How law enforcement leaders can change and adopt a policy for intelligence led policing to better secure our nation. by John B.

Transcription

1 How law enforcement leaders can change and adopt a policy for intelligence led policing to better secure our nation by John B. Edwards As early as 1962 President John F. Kennedy saw a tremendous need to incorporate the role of local police into the national security strategic plan against the treat of communist insurgency within the United States. (Kennedy) The Warren commission after Kennedy s assignation called for federal agencies to work more closely with local law enforcement in sharing information. In 1973 for the first time National criminal justice standards and goals for crime reduction and prevention were put in place for state and local law enforcement, outlining and establishing intelligence gathering functions and operations. The Presidents commission on organized crime in 1987 found that there was a failure of law enforcement to generally understand the nature of the problem and by poor information sharing between law enforcement at all strata of government. (Carter) After the September 11 th attacks the Bush administration and congress recognized through the efforts of the 911 commission that the most serious weaknesses in agency capabilities were in the domestic arena. The FBI did not have the capability to link the collective knowledge of agents in the field to national priorities. Other domestic agencies deferred to the FBI. Further, the commission went on to note, the system of need information to know should be replaced with a system of need to share information. (National Commission) The 911 commission went on to say that the FBI represented a small fraction of the National law enforcement community and outlined the importance of reciprocal relationships where Federal, State and local agencies shared information. Many of the problems, issues and reforms from the 911 commission were those identified in previous commission reports over the previous forty years. (Carter)

2 After the attack in 911 the creation of the national criminal intelligence sharing plan in 2003 recommended that every police agency no matter what size have an intelligence component and share information. The plan went on to establish protocols, procedures and resources available to all agencies. (Department of Justice) ` President Obama notes in his National Security strategic plan the importance of efforts to prevent and deter attacks by identifying and interdicting threats at home. (Obama) Homeland security secretary Janet Napolitano has characterized partnerships between federal, state and local agencies as a high priority and particularly critical toward our national security. On October 12 th 2012, ten years after the 911 attacks the senate commission on homeland security and government affairs found that the United States does not have in place a fully functioning information sharing environment in place and that information sharing programs have been uneven across agency lines and have not been driven by a government wide vision of the authorities and constraints necessary to build an effective and trusted information sharing environment. (Budinger) Today like yesterday the majority of law enforcement remains deaf, dumb and blind due to the lack of resources, no required operational protocols and barriers to communications systems. The very nature of police work in the United States creates a terrific problem in unity of information and process. Unlike, many foreign countries the constitutional system in the U.S. was designed so that federal government may not directly control local law enforcements functions, thus the government must us other tools such as arrangements, grants or training to unify local and federal operations (Waxman) After 911 the justice department in conjunction with all major law enforcement organizations designed a broad plan leaving its implementation

3 up to each individual agency to implement in their own way. Many agencies designed, created and implemented a plan but failed to structure the interoperability with other agencies around them. Thus, many have a system to gather and store intelligence information, but few have a means to put it to utility within their own agencies or share it with others. Additionally, many agencies throughout the United States lack an intelligence capacity or the required technology to sustain such capacity (Clarke) Further, at the National level the department of homeland security poured money into the creation and construction of state fusion centers where analyst at the state level worked to outreach to gain, share and provide information and intelligence forecast. This top down approach was flawed because the entire strategy should have mandated a bottom up design to insure the capture and dissemination to the fusion process by all agencies throughout the individual states that had a more comprehensive and complete knowledge, ability and skill within the urban and rural environment. The fusion center would be best suited to provide policy, structure and networking. State and local officers are the frontline of defense in homeland security that federal officers relay upon. (Edwards) Terrorist are criminals first, they possess illegal guns and bombs and often rob, steal and commit fraud to gain their funding for murder. State and local officers are in the most advantageous position to detect their activities prior to an attack. (McCormack) The recent events at the Boston marathon and the weekend after demonstrate how important a policy to catch and connect the dots is to our safety and security. Local law enforcement cooperation, coordination and action certainly saved lives in New York. (Goodman) Law enforcement must change their way of doing business from a reactive call to service file away their report model to a proactive, intelligence led share the report model.

