Author : D. Jackson Sargent
Publisher :
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 17,91 MB
Release : 2021
Category : Crime prevention
ISBN :
The terrorist attacks perpetrated against the United States on September 11, 2001 (9/11) led to the development and continued expansion of the homeland security enterprise in America, placing new demands on law enforcement agencies to take part in a national and global network of data collection, analysis, and dissemination for the purposes of preventing crime and terrorism. The establishment of strategic partnerships among law enforcement and intelligence agencies at all levels of government, the private sector, and the public was necessitated by these new information-sharing responsibilities. Although some police departments had already been collaborating with external partners since the community policing era in America that began in the 1980s, for many agencies this function was new. While the 9/11 terrorist attacks contributed to a shift toward intelligence-based policing operations, this approach, in varying forms and fashions, was employed in the United Kingdom and in a limited number of American agencies prior to 2001. Infusing intelligence into traditional policing methods occurred in response to the growing need to solve community problems by developing effective partnerships, building and maintaining a culture of awareness, keeping up with technological advancements, shifting to a proactive style of policing, and frequently operating with limited access to the resources (Ratcliffe, 2002, 2016). Thus, intelligence-led policing (ILP) operations extend to all crimes, even if terror-related activities and other crimes are not mutually exclusive.An effective ILP program requires a cooperative and decentralized intelligence-sharing structure that operates across jurisdictions to bring together the full complement of expertise of the nation's numerous federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies. This shift requires organizational, operational, and cultural change for many agencies, and expanded traditional relationship-building efforts to include external partners in the gathering and sharing of information to carry out proactive policing strategies. The emergence of ILP in the United States occurred first in larger metropolitan areas but smaller cities and even rural agencies have since adopted this approach.This paper provides an evaluation and review of the existing academic literature related to the ILP model, its origins, its challenges, and its application to small and rural police departments. The paper begins with a discussion on defining intelligence, its distinction from raw information, the different types of intelligence, and how intelligence is used in practice. This is followed by an historical overview of ILP, its roots in earlier policing models such as problem-oriented policing, community-oriented policing, and CompStat, and the shift toward intelligence sharing in the post-9/11 policing environment. With the foundational components of ILP addressed, the discussion then shifts to implementation challenges with focus on three prevalent issues. These issues include responding to public concerns regarding the protection of civil liberties and privacy rights amid regulatory changes that have enabled or enhanced information gathering efforts, building community trust and enhancing police legitimacy, and developing effective public-private partnerships. The concluding section addresses the implementation of ILP in small towns and rural communities and presents the findings of a pre-implementation survey conducted by a small Midwestern police department in its early and ongoing efforts to employ ILP to address targeted community concerns.