Introduction
Analysis is one of the most effective tools available to support law enforcement agencies today. Data collection is worthless unless it is easily understood and has relevance to the case. Analysis of information provides the indicators of what one has and what is missing. Analysis ultimately organizes the information in a way that possibly leads to prosecutorial success. In order to achieve this significant outcome, Colorado State criminal investigation department (CID) plans to establish an analytical unit. The objective of this proposal is to formulate a new analytical unit in order to enhance and accelerate the process of intelligence data analysis. The analytical unit will also be resourceful to various administrative departments attached to this department including the patrol, detectives, investigation, supervisors, and command personnel. Significant roles that this analytical unit will play will include gathering and analyzing crucial intelligence data in order to facilitate the process of detecting criminals, their criminal activities, and criminal trends. With relevant information at hand, the department will be successful in formulating decisions in order to enhance short term and long-term improvement. Moreover, after establishing an analytical unit, relevant staffs will be recruited depending on the available fund. Significant information gathered by the team will be analyzed to assist in curbing the increasing trend of crime in the region. This proposal acts as a guide to other states and department that wish to establish their own analytical unit. It provides basic and relevant guidelines applicable to urban and rural areas. Establishment of a new analytical unit is a costly and complicated activity. Moreover, limited basic guidelines are available. Therefore, this proposal is relevant and applicable for the establishment of analytical units.
Mission, Goals, and Objectives
In this Analytical Unit, the main aims is to ensure that well-timed, precise and valuable analytical data is available in order to facilitate in the process of making significant decisions that will be supporting to the departments goals and objectives. In their main role, this Analytical Unit strives to ensure that there is a significant reduction in criminal occurrences while increasing the success likelihood without compromising the security of the involved staffs. In their training process, the staffs will be armed with the relevant knowledge, technique, and skills in order to ensure they can efficiently achieve their target mission.
The goals of Colorado Analytical Unit are as follows:
In reference to these goals, development of the objectives should emphasize on certain metrics targeted by the analytical unit. The measures of performance can be inclusive of: the outcome of the analytical work, fulfillment of target goals, return on investment and reduction in costs while maintaining the strategic plan.
Rules of Analysis within the Department
According to Al-Rashdan (2012), evidence is not intelligence. Reasonably, creation of the intelligence takes place with the help of analysis. Analysis is a value addition tool that develops meaning and importance of information in order to convert it into intelligence. When a department lacks an executive to cater for corporate intelligence efforts, the outcome of analysis may be irrelevant. The basis underlying principle states that the analysis should be valuable to the executive in order to facilitate towards decision-making process. Mere provision of information to the executive is undesirable; hence, an additional burden to the already available information that should be processed on daily.
A basic instrument for analytical unit is the European Conference on Information Retrieval (ECIR) list. This list contains the basic knowledge necessities for the board that facilitate the process of advancing the institution’s interests. In reference to the ECIR, the analytical staffs are capable of developing a plan for addressing questions.
Staffing
The employed staffs should have certain skills for the analytical unit to become successful. Moreover, these skills should be relevant and applicable to their roles. A characteristic analytical unit has a manager in charge of the analytical work. This manager is the head of the unit. This manager also prepares and presents reports to the Central Statistics Office (Lambert, 2010). In order to prevent overworking and underutilization of human resources, 10 to 15 unit analysts should work under this manager. In an ideal analytical unit, a manager should have vast experience of in analysis. This means that he or she should have worked previously as an intelligence unit analyst. On the other side, staffs in an analytical unit should incorporate varying experiences in intelligence, military services, federal law implementation, cyber security analysis, researchers, and data analysts. To qualify as an intelligence analyst, an individual should be a college graduate. Another requirement is specialization in analytical degree for a period of four years. Additional advanced degree qualifications and professional credentials act as an added advantage.
The main qualifications and personalities for a unit analysis should include; outstanding research and writing skills, progressive computer skills, creativeness, ability to work with minimal supervision, logical reasoning, perseverance, attention to specifics, ability to make reasonable decisions, and imaginative skills. Moreover, this analyst should have meticulous work code and ability of working on a task to successful accomplishment without frequent redirecting. They should have the ability of creating a sophisticated investigation strategy that will guide towards inquiry. They should acquire the information that will be resourceful for a certain investigation.
A unit analyst may either specialize in knowledge fields based on their previous skills or training. On the other side, some analysts may specialize in criminal, financial, resource, or practical defensive analysis. Alternatively, they should have purely demarcated or industry demarcated focus whereby they target certain criminals (Carter, 2005). For instance, an individual with cyber security analytical skills may target hackers that compromise government secret information.
In the process of recruiting unit analysts, Colorado Analytical Unit will draw focus to evaluation procedure that is corroborative with the performance, talents, and competences. In the interview process, potential recruits will be subjected to a reading test in order to assess their proficiency level and speed. The interview will also subject potential recruits to a writing examination in order to confirm that their qualifications agrees with their application details. Personality assessment also takes place with an aim of ensuring that applicants are equipped with the required qualities. Other significant tests include background assessment, and critical thinking tests (Kleiven, 2007).
Procedures
Colorado Analytical Unit will have to conduct its activities in such a way that it complies with the stipulated intelligence and investigation principles. The analytical unit significant activities will be inclusive of gathering data, evaluating, storing, analyzing, and disseminating.
