View
2
Download
0
Category
Preview:
Citation preview
INTELLIGENCE-LED POLICING FINAL PAPER1
INTELLIGENCE-LED POLICING FINAL PAPER
Jose Gomez
University of San Diego
Community Assessment
August 22, 2016
Professor Blondi
2
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.
3
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
4
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.
5
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.
6
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
7
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
8
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
9
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.
10
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
Recommended