4 Everyone agrees the world is different, the end of the cold war brought a certain disorder from order on who was bad and who was good and what rules were followed. The middle east struggle between radical Islam and democracy after decades of dictatorships or monarchy s have developed a hot bed of radicalization of ideas, the Arab spring of 2011 and the current civil war in Syria demonstrate the struggles afoot in that tension filled part of the world. At home our heated debate over the haves versus have nots has potential to cause trouble at any time due the emotions and passions from polarized groups of people on both sides. From the tea party philosophy, occupy Wall Street movement, anti abortion radicals to sovereign citizen fundamentalist these groups legally express their beliefs and opinions as speech but become dangerous when their rhetoric escalates and translates into criminal conduct. America has become so very passionate regarding political views and beliefs that such has led to these radical factions on both sides having the potential to resort to violent acts upon our own communities. Until 911 the worst act of terrorism in the country was in Oklahoma City by our own citizens. The question becomes, what have the police done to proactively adapt to this change? Have the police seen it, recognized the impacts and effects, and do they possess a means to manage it in a police context? Moreover, have the Police captured the tactics and strategies to develop and implement policy to promote public safety and security in the new 21 st century landscape? City limits and County lines are great for the levy of taxes and voting in an election, but in today s world they have become a barrier toward police communications and coordination. The very nature of communication and the labor intensive methods and manners of its mediums have been simplified by technologies, but police continue to be stalled or missed by a culture

5 resistant to change. Whether lack of time and resources, ego, ignorance or grudges from past relationships is the cause most agencies fail to create and sustain an environment of outreach, communication, cooperation and coordination. One s turf tends to stand in the way of progressive outreach and networking among others. Central to understanding of this paradigm shift is the mobilization of our society, the reductions of geographic limitations by the technological footprints left during travel. Moreover, the ideas, motives, methods and manners of those who choose to violate law are become consistent because of the real time sharing of illegal strategies and tactics with each other through virtual networks. This body of information or Cyber School for criminals affects every jurisdiction. Thus, it becomes so important for the police to have the benefit of proactive intelligence information to mitigate these threats that spread at lightning speed throughout our Country. Police leadership must cause and sustain change to educate, train and reshape law enforcement culture to be more proactive than reactive. Agency members must be required and held accountable to following protocols designed to facilitate Cooperation and communication. Structured procedures and networks must be designed to insure seamless and real time sharing of information. In today s world of law enforcement there are two types of agencies, those that report crime and those that investigate crime. The reporting agency takes the information, documents a report and files it away then waits for the next call. The investigating agency gathers information, makes independent efforts to find additional facts, identify any suspects and put plans in place to mitigate future crimes. Excuses are made by reporting agencies regarding

6 lack of resources and time. When in most cases the real issue is the culture of the agency framed and sustained from a lack of leadership. This illustrates the importance for Police leadership to facilitate change now. Leadership must create systems to support a strategy based upon new policy for the most important components of police work, uniformed patrol, Detectives/Investigators and a dedicated analytical (intelligence analyst position) component. A new paradigm must be created, driven by an intelligence led policing policy and sustained through modern forward thinking leaders. This policy begins with the uniformed street officer being given purpose for every patrol. These first line centurions must be given real time and meaningful data and information where they can connect the dots regarding the criminal environment. They must be given the tools they need for critical thinking and situational awareness in every patrol shift they work. Moreover, they must know what happened on any shift before. Every patrol must be made meaningful based upon possessing information and tactics to prevent, disrupt and reduce crime. Order, framing and focus must be put forth to give efficacy to every shift. Further, systems must be in place to capture their knowledge, observations and opinions regarding what they learn on every shift. Properly trained, proactively supervised and given a simple way to disseminate information these officers feel the pulse of their communities and have many sources of information. Over the years law enforcement policy makers have seen and learned the value and experienced the efficacy of police and citizen interaction for the purpose of gaining information and collaborating together toward certain goals. This process is the highest and best way to possess the eyes and ears of the community and use them toward securing our Country.

