ILP Assessment 6 10 Criminal Justice and Intelligence

Criminal Justice and Intelligence: ILP Assessment 6-10

Learning Task: Week 6

Confidential informants are sometimes the criminals themselves who collaborate with the police or the intelligence departments in return for a favor (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 2018). The favors are usually in the form of reduced jail sentence time or immunity from court prosecution later. Also, they could be honest citizens who truly want to help the betterment of society. However, those who are criminals belong to an already established ‘criminal culture’ and know other criminals inside out (Geberth, 1979). They are a relevant source to an ongoing investigation that police and intelligence departments use for solving a pending case. 

The exchange of information for the benefits these criminals desire is an apt way of collaborating to penetrate deep into the criminal subcultures. Some detectives have registered confidential informants who are motivated enough to provide inside information (Geberth, 1979). Still, there remains a risk of their devious personality or appearance that should be monitored under informant control and management system with strict policies and enforced with legally acceptable guidelines (Bureau of Justice Assistance, 2005). 

The crime or criminal problems that might be associated with the use of confidential informants involve:

· Taking care of secrecy and transparency so that true information is extracted from the informants who could be trusted with accountability (Blanks, 2018).

· Confidential informants who might be drug addicts or real criminals might not be trustworthy (Blanks, 2018). They have little to lose and huge benefits when they agree to offer information from within their subculture (Fernandez & Takei, 2019). They might assume they can get away with lying without having to worry after the release as a perk in exchange for false information.

· Using confidential informants might raise questions about the justice system and problematic flaws in formulating public policies using possible insincere information (Blanks, 2018).

Learning Task: Week 7

Influencing decision-makers is an important step in policy formation that would benefit a maximum number of citizens. The two primary actors- analysts and decision makers- have to act along the lines of their assigned duties and job responsibilities. The pertinent positioning must deal with problem-solving in an ideal ILP world. 

Ratcliffe’s depiction reflects upon the intelligence used for investigative support, the background hard for collecting data and making analysis for presenting a valuable decision for a certain ‘action’ (Ratcliffe, 2010, p. 3). The diligence put in by the analysts cannot be overstated since it is the transformation of raw data or knowledge into the desired action. A decision-maker can only give a final verdict once the satisfactory version of the analysis is offered with validation of proof of intelligence as a significant tool in the said process or an ideal ILP world, as stated by the author. 

The changes that could occur at the decision-maker level might include prioritizing the ‘neglect’ element (Ratcliffe, 2010, p. 3). It could largely influence the final decision, which could obscure the entire framework for intelligence and the corresponding decision-making. Subtle neglect could be pivotal enough to create an influence that could make the use of sufficient resources ambiguous to handle criminal activities or keep criminality under control. 

At all local, regional or national levels, law enforcement must ensure a change in decision-maker capacity to infuse meaningful information for translating it into meaningful action. The intelligence of the decision maker encapsulates the course of action right from the start of the process in which analysts and decision-makers both are involved (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, 2017, p. 44). For instance, a change could be required where criminal intelligence products like operational and strategic intelligence products/policies are produced, with middle managers serving as investigators or policymakers assigned to high-level manager designations (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, 2017, p. 44). It is the cycle of constant feedback/evaluation with the integration of data/information and intelligence that would ask for continuous improvements in every step whenever new emerging information is added or reviewed. 

Learning Task: Week 8

Interpreting a criminal environment requires an intelligent understanding of intelligence leaders or decision-makers to control the crime thoroughly. Ratcliffe argues that such experience or training is absent in these leaders, causing a hindrance in delivering full crime prevention to the nation. 

Research corroborates that certain social, economic, and cultural factors give rise to criminal activities that need accurate detection to prevent crime from flourishing. For example, to eradicate alcohol-related crimes, the decision makers need to be aware of the drinking attributes and contexts to curb the shop activities and areas where alcohol is sold (Homel & Homel, 2012, p. 427). Moreover, staff training and working on modifying drinking patterns should also be a part of the policies, which shows comprehensive knowledge and expertise of the leaders seeking partnerships and collaboration with agencies and institutes for this purpose. 

Some useful tactics could be utilized to make chosen tactics effective at both the ‘interpret’ and ‘influence’ stages. Taking a lesson from the health sciences department, the influence needs to be made with policy formation such that it does not harm the patient, effectiveness comes from the application of evidence-based practices in real-world settings for maximum benefit to the receiver, and dissemination must at a large scale for cost control, better monitoring, and evaluation (Homel & Homel, 2012, p. 431). This example is relatable to intelligence and crime control for leaders or decision makers because their policies could become effective in the initial stages, like detection or interpretation of the actual problem for devising relevant curbing strategies to make a wholesome influence in line with the chosen tactics. 

The Stockholm Prevents Alcohol and Drug Problems (STAD) was launched by Stockholm County Council in 1995 to stop alcohol-related crime and was successful as the results showed one-third of the predicted reduction in crime (Homel & Homel, 2012, p. 443). The strict law enforcement in alcohol distribution, especially to minor and other powerful coalitions from the visionary, strong and credible leadership, enforce regulations consistently. This could serve as an example of the fact that training and knowledge for intelligence leaders and decision makers matters for success rate in crime prevention with interpreting and influencing for a long-lasting impact (Mashiloane, 2014, p. 183). 

Learning Task: Week 9

Systematic data collection has revolutionized with technology such as drones, CCTV cameras, and artificial intelligence (Gkougkoudis et al., 2022). Such attempts are crucial for intelligence decision-making as more leaders and criminology analysts rely on error-free information to deal with modern crime. 

Soft technology for crime prevention could be valuable at the strategic level. Soft technologies are the software and information platforms embedded within the hardware for improving the performance of risk detection tactics of intelligence teams like police (Byrne & Marx, 2011, p. 19). For example, three major soft technologies could be used for crime prevention in sex offenses, risk classification tools, threat assessments, and monitoring communication, or one of the emerging technology-related complexity: social media (Byrne & Marx, 2011, p. 23).  

An example of the U.S. national sex offender system could be comprehended for ascertaining the recidivism rate for the registered offenders and those identified as new in the local area (Byrne & Marx, 2011, p. 23). Violation of restrictions would be categorized as high, moderate, and low risk so that citizens could be provided timely protection against such offenders. Risk assessment tools like RRASOR and SORAG have been useful in immediately mapping offenders in an area and alerting the residents for maximum and strategic crime prevention (Byrne & Marx, 2011, p. 23).