19 Sep INTEL431
Intelligence Analysis: Behavior & Social Scientific Foundation
Analysts of intelligence have are a vital source of information that molds and constructs our policies and decisions. However like all individuals they are still susceptible to the pitfalls of human nature just like anyone else. We as humans rationalize information in not only a logical process but an emotional one as well and at times we can become over confident in our reasoning (Spellman, 2011). These traits can skew the outcome of the results of individual analysts results. This leads me to agree that group processes in regards to intelligence still posses these downfalls but have a better check and balance on the process in itself. With a group a leader can manage who is responsible for what sector of information. This will allow for greater analysis processing, and each teammate will contribute their portion in the project but in an open forum format. This format allows each member to review the information and ensure it is non-biased and accurate in nature (Hastie, 2011).
The Los Angeles police department has understood this concept and embraced intelligence sharing and adapted their processes quickly since September eleventh. Their operation includes a terrorism liaison officer; this officer is responsible for holding seminars with its local community to train its community in proper ways of detecting suspicious behavior that is commonly linked with terrorism. This program works hand in hand with their Suspect Activity Report program or SAR (Downing, 2009). This program allows citizens to report any and all activity to their local department. These reports are filed collected, analyzed, stored and published through intelligence sharing along with being investigated. Secondly this department also launched an intelligence investigator program. It trains its investigators as intelligence analysts, further increasing their ability to assess timelines, financial data and so forth to reduce investigation times and further increase their productivity (Downing, 2009).
I believe group effort and collaboration will always yield a greater result in a timely fashion as long as you have a strong leader in charge to keep all members accounted for. The perspectives you receive from open forum access can yield amazing results. Not to say anyone has a wrong answer but the final product is going to be of a higher caliber than results from a standalone individual.
Law Enforcement Analysts
Law enforcement is getting more and more involved in intelligence analysis. Some of the tools they have been utilizing are now helping them further their intelligence collection and organization (USDJ, 2016). Crime mapping or geographical information systems allow all information to be mapped for their cities and communities (Ratcliffe, 2004). This system is neat because it will allow the analysis to input data from arrests and trends of their community and later on they can use such data to predict trends that might possibly happen. They can predict what may happen though customizable tables from the program to show what parameters they wish to see.
These programs can be beneficial, it can allow law enforcement managers to assist in assigning priorities on their work force. This system combined with LAPD’s SAR system could be used to analyzed how often someone specifically or what area’s are being reported for suspicious activity. Granted this system isn’t going to be a end all be all. This system can help assess what has been reported and through information sharing through higher agencies, this could possibly raise some red flags of concern.
Minimum Training Standards
Intelligence analysis requires a specific set of skills or attributes that need to be honed. While anyone can read information that is presented in front of them or listen to recorded communication, it takes a very specific individual to thoroughly review it and categorize it and compose it neatly for a certain purpose. Also not everyone has the ability to accurately account for the said information and ensure it is verified (USDJ, 2007). Honestly anyone could actually perform this job, however it takes a person whom would take pride in his or her job to truly fulfill it. I think the biggest pitfall with terrorist intelligence in our country is we are to focus on major threats in countries other than ours. Studying, researching and understanding the movements of a mass organization is easier from a novice stand point with minimal training (Chermak, Freilich & Shemtob, 2009). Terrorism training did exist before September eleventh, however after the fact the FBI revamped their program and added an additional twenty-four hours of intelligence and forty hours of additional to counterterrorism in their curriculum.
Conclusion
All of these topics are linked together for a singular purpose. Recent incidents of terrorism in our country have been enacted by extremists that either acted alone or had at least one partner. These individuals remained silent and did not boost their intentions until the day of the act. This is pure speculation and makes me actually wonder, after each event the news seems to publish an article along the lines of “such and such government agency had known this might happen”. I refer back to some of last weeks readings were some intelligence is categorized as “low probability, high impact”, but I don’t feel if that was the case it would have been brushed off as easily. Through this weeks readings I was impressed about advancements the Los Angeles police departments have made in the past in this very topic or simply home grown radicalism. I feel intelligence as great as it can be to answer questions will never prevent these acts due to how quickly and silent the individual is to a cause they find moving enough to perform such actions until the time has come. While agencies can analyze and study the incidents that have occurred to try and better prepare themselves for possible future attempts it will still be a battle that my never be won.
References:
Downing, M. P. (2009, February). Police Chief Magazine – View Article. Retrieved July 10, 2019, from http://www.policechiefmagazine.org/magazine/index.cfm?fuseaction=display_arch
Chermak, S. D., Freilich, J. D., & Shemtob, Z. (2009, December). Law Enforcement Training and the Domestic Far Right. Retrieved July 10, 2019, from http://cjb.sagepub.com/lookup/doi/10.1177/0093854809345630
Hastie, R. (2011). Intelligence analysis: Behavioral and social scientific foundations. Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press.
Spellman, B. A. (2011). Intelligence analysis: Behavioral and social scientific foundations. Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press.
Ratcliffe, J. H. (2004). Crime mapping and the training needs of law enforcement. European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research, 10(1), 65-83. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/222839188?accountid=8289
Law Enforcement Analytic Standards (2nd ed.). (2012, April). Retrieved July 10, 2019, from https://it.ojp.gov/documents/d/Law Enforcement Analytic Standards 04202_combined_compliant.pdf
Minimum Criminal Intelligence Training Standards for Law Enforcement and Other Criminal Justice Agencies in the United States [2nd]. (2007, October). Retrieved July 10, 2019, from https://www.ncirc.gov/documents/public/Minimum_Criminal_Intel_Training_Standards.pdf
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