A Paper-Centred Information System: Effectiveness and Quality Implications in UK Police Intelligence Units

An intelligence unit operates in accordance to three levels prescribed by the NIM, which is a policing model introduced by the Home Office in 2000. The NIM employs a robust management of intelligence to create a clear picture of all policing issues at local, regional and national level enabling managers to make informed decisions about what their strategic priorities are, manage identified risks and allocate resources effectively where they can make most impact. The NIM is segmented into three levels: level one is an intelligence unit housed in a local police station within a force, for example Luton police station has an intelligence unit within Bedfordshire police force. The activities at this level are concerned with issues, crimes and criminals at a local level; level two is an intelligence unit for the force, which may also work in collaboration with other UK forces to tackle crime. For example, Bedfordshire police force’s intelligence unit may work in collaboration with Hertfordshire and Staffordshire police forces. Level three is an intelligence unit for serious and organised crime on a national or international level. For example, a UK police force such as the Metropolitan police may work in collaboration with America’s New York police force in relation to drug trafficking (Centrex, 2005). A national intelligence unit is operationally driven for specific crimes such as drug or human trafficking on a national and international scale, often in an ad hoc manner. This can lead to studies which can be difficult to generalise. This paper instead focuses on intelligence units at levels one (local) and two (regional) as the context of study due to the frequency and relative standardisation of the operational processes, information flows and artefacts usage that occur in units at levels one and two. Abstract