CRIMINAL INTELLIGENCE

Criminal Intelligence in Criminal Investigations

Criminal Intelligence in Criminal Investigations

Introduction

Criminal intelligence involves gathering information about actual as well as possible criminal activity and threats to an organization and its assets. Whereas business intelligence typically refers to information about competitors gathered legally, criminal intelligence focuses on the activities of individual criminals and organized criminal groups. Security personnel gather criminal intelligence information as part of risk assessment and analysis designed to prevent the criminal threat from materializing. Paramount among the criminal threats to information assets is the threat of industrial espionage. This paper discusses the employment of criminal intelligence in criminal investigations.

Discussion

Criminal investigation is the scientific collection, examination and preservation of evidence. Because it is a costly and resource-intensive procedure, a thorough investigation cannot be applied to all reported crimes. Hence, the strategic categories of 'volume' and 'serious crime' are used to determine where and how investigation resources are allocated. (Bureau of Justice Assistance, 2010)

Crime management 'desks' receive reports of volume crime (some with little prospect of detection) by telephone, thus gathering crime pattern intelligence that may inform subsequent investigation strategy if patterns of offending are identified and attributed to identifiable suspects. This is not intended to minimize the importance of such crimes, particularly to the victims, but necessarily focuses efforts where success is most likely to be achieved. Criminal investigation management can be divided into six generic determinants. Intelligence-led policing, expressed theoretically in the National Intelligence Model (NIM), is used to determine which crimes should be investigated (and by whom) or whether other interventions are more suitable. Since there is rarely an option not to investigate serious crime, in reality the NIM process articulates how volume crime investigation can be accommodated with the investigation of serious crime. The wider concept of knowledge-based policing redirects NIM application away from merely delivering volume crime performance targets back to the original concept of informing a holistic approach to policing. (Ratcliffe, 2009)

The next determinant is the statutory framework of investigative powers, which can be divided into pre-arrest and post-arrest investigation. Human rights law overarches both these phases, protecting citizens from abuse of state power and reinforcing proportionality decisions about which investigative techniques can be appropriately applied in which investigations. The most intrusive tactics and techniques available to investigators are reserved for only the most serious crimes, and then only when appropriate (proportionate) in the circumstances. (Clark, 2009)

Managing evidence acquired through investigative authority, citizens' co-operation and coercive powers involves, in major inquiries, mechanisms to understand and act on large volumes of evidence (which in turn determine further lines of inquiry); procedures to ensure the safeguarding and forensic examination of exhibits for use at trial; and the disclosure of all relevant material to the defence in order to ensure fairness of the trial procedure.

Closely connected with the securing of evidence is the management of the key resources of skills and staff. Relatively minor volume crime is unlikely to require enhanced detective skills, yet criminal investigation is an increasingly skilled profession and the requirement for ...