7 Detectives and investigators must evolve from reactive investigation and follow up, to proactive scanning for criminal and/or order maintenance threats. Once a threat is identified investigators must probe to find methods and manners to develop tactics [short term] and strategies [long term] to mitigate the threat. This proactive mindset to work a case before it happens versus after it has happen is a behavioral shift. In today s investigations the examination of one memory card from one smart phone can produce very detailed information regarding attitudes, beliefs, contacts, relationships, conduct and behavior in minutes that traditionally took teams of detectives days of detailed interviews and interrogations to gather. Therefore, training and team efforts are required to move investigators and detectives to a new level of competence. Policy must dictate additional training regarding current technologies and their utility and application. The video cameras and cell phones in the Boston marathon case were of tremendous value in the identification and apprehension of the terrorist. More often than not, detectives and investigators possess valuable pieces of information that when known to uniformed patrol takes on new meaning and become important toward the identification and apprehension of criminals. Unfortunately, this information is rarely shared. Proactive systems are rarely in place to gather, assess and disseminate the information. Many law enforcement agencies throughout our country do not make an analytical component a policy priority. Further, they do not even make communication between each other a priority. Law enforcement executives throughout the Country must aggressively change the history of building castles and digging motes when they become in charge to a practice of building bridges and developing partnerships there is wisdom not weakness in collaborating together for a common cause. Old culture must give way to the new. With partnerships come

8 relationships then trust and with trust come seamless paths for communication and resource allocation. Agency leaders that refuse to evolve and change the old habits of territoriality and holding information to a more progressive intelligence policy will be operational and politically liable, because their inaction makes us all vulnerable. Their blindness to the demands of today s requirements is a recipe for disaster that the public will hold them accountable. Such illustrates why the policy of a dedicated analytical component is so important and would make the law enforcement agency far more effective and efficient and better able to prevent, disrupt and eliminate acts of terror. The analytical intelligence component must be incorporated into all agencies to be a conduit for information exchange and intelligence product production. A dedicated intelligence analyst position or responsibility trained in federal intelligence information privacy rules and supported with a specific privacy policy is of paramount importance. (Bureau of Justice Assistance) This position must be a hybrid by design incorporating crime intelligence [information and data] and crime analysis [Reported crime and its methods, manner and locations] into one function. This provides a total picture and connects the crimes to funding or activities of terrorist. The analyst position must be a central clearing house for the collection and dissemination of information. Further, so much open source information is available on the internet, blogs and social networking sites that a person skilled in data mining and internet inquiry is needed to compliment more traditional data bases and information records systems. Today s analyst requirements require a different focus than the traditional investigative research

9 and support. Today s analysts must examine data and develop information to drive police operations. The analyst should be responsible to provide credible information and data to the law enforcement command staff for making decisions based upon the information rather than just history and experience. History and experience are useful in making decisions, but without current, credible and meaningful information they often result in unintended consequences or failures. Information is the key to successful decision making, formulation of strategy and implementation of tactics. Moreover, information molds and shapes sound policy and procedure, which when trained upon and enforced is the single most proactive measure of stellar police management and leadership. Once these strategies are in place and functioning well the analyst must be tied into a larger system and network that will insure the information is disseminated to all other law enforcement stakeholders in a structured and timely manner where information can be shared and compared to other issues, incidents or events that may become meaningful to other police investigations. These measures must be built upon documented procedures and operational redundancy to insure consistent and complete information sharing. The policy of using modern technologies to promote this information sharing will be essential toward success, here it will all come together with street officers, detectives, investigators from local, state and federal jurisdictions to create an environment of awareness and vigilance. This modern policy of information and data sharing will not happen unless leadership demands and requires such change and provides a framework to facilitate the cooperation communication and coordination. Then, the leadership must manage to incorporate the change

