What Is Intelligence-led Policing?

Intelligence-led policing originated in Britain in the 1990s, and has gained considerable momentum globally following the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States. It is now advocated by the leading police associations in North America and the UK.

Intelligence-led policing was originally articulated as a law enforcement operational strategy that sought to reduce crime through the combined use of crime analysis and criminal intelligence in order to determine crime reduction tactics that concentrate on the enforcement and prevention of criminal offender activity, with a focus on active and recidivist offenders. This approach emphasizes information gathering through the extensive use of confidential informants, offender interviews, analysis of recorded crime and calls for service, surveillance of suspects, and community sources of information. These sources are analyzed so that law enforcement managers can determine objective policing tactics in regard to enforcement targets, prevention activities and further intelligence gathering operations.

Intelligence-led policing is philosophically closest to problem-oriented policing, yet is distinct from it in different ways. Problem-oriented policing emphasizes the tackling of underlying problems that cause crime, problems that are identified and deciphered through effective crime analysis. Intelligence-led policing similarly defines a strong role for analysis, establishing it as the basis for decision-making that follows. Criminal intelligence flows up to decision-makers at the executive level, who set priorities for enforcement and prevention and pass these down to lower levels of the organization as operational taskings.

Intelligence-led policing also retains differences with community policing. Where community policing emphasizes policing to the needs and the desires of the local community, intelligence-led policing is a process whereby strategy and priorities are determined through a more objective analysis of the criminal environment. As such, it is possible that crime reduction priorities can differ from the needs of the community as perceived by local people. For example, local community groups may indicate to community officers that they are concerned about local youths hanging out on a street corner, but may be unaware that an organized crime gang operates in the same neighborhood. Objective analysis of the criminal environment may suggest to police managers that the organized crime group is a more pressing priority. Community input, while often sought, is therefore not necessarily a dominant information source or policy determinant for intelligence-led policing.

It is too early to pass judgment on the crime reduction benefits of intelligence-led policing, as long-term studies of police forces that have fully implemented and adopted intelligence-led policing have yet to be conducted. In the UK, some recent studies have identified implementation problems associated with intelligence-led policing in police forces. These problems include technical, organizational and cultural factors that are inhibiting a rapid adoption of intelligence-led policing. For example, the strategy emphasizes both horizontal and vertical information and intelligence sharing among police agencies so that executive decision-makers can establish objective crime reduction policies, but this approach is being implemented into a policing environment that has traditionally rewarded individual (not shared) knowledge of the criminal world, knowledge often used to effect arrests without thought to any longer-term crime reduction strategy.

There have also been concerns in regard to the adoption of a strategy that places greater emphasis on the use of confidential informants and surveillance. While policing has a long tradition of using informants, questions have been raised about their increased use both in terms of the financial benefits of using paid informants and in regard to the moral and legitimacy issues for police services.

Increased use of surveillance, while not only potentially expensive, has also been questioned because some people view this as an intrusive and excessive tactic for the government to employ against (often minor) offenders. In both these cases it can be argued that these objections stem from a misunderstanding of the difference between the tactics used to gather information, and intelligence-led policing: a management strategy used to determine priorities and police activity.

Слова к тексту 4:

1. to originate [əˊrɪʤɪneɪt] - возникать

2. to gain considerable momentum - получить значительный импульс

3. to advocate [ˊædvəkeɪt] - поддерживать, отстаивать

4. to combine - соединять, объединять

5. criminal intelligence - сбор оперативной информации

6. to emphasize [ˊempfəsaɪz] - придавать особое значение,

подчеркивать

7. an extensive use - широкое применение

8. in regard to - в отношении, что касается

9. target [ˊta:gɪt] - цель, задание

10. tackling of underlying problems - взяться за решение основных проблем

11. to decipher [dɪˊsaɪfə] - расшифровывать, разбирать

12. executive level - руководящий уровень

13. to set priorities [praɪˊɔrɪtɪz] - установить приоритеты

14. operational taskings - оперативные задачи

15. to perceive [pəˊsi:v] - воспринимать

16. policy determinant [dɪˊtə:mɪnənt] - фактор, определяющий

политику

17. to implement - выполнять, осуществлять

18. to inhibit - препятствовать, сдерживать

19. financial benefits [faɪˊnænʃəl] - финансовая выгода

20. legitimacy [lɪˊʤɪtɪməsɪ] - законность

21. an intrusive and excessive [ɪnˊtru:sɪv ənd ɪkˊsesɪv] - назойливый и чрезмерный

22. surveillance [sə:ˊveɪləns] - надзор, слежка, наблюдение

 

УПРАЖНЕНИЯ

Упражнение 1. Работая в парах, отредактируйте полученный компьютерный вариант перевода, используя свой самостоятельный перевод текста и словарь.

Упражнение 2. Объясните, как вы понимаете следующие слова и выражения:

a law enforcement operational strategy; crime reduction tactics; confidential informants; surveillance; community sources of information; to set priorities for enforcement and prevention; criminal environment; neighbourhood; a dominant information source; executive decision-makers; longer-term crime reduction strategy; the financial benefits; misunderstanding.