Intelligence-led policing in practice

• In Event: POLWG Panel 28. Innovating Criminal Justice? AI and cultural sensitivity training for Interviews, Suspect Rights, and Intelligence-led policing

Abstract

Since 2016, intelligence has been a central part of the police's knowledge-based approach to crime prevention and serves as a management model for directing and prioritizing police efforts. Intelligence is defined in the police intelligence doctrine as a guided process consisting of the systematic collection, analysis, and assessment of information about individuals, groups, and phenomena to form the basis for decision-making (POD, 2020a). However, the standardization of knowledge processes says little about how these processes materialize in practice. The police are a complex organization with various departments and functions that together fulfill the police's societal mandate. What they all have in common, however, is the importance of having knowledge about crime to effectively combat it and, ideally, stay ahead of it (POD, 2020b). Nevertheless, there is significant variation in how different departments work with intelligence in practice.

The doctoral project therefore examines how intelligence practices unfold in different parts of the organization and is based on over 500 hours of field observations in police patrols, specialized units, management departments, and intelligence sections. Using organizational theory perspectives, the research project seeks to understand the norms, values, and practices internalized by the different actors within the police being studied. Furthermore, the project investigates how these actors perceive, interpret, and shape intelligence based on pre-existing standardized patterns of organizational behavior.

The data collection phase of the project has been completed, and the analysis of the data material is underway. In the presentation of the research project, some of these perspectives will be introduced and discussed in light of organizational theory perspectives, with examples from the fieldwork.

Author

• Erik Reikrås, Norwegian Police University College