10 into the culture of the agency. Once the agency has changed and brought into an intelligence led management practice, then the leadership must tear down territorial walls and aggressively outreach to all other agencies to corporately form the collaborations needed to design and create communication paths to travel at all levels internally and externally to all agencies involved. The police are being scrutinized regarding their policies and performance more than ever before in today s adverse and competitive budget environment. The competent leader knows that they must evolve with their environment or be doomed to adverse consequences. Innovation and performance are key factors for survival today and tomorrow. Eric Hoffer once said In a time of drastic change it is the learners who inherit the future failure to learn to change with everything around us will result in leadership change and loss of agency credibility. We must catch up now to live up to the future. The overriding goal of every law enforcement agency should be to prevent, mitigate or eliminate crime and disorder and preserve the public s safety. Homeland security is the integral product of that goal, a key step in achieving that goal is winning the hearts and minds of every Sheriff and Chief to improving relations between themselves and state and federal partners to provide the leadership to facilitate intelligence led policing and homeland security strategies. (Stewart) We must create the policy to promote and enhance these important efforts throughout our country. Timothy McAhiegh, Eric Rudolph and Dzhokarhar Tsarnaez all share the fate of what can occur when State and local law enforcement come together with Federal law enforcement agencies in a meaningful way through the sharing of information. McAhiegh was stopped by an alert State trooper after the Oklahoma City bombing, Rudolph after years of evading one of the largest fugitive task forces in U.S. history was caught

11 by a alert young rookie City Police officer and most recently the efforts of officers of Watertown Police with the disruption of the Tsarnaez brothers attempt at a second target for terrorism in New York. Intelligence-led policing is a business model and managerial philosophy where data analysis and crime intelligence are pivotal to an objective, decision-making framework that facilitates crime and problem reduction, disruption and prevention through both strategic management and effective enforcement strategies that target prolific and serious offenders. (Ratcliff) This business model and managerial philosophy must be incorporated and become culture for every agency. When established and linked with all other local, State and Federal agencies the fusion process becomes meaningful and complete. Intelligence led policing philosophy is central to incorporate throughout our Country at all levels in all agencies to promote best practice and achieve best results toward our safety. Our National security begins with our homeland security through a policy to create awareness and proactive means to gather the dots, share the dots and then collect them. Without intelligence led policing philosophy mandated by national policy for every agency to work with every agency we are doomed to repeat the failures of the past.

12 Works Cited Budinger, Baird and Jeffrey H. Smith. Ten Years Afer 9/11: A Status Report on Information Sharing. Senate Committee on Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Bureau of Justice Assistance. 28 CFR Part Carter, David. Brief Hisory of Law Enforcement Intelligence: Past Practice and Recommendations for Change. Trends in Organized Crime. Vol. 8 (3) Clarke, Ronald and Graeme Newman. Police and the Prevention of Terrorism. Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice Vol 1 (1) Department of Justice. The National Criminal Intelligence Sharing Plan. Global Justice Information Sharing Initiative Edwards, John. Police Practice. FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin. Vol 81 (6) Goodman, J. David. 2 Tied to Boston Bombings talked of Times Sq. Attack, Officials Say. New York Times Kennedy, John F. National Security Action Memorandum No McCormack, William. State and Local Law Enforcement Contributions to Terrorism Prevention. FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States. Executive Summary. The 9/11 Commission Report Obama. Barack. National Security Strategy Plan Ratcliffe, JH (2008) 'Intelligence-Led Policing' (Willan Publishing: Cullompton, Devon). Stewart, Daniel and Robert Morris. A New Era of Policing? : An Examination of Texas police Chiefs Perceptions of Homeland Security. Criminal Justice Policy Review

13 Waxman, Matthew. Police and National Security: American Local Law Enforcement and Counterterrorism After 9/11. Journal of National Security Law & Policy, Vol