components of an intelligence cycle, to realize how they work in a combined and interconnected way to cater for the needs of law enforcement resources.

The main element of intelligence is the intelligence cycle – it is the interconnection of forces, steps and components that enable intelligence to function properly and to process the necessary amount of information. In general, the intelligence cycle looks the following way, if depicted schematically:

Source: Ronczkowski, Michael. Terrorism and organized hate crime: intelligence gathering, analysis, and investigations. CRC Press, 2006.

As one can see from the scheme, the initial stage in the intelligence cycle should be planning and direction – the essence of this step is to formulate the task and to understand the need for gathering this or that data. The law enforcement intelligence cannot afford collecting useless information that will further on never used for a definite purpose; this is why the task is identified at first, the direction of action is planned, and only then the intelligence forces are able to start working on data collection, which is the second step of the process.

Data collection is a strictly structured process that cannot be randomly applied for a stipulated goal. Judging from ongoing practices of intelligence officers, all data that needs to be found is grouped by relevance according to a set of indicators that help distinguish necessary bits of information from unnecessary ones. Some of techniques for data collection are as follows:

• Group related (ongoing campaigns, protests, dates and names, visible group preparations for activity)
• Target related (threats, actions concerning the target or by geographical location, taking into consideration prior activity concerning the target)
• Incident related (previous threats or known intents, rehearsals, equipments thefts etc.) (Ronczkowski 122).

Processing data is also an essential step in the intelligence cycle because it helps sort out all unnecessary information and leave only the necessary selection of facts and indicators. The most important stage is analysis and production – all relevant conclusions are made at that stage, helping the intelligence staff find the proper results of their labor on information-related work – “analysts must have a hypothesis or a structured analytical problem as their roadmap, and then they can start breaking down the information into manageable or working parts” (Ronczkowski 122-123). To do this efficiently and to avoid the most widely spread mistakes intelligence specialists are guided by four factors for gathering and interpretation – group information, financial information, personnel and locational data (Ronczkowski 123).

Finally, on finishing all previous steps with the proper application of techniques used in intelligence procedures, the information may be disseminated for those interested in it. The process of the intelligence cycle is finished and the final product thereof, information, is produced. However, these steps are not the only filling of the intelligence cycle because only activities that are connected with producing relevant information cannot be sufficient to make the system function. It is also necessary to have a look at the indispensable physical components that make the system work and satisfy the needs of those involved.

The four components included in the intelligence cycle are: time, people, resources and support). Speaking about time, it is clear that the intelligence staff working on the intelligence issues needs time to produce some visible results, and their time expenditures are the resources they allocate for intelligence. People are the human resources involved in the process of data collection – to get the results, it is essential to allocate the right number of people to accomplish the task. Resources pertain to the financial support of the whole intelligence activity, to pay to people, to cover time expenditures and so on. Support is the last but not the least component pertaining mostly to the activity of senior management who provide timely support, encouragement and assistance in all necessary spheres to ease the work of the intelligence staff, to make the results achievable and to raise the motivation of employees.

Support of senior management heavily depends on what type of intelligence is conducted in this or that particular context. There are such types of intelligence as strategic, operational and tactical, and all of them involve different procedures with different actions both from the side of senior and subordinate staff. For example, tactical intelligence is the simplest form of intelligence that “supports front-line enforcement officers and investigators in taking case-specific action in order to achieve enforcement objectives such as tactical plans” (Ratcliffe 10). It does not require much support from senior management that is limited to giving arrest-related orders and allocating resources to investigations and examinations on a micro-level.

The next level, which can also be considered the mezzo-level, is operational intelligence – here the role of senior management support is extended to such areas as:

• Crime reduction activities
• Deployment of resources to achieve operational objectives
• Regional operational decisions
• Problem-oriented policing (Ratcliffe 10-11).

Finally, the most comprehensive level on which intelligence may function is the strategic intelligence – the macro-level of intelligence activities. Here the functions of senior management support may be defined as follows: understanding of criminal behavior patterns; proactive, future-oriented activities (organizational planning); impact on non-law enforcement organizations with the long-term influence objectives (Ratcliffe 11).

It goes without saying that the impact of senior management support may go even further the objectives that have just been outlined regarding the type of intelligence pursued. It is also necessary to remember about such direct supportive actions of senior management as allocation of information, financial resources, support with advice, equipment and transport etc. Such support on the everyday level is highly important for the overall system to function and for the team to be successful in the functions they are entitled to accomplish.

Finally, the subject of discussion in the context of taking about intelligence is impossible without outlining the main goals of intelligence – it is senseless to speak about the importance of intelligence without stipulating the practical goals that it pursues and the way it helps in daily law enforcement activities. Thus, analyzing the information available on intelligence operations it is possible to summarize the goals of intelligence in three directions and scope of action:

• Reduction of organized crime rates in the community
• Reduction of opportunities for organized crime
• Establishment of a strategic program to deter crimes in a community efficiently (Brown 68).

The first goal pertains to reactive activities of tactical intelligence, the second goal is achieved through operational intelligence, and the third goal is the most over-grasping and comprehensive, having long-term strategic effects that enable law enforcement resources affect the crime rates in the community in an efficient, productive way.

Works Cited

Brown, F. Michael. Criminal investigation: law and practice. Butterworth-Heinemann, 2001.

Ratcliffe, H. Jerry. Integrated Intelligence and Crime Analysis. Community Oriented Policing Services, U.S. Department of Justice, 2007.

Ronczkowski, Michael. Terrorism and organized hate crime: intelligence gathering, analysis, and investigations. CRC Press, 2006.