Where's the Intelligence in the National Intelligence Model?

Abstract

This dissertation will investigate the status of community intelligence within The National Intelligence Model (NIM) in order to explore the interrelationship between intelligence-led policing being adopted throughout the United Kingdom, together with the drive to improve the relationship between the police and the public. The aim of this work has been to research how intelligence is being defined within NIM, how community intelligence is both perceived and used by practitioners, and to draw conclusions from the tensions between these two competing constructs. The study included focused interviews with 23 practitioners working within analysis and intelligence throughout the UK police service.This was combined with open-ended interviews with academics and persons working to implement NIM, and the use of secondary data to ensure reliability and validity.The results suggest that although there is a written statement within the NIM manual to focus on community issues within a NIM structure, this is not how it is working in practice.The study found that police officers and informants were the most trusted and the most used sources of intelligence, and that the use of community intelligence was marginal. A combination of police culture, lack of knowledge amongst police managers and officers, the absence of a general definition of 'intelligence', a lack of guidance around community intelligence and the secrecy surrounding intelligence, stand out as factors that may explain the minor use of community intelligence, the latter being essential if the intention is to prioritise issues like community safety and quality of life within NIM. 3/77 Acknowledgements

Forward to the past: reinventing intelligence-led policing in Britain

“…However, some commentators (including Kleiven, 2006 andMaguire 2004) have argued that the NIM, lauded as the mechanism through which ILP would be integrated within the culture of all forces, has had little meaningful impact on operational practice. My own research tended to support that view.…”

Complex Threats

“…42 To add to this, NIM has faced tremendousobstacles in integrating the various police forces around Britain to dealeffectively with common problems. 43 The formation of HM Revenue and Customs in 2005, and the subsequent 2008 spin-off of the UK Borders Agency, has been marked by major internal culture clashes and operational difficulties. 44 Of Britain's security infrastructure, only the Joint Intelligence Committee structure serves as an outstanding example of inter-agency co-operation.…”

The organization of 'organized crime policing' and its international context

“…The conceptualization of the relationship between knowledge and intelligence enjoys no consensus (Dean and Gottschalk, 2007;Ratcliffe, 2008). Turning rhetoric into practice, regardless of premise, is not unproblematic (Ratcliffe, 2002;Kleiven, 2007;Kleiven and Harfield, 2008;Ridley, 2008). Dysfunctional, counter-productive organizational pathologies within policing intelligence systems (Sheptycki, 2004) 'undermine the credibility and the efficaciousness of the entire enterprise even while they feed on the increasing sense of panic' (Sheptycki, 2007a: 74) in what he describes as the 'paradox of the security control society'.…”