Risky intelligence
Original version
Keane, Nick & Kleiven, Maren Eline (2009. Risky intelligence. International Journal of Police Science and Management. 11(3), 324-333Abstract
The article concerns the use by police services of
the abstract idea of intelligence-led policing, often
embodied as it is in the United Kingdom in the
National Intelligence Model. We will argue that
while this is a central framing idea in policing, it
contains omissions which lead to faulty decisionmaking.
The article charts the rise of intelligenceled
policing in the United Kingdom and argues
that circumstances have led to the concept of
intelligence becoming equated to ‘information
which leads to a detection’; however, that this
construction leads to areas of omission which then
impact upon the business of the police service.
One outcome of this is that the members of the
community that the police service is charged with
protecting and serving pay the price of this
decision-making. The central argument of our
article is that an overconcentration on the detection
of offences has skewed the way the map has
been drawn up and how it is currently being
used. Our main contention is not that the concept
of intelligence-led policing should be abandoned,
but that it should be revisited and revised to take
greater notice of the changes in the landscape it is
designed to cover. The territory is changing but
the map is not being amended; it is time for some
major revisions.