Week 4 Assignment - Identifying Decision Makers

Week 4 Assignment - Identifying Decision Makers.

Investigative Intelligence- Chapter 7 Lecture Notes

WHO ARE DECISION?MAKERS?

• POP has been pivotal in advancing the notion that not all crime solutions come from the police. There are a range of other decision?makers in the criminal justice system, and beyond.

a. Front?line officers

• The traditional target for tactical analysis and intelligence products.

• Unclear whether front?line officers are decision?makers in terms of the 3i model, because there is often a lack of accountability and they can be easily drawn away by emergency and other radio calls.

• Yet, analysts need to maintain a relationship with patrol officers because they are often a source of quality information.

• ‘Tactical intelligence’ can too often deteriorate into case support.

b. Police leadership

• Police leadership are often decision?makers, but often uninformed as to the latest research on what works and what doesn’t in crime prevention and reduction.

• Much police leadership training assumes that officers know how to reduce crime, but the evidence suggests otherwise.

• This may explain why so many policing strategies are traditional, saturation patrol type affairs.

c. Non?law enforcement

• Regulatory agencies have the added advantage of drawing on regulation and compliance?based processes that go beyond simple prosecution.

• Part of the nodal governance idea, whereby police are supplemented by government and the private sector that can provide additional security services.

d. The general public

• The main target for dissemination with community policing

• Intelligence?led policing and POP take a similar view: Communities are suitable decision?makers where they can help, but are not essential decision?makers for every problem.

• Little research evidence suggests that greater dissemination to the public has an impact on crime.

• Security networks

• Additional agencies that are now often incorporated into security networks include Customs and border control, Immigration authorities, Defense agencies, and national security bodies.

• 1998 Crime and Disorder Act (UK) made multiagency crime prevention initiatives a statutory requirement

• GMAC PBM is a good example.

UNDERSTANDING THE CLIENT’S ENVIRONMENT

• When client’s don’t understand the demands of good analysis, they tend to be unforgiving in respect of the time and effort required for good products. As a result, they create a pressure that can cause poor products.

• Other agencies – media, politicians and so on – have their own agenda and try to push decision?makers to act in their interests.

• The key is the crime intelligence product is likely to be the only objective voice that decision?maker’s hear.

a. Working with the audience

• Analysts have to liaise and communicate with clients during the development of products so that the final product can be targeted accurately.

• How clients define success is important, because products can be tailored to reflect this need of decision?makers.

• If analysts produce a good product, they should expect that it will be photocopied, faxed, e?mailed and referenced by/to clients that they are not aware of and potentially never expected.

MAXIMIZING INFLUENCE

• Analysts should aim to maximize the distribution of their products, rather than work on the need?to?know principle.

• Analytical units being close to decision?makers runs counter to the thinking in many police departments, but having access to street data is meaningless if analysts cannot influence decision?makers.

a. Embracing networks

• Dupont’s work is useful for articulating the different types of networks that can aid with crime prevention stemming from intelligence work.

b. Recommending action

• Within the policing environment, it is important that analysts make recommendations to decision?makers.

• As Cope points out, there is a difference between analysts making recommendations, and the decision?maker accepting the recommendation.

• Military analysts sometime struggle with the need to make recommendations, coming from a military area where decision?makers are trained in using intelligence products, and there are distinct organizational gaps between analysts and their clients.

• Alternatives to the traditional written report should always be considered.

SUMMARY

• Moving beyond the tactical to a strategic focus is effective for crime prevention.

• Influencing decision?makers requires resolute accuracy in detail and fact, but also a flair for the imaginative in terms of getting clients’ attention.