INTELLIGENCE-LED POLICING FINAL PAPER1

INTELLIGENCE-LED POLICING FINAL PAPER

Jose Gomez

University of San Diego

Community Assessment

August 22, 2016

Professor Blondi

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Law enforcement intelligence is not a new concept. In fact, law enforcement intelligence

was a result of military and national security which can be dated back to ancient times. More

recently, intelligence-led policing became necessary to understand and utilized. Intelligence-led

policing (ILP) originated in Great Britain by Kent Constabulary. It developed in response to

severe increases in property crimes. The perception was that a small number of criminals were

responsible for a large percentage of offenses. They believed that police officers would have a

better effect on crime by focusing on the most violent crimes occurring in their jurisdictions.

In recent years, ILP has emerged as a strategic, future-oriented and targeted approach to crime

control that focuses on the identification, analysis, and management of persisting and developing

problems.

ILP is a simple concept that allows agencies to spend less in resources; it lowers crime

rates, and most importantly it keeps officers safer. ILP is the notion of using intelligence to

prepare personnel in the field better. ILP doesn’t replace conventional methods of investigations;

rather it enhances them. Sharing raw information allows analysts to sort through the raw data

allowing officers and investigator to work with a finished intelligence product rather than

working with just information. The utilization of ILP by the Oceanside Police Department

produces a couple of things. First, it pins points where the crime trends are, not only

geographically but in terms of time. Second, because we have more awareness of where crime is

most likely to happen, we can devote more time preventing crime. Third, because time is used

more efficiently in addressing problem locations, officers are free to back up one another. All of

this happens through the use of ILP.

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In the last few years, the Oceanside Police Department (OPD) has adapted the use of

intelligence-led policing. OPD currently utilizes two data collection and analysis programs, the

Automated Regional Justice Information System (ARJIS) and the San Diego Association of

Governments (SANDAG). Along with the assistance of a Crime and Intelligence Analyst Unit

and the two programs, OPD can identify, analyze, and manage emerging problems in the

community. It is important to mention that OPD also participates and utilizes data information

from the Uniform Crime Reports (UCR). On the other hand, OPD does not participate in

programs like the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) which was created as an

enhancement to the UCR program and was developed as an incident based reporting system for

reporting offenses and arrests. I would have to say there is not a single program out there that it

doesn’t have its flaws. Police statistics are no exception, one of the major problems with police

data involve variation in citizen reporting and police recording practices. However, even with

major problems with police data, I would have to argue that utilizing ILP has proven to be on

some level useful for my agency.

Recently, the City of Oceanside has experienced a rise in property crimes which makes

crime rates increased. The increase in crime rates is problematic for law enforcement leaders and

politicians as they have to explain to the community as to why there is an upsurge in crime. To

grasp a better handle on rising crime around the city, OPD has a full-time in-house Crime and

Intelligence Analyst Unit that receives raw data analyzes it, and shares the intelligence in-house

as well as with other surrounding agencies to target approach to crime control. The Crime and

Intelligence Analyst Unit is responsible for publishing crime trends, officer safety bulleting’s and

sharing information from other neighboring agencies. We often get weekly crime trends which

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identify the crime trends and the locations. It’s even broken down to comparisons from previous

months/years to even the days and times of the week in which the crimes are committed. Finally,

Crime and Intelligence Analyst unit can produce a list of possible persons of interest base on the

location, raw information received, and prior crime spree. Below is an example of last week’s

weekly crime trend and also crime stats from the current year as a comparison from the previous

year statistics.

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OPD also utilizes the intelligence-led policing data available from ARJIS to not only

identify problem locations but also to develop a strategic plan to combat the issues both short and

long term. According to the ARJIS website, ARJIS was created as a Joint Power Agency to share

information among justice agencies throughout San Diego and Imperial Counties. ARJIS is

responsible for major safety initiatives, including wireless access to photos, warrants, and other

data in the field, crime and sex offender mapping, crime analysis tools evaluation, and an

enterprise system of applications that help users solve the crime and identify offenders. Below is

a chart from ARJIS Crime Statistics for the months of April 2016 to June 2016. In those three

months alone we can see that the total property crime was 1001 incidents. Compare to the

previous year in the same quarter the overall property crime was 1109. The central tendency for

the overall property crime for the months of April through June 2016 is as follow: The total sum

is 361, 321, and 319 equals 1001/3 equals to the mean of 333.66, and the median is at 321 cases.

These illustrate in comparison of the average to be slightly higher than the median.

