Intelligence-Led Policing

Modern law enforcement agencies are tasked with reducing crime and the fear of crime. Law enforcement agencies have utilized several policing strategies over the years, such as a community and problem oriented policing, to reduce crime. These strategies are still being utilized today, but there has been a shift in policing strategies that includes intelligence-led policing, which is a management model and philosophy that affords police administrators the opportunity to utilize intelligence information to guide police resource deployments with a goal of being more efficient. Law enforcement should utilize intelligence-led policing because it has the responsibility of controlling crime by priority setting and strategic planning. The objective of this research is to explore the intelligence-led policing strategy and methods to assist the decision making of police leaders involved in controlling crime. This paper explores the use of intelligence-led policing as a strategic planning tool in the fight against organized crime that crosses jurisdictional boundaries. It argues that through the implementation of an intelligence-led policing model, law enforcement agencies can fully take advantage of the availability of tools, such as crime mapping resources. To do this, crimes analysts map and analyze crime incident patterns to identify crime hot spots, along with other trends and patterns, so police administrators can make informed decisions when deploying resources and disrupt criminal activities. The intelligence-led policing strategy also encourages targeting offenders, utilizing informants, and sharing of criminal intelligence amongst law enforcement agencies of partner agencies through email investigator groups and monthly meetings, which will have a significant impact on crime reductions.