The Case of National Intelligence Model in the UK

In the UK, the National Intelligence Model was introduced in 2000 to focus on how intelligence is used and where it is sourced. According to John and Maguire [32], NIM provides a cohesive intelligence framework across the full range of levels of criminality and disorder. NIM has inspired intelli- gence strategy in many countries, such as the Police Intelligence Model in Sweden [110] and the National Strategy for Intelligence and Analysis in Norway [109].

NIM is a model for policing which should ensure that information is fully researched, developed, and analyzed to provide intelligence. Intelli- gence enables senior managers to provide strategic direction, make tacti- cal resource decisions about operational policing, and manage risk. The model works at three levels: (1) local/basic command unit, (2) force and/or regional, and (3) serious and organized crime that is usually national or international.

The organization of information within NIM starts with the creation of a strategic assessment. The strategic assessment identifies issues that are likely to affect service delivery. All partners within crime and disor-

der reduction partnerships in England commit resources and coordinate activity to deal with those issues. An accurate and thorough assessment will allow managers to make informed decisions about service delivery, which will assist them in achieving performance targets [162].

The national intelligence model in the UK by which the Norwegian strategy was stimulated, is a business model for law enforcement. It became the policy of the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), and many

forces underwent major restructuring and were allocated new resources in order to implement it. NIM takes an intelligence-led approach to policing. The UK government acknowledged its benefits, and all forces in Englan- dand Wales were required to implement NIM to national minimum stan- dards from 2004.

NIM consists of nine individual elements as follows [207].

(1) Crime Pattern Analysis is a generic term for a number of related analytical disciplines such as crime, or incident series identification, crime trend analysis, hot spot analysis, and general profile analysis. (2) Market Profile is an assessment, continually reviewed and updated,

82 Knowledge Management in Policing such as drugs or stolen vehicles, or of a service, such as prostitution, in an area.

(3) Demographic/Social Trend Analysisis centered on an examination of the nature of demographic changes and their impact on criminality, as well as on the deeper analysis of social factors such as unemploy- ment and homelessness, which might underlie changes or trends in offenders or offending behavior.

(4) Criminal Business Profilecontains detailed analysis of how criminal operations or techniques work, in the same way the legitimate busi- nesses may be explained.

(5) Network Analysisdescribes not just the ulinkages between people who form criminal networks, but also the significance of the ulinks, the roles played by individuals and the strengths and weaknesses of a criminal organization.

(6) Risk Analysisassesses the scale of risks posed by individual offenders

or organizations to individual potential victims, the public at large, and also to law enforcement agencies.

(7) Target Profile Analysis embraces a range of analytical techniques, which aim to describe the criminal, his or her criminal activity, lifestyle, associations, the risk the person poses, and personal strengths and weaknesses in order to give focus to the investigation targeting each person.

(8) Operational Intelligence Assessmentmaintains the focus of an opera- tion on the previously agreed objectives, particularly in the case of a sizeable intelligence collection plan or other large scale operation. (9) Results Analysisevaluates the effectiveness of law enforcement activi-

ties, for example the effectiveness of patrol strategies, crime reduction

initiatives or a particular method of investigation.

Element 4 in NIM is of particular interest when focusing on crimi- nal organizations. This element acknowledges the enterprise paradigm of organized crime, where legal and illegal businesses share some common features. A criminal business profile might focus on primary and secondary activities of criminal organizations similar to non-criminal organizations. The profile might examine all aspects of activities, such as how victims are selected, the technical processes involved in the crimes, methods of removing, disposing of or laundering proceeds, and weaknesses in systems or procedures that the criminal business exploits. Similarly, element 5 sup- ports the enterprise paradigm for criminal organizations.

Element 3 in NIM is often concerned with designing geo-demographic classification. Geo-demographics is a field of study, which involves the

classification of persons according to the type of neighborhood in which they live. As a method of segmenting people it has long been of value to direct marketers who, being often unable to identify the age, marital status or occupational status of people in mailing lists, found it a useful means of applying selectivity to their mail shots. By analyzing the behavioral characteristics of consumers in different types of neighborhoods they

found they could improve business performance by targeting promo- tional activities to names and addresses failing within specific types of postcode [177].

There will be variation in the extent of implementation from police district to police district. This variation is explained in the research model by three factors: national agency support, local police readiness, and envi- ronmental support. The unit of analysis is the police district, implying that there will be variation in support from the national agency to different

police districts.

As this research is conceptual, future research may empirically test the research model by testing the three research hypotheses.

4.4. The Case of National Strategy for Intelligence and