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SANDAG can analyze raw data and produce reports on crime trends. The analyzed data

or intelligence is then made available for law enforcement agencies. SANDAG relies upon a

cooperative agreement with each local law enforcement agency. SANDAG collects the data from

each agency on a monthly basis. In the year 2013-2014 SANDAG analysis was that property

crimes decreased relatively consistent across the jurisdictions across San Diego County.

However, Oceanside was relatively stable or had a decrease in at least one category. The decrease

was larceny which measures according to the report petty and grand theft.

Intelligence-led policing is a crime fighting philosophy and is a new paradigm in law

enforcement. Intelligence-led policing is a more hierarchical and emphasizes from the top down

approach to law enforcement. In other words, criminal intelligence runs up to decision makers at

the executive level, who set priorities for enforcement and prevention, then passes back to the

lower levels of the organization for operational tasking. Concern about the utilization of the

intelligence-led policing for all of us in law enforcement is the abuse and misuse of criminal

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intelligence files. These were precedent in the 1950’s and 1960’s which resulted in government

legislation 28 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 23. An example of misuse of crime

reporting was done by the Atlanta Police Department when they downgraded violent crime right

before the Olympic Games of 1996. OPD is aware of privacy and abuse/misuse of information

that had been added to our policy and procedures which a violation can result in criminal

charges. To avoid the abuse of intelligence-led policing, I would implement a standardized

training for law enforcement for officers to avoid miss using the available intelligence as well as

to promote intelligence sharing among agencies.

When crime rates are on the rise, the first question from the community is to challenge

the police effectiveness. These are why it is important to understand that crime data are subject to

reliability and validity problems and are also subject to varying interpretations. Utilizing ILP is

no different. For instance, during the first quarter of 2016 Oceanside experienced an increase in

thefts from vehicles.  The problem coincided with the release of many non-violent offenders

through state initiatives such as AB-109 and Prop 47. By using ARJIS, SANDAG, and other

investigative tools, it became evident that the emerging crime trend was linked to an organized

theft ring operating in the downtown area of Oceanside. Part of the department-wide strategy

entailed providing Patrol and specialized investigative units with detailed information on a

weekly basis of known offenders (criminal history and their associates, recent addresses) and hot

spots. 

The effectiveness of utilizing ILP has yielded positive results because information

sharing has proven to be efficient and thefts from vehicles dropped 30% citywide in Feb and

March and 70% in the downtown area.  After attacking the source of the problem and arresting

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suspects, it became evident that thefts from vehicles decreased. The proactive efforts are still

ongoing, but this showcases the value of intelligence-led policing. 

Effectiveness is measured and determined by the reduction of theft from vehicles in

Oceanside. The decrease in theft from vehicles is the collaboration of active and proactive efforts

from ILP. Other data analysis programs would have been less effective because of the way each

data analysis program is designed. For example, the Uniform Crime Report gathers data on a

voluntary basis. These means that agencies can choose to omit information that may increase

crime rates in their jurisdictions. The National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS), self-

reporting studies and victimization surveys also have conceptual and methodological problems

by the way the raw data is created. NIBRS is an extension to the UCR, which creates problems

because the vast majority of states do not take part in the program. These leaves a huge gap of

data that is missing. Both the self-reporting studies and victimization surveys also display a lack

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assurance because the surveys only measure a percentage of the population and leave out people

under 12, homicide victims, businesses, and individuals, not in a household.

In conclusion, a new paradigm shift in law enforcement is intelligence-led policing. As

law enforcement leaders, it is important to be able to gather raw information, being able to

analyze the information correctly and produce accurate intelligence is vital in curbing crime and

apprehending criminals. Being able to utilize any ILP data successfully can assist those agencies

and their communities in the reduction of crime. An importance characteristic to take away from

using ILP is being able to identify, analyze, and manage emerging problems in the community.

Additionally, being able to share the information effectively would make it more useful in

targeting criminals and hot spots. By doing so, the trust and transparency with the community

would be evident.

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References:

http://www.sandag.org/uploads/publicationid/publicationid_2020_20533.pdf

http://crimestats.arjis.org/Default.aspx

https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/bja/210681.pdf

Mullen, Marivi (2016). Crime Analyst Interview. Oceanside Police Department.

August 15, 2016.  

Mosher, C., Miethe, T., & T. Hart. (2011). The Mismeasure of Crime, 2nd edition. Los

Angeles, CA: Sage. Print ISBN: 9781412981811. Online ISBN: 9781483349497.

http://www.arjis.org/SitePages/WhatIsARJIS.aspx

http://www.sandag.org/uploads/publicationid/publicationid_2020_20533.pdf

http://crimestats.arjis.org/Default.aspx

http://www.patc.com/weeklyarticles/intelligence_policing.shtml

https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/bja/210681.pdf