Collection
In the process of analyzing intelligence information, the unit will come across various data. Data collection is the most comprehensive and work-stressing element of the intelligence. In the past, this activity has been the basis for intelligence. However, studies have established that data collection is worthless unless followed by an analytical and interpretation part (Johnson, 2013). However, the emerging laws continue to support an aspect of data analysis. In the process of data collection, the following activities are incorporated:
- Electronic surveillance
- Physical surveillance
- Secret or covert activities
- Publications (newspapers and internet)
Data Reception and Evaluation
Qualified analysts will enforce the following measures after receiving information in any format:
- Where possible, the analysts will evaluate the received data based on dependability of source and legitimacy. Because the evaluation process may not be accurate, the process of assessment must take place comprehensively in order to provide a guideline while referring to the same data. The analyst will then create a comprehensive record that will provide details on the information sources
- The confidential information gathered by the intelligence will remain a property of source organization. Such data and intelligences should be kept confidentially and should not be transferable to other agencies unless with full consent of the source agency.
- The first priority should be given to information that is vital to latest cases. The analysis will transfer such intelligence to appropriate investigators as soon as possible.
- The intelligence evidence for analysis will be assembled, and forwarded to certified agents within the shortest possible duration in order to reduce the investigation time.
Intelligence Collation
This is a crucial stage in the analysis process. This stage will entail scrutinizing the availed information in order to differentiate between necessary and insignificant information. This process also ensures that that arrangement of data takes place in a consistent manner. This implementation ensures that the analyst can ascertain the inherent relationship between various entities while revealing vital information. In modern intelligence, collation takes place by utilizing sophisticated databases with data-excavating abilities.
Designing database plays a critical role in the process of recovering and matching collected information. At this stage, the analytical unit will target computer software institutions to procure relevant data design software. However, the procured software will undergo modification in order to prevent hacking and malware attacks that may expose confidential intelligence information. Modification is also a way of ensuring that the software addresses certain law enforcement requirements. As a new department, Colorado Analytical Unit will initially procure the “off-the-self” design program as a way of avoiding unnecessary costs. The process of collation will also entail assessing the sourced data. This process ensures that the data is valid and reliable.
Analysis
This is the central role of the analytical unit. However, this process does not take place independent of other procedural steps. In Colorado Analytical Unit, the analysis process will involve the following significant activities:
- The data analysis staffs will establish and maintain a procedure as a way of ensuring that, after gathering the data, they subject it to evaluation and analysis. Using this approach, analysts will obtain relevant output.
- In the event where it is possible, a professionally trained analyst should undertake these activities.
- The analyst will obtain the intelligence information, assemble, and pass over to an approved law enforcers within a short duration in order to facilitate timely and appropriate enforcement.
Using the above analytical process, Colorado Analytical Unit will be able to transform the obtained information to intelligence. Without a comprehensive analysis process, the information obtained simply remains irrelevant. Therefore, the data analysis process will involve the synthesis of the data, development of inferences or conclusions, and recommendation on future moves in reference to the data and inferences. The following categories of data analysis will form the basis for Colorado unit activities:
- Crime analysis: This analysis will involve geographic analysis, crime pattern analysis, statistical analysis, behavioral analysis, distribution analysis, and time-series analysis.
- Network analysis: Activities under this category will include conversation analysis, business record analysis, bank record analysis, activity-flow analysis, and telephone record analysis.
- Strategic analysis: Risks assessments, susceptibility assessments, general evaluations, problem profiles, strategic targeting, and problem profiles.
Training
The training will vary depending to the position that an individual will hold in the unit. However, the training guideline should comply with the recommended standards. The training procedures for the law enforcement managers, law enforcement constables, intelligence commandants, analysis and intelligence officers are as follows:
- Law enforcement managers: According to the training standards, the training of this official should incorporate a four-hour training block. This training will take place in the presence of a senior law enforcement manager. The focus of this training will emphasize on moral issues, intelligence principles, criminal intelligence, and privacy issues.
- Law enforcement constables: In compliance with the stipulated training standards for this rank, the law enforcement constables will be scheduled for a 2-hour training block. This training will start immediately after recruitment. This training block sharpens the officer’s ability of availing the relevant information for intelligence purposes.
- Intelligence commandants: In compliance with the stipulated standards, this officer will be exposed to 24 four hour training block. The training will take place in a classroom. The training will sharpen the recruits’ basics on law enforcement ethics, policing, criminal intelligence, privacy and confidentiality, data handling, and corruption prevention.
- Intelligence officers: This staff will undergo a training session lasting for 24 hours. This training entails classroom and practical work. Significant parts to be addressed in training will include confidentiality, morals, and legal issues. In a classroom environment, the recruits will also be educated on computer intelligence, handling of confidential information, and file control.
Expected Products
This proposal has provided significant guidelines that are essential in the process of establishing an analytical unit. The explained activities are significant, and will involve resources. After incorporation of these resources, successful future outcome is clear. In order to comply with these strict and clearly defined guidelines, Colorado Analytical Unit will recruit suitable skills and experienced staffs. After additional training, significant changes are anticipated, as well as, more effective, operational, and functional analysis processes in the unit. Although compliance with the above addressed requirements appears to be forthright, challenges are expected. The only way of overcoming these challenges is by ensuring that all staffs in the unit effectively remain focused to their roles. The impact of effective implementation of the guidelines explained in this proposal will be witnessed throughout the entire law enforcement agency.
References
Al-Rashdan, M. (2012). An analytical study of the financial intelligence units' enforcement mechanisms. Journal of Money Laundering Control 15 (4): 483-495.
Carter, D. (2005). Brief History Of Law Enforcement Intelligence: Past Practice And Recommendations For Change. Trends in Organized Crime 8 (3): 51-62.
Johnson, J. (2013). Social Network Analysis: A Systematic Approach for Investigating. FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin 1 (2): 1-4.
Kleiven, M. (2007). Where's the intelligence in the National Intelligence Model? International Journal of Police Science & Management 9 (3): 257-273.
Lambert, D. (2010). Intelligence-Led Policing in a Fusion Center. FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin 79 (12): 1-6.
