Researching and Analyzing Intelligence
Researching and analysing intelligence systems is important within every case, this comes after the investigating leads procedure as it looks at all the suspects and links the crime to them, analysts and researchers carry out this procedure. It also looks at a wider search of crimes, for example if 5 murders had been reported in the community in the last month the murders would be compared to see if there are any similarities within the case as there may potentially be a serial killer within the town. The police will focus on analysing the case within this process as it can help it being solved at a quicker pace, depending on the amount of evidence and suspects they are still looking at. This stage is important as it helps to process material so the police are able to make a firm decision on what they believe has happened and who they believe has done it. Police may decide to look further into a suspect within this case which will allow them to gather more information on the individual and there back ground, if there are specific incidents which have happened in a person’s life the police may put together an idea of why the may have committed the crime and what drove them to it.
There is six sections within a intelligence cycle that needs to be focused on by the researcher and analyst these are:
The Direction - this focuses on setting actions and tasks that need to be dealt with throughout this procedure, it helps to outline the objectives of the task itself.
The Collection - throughout the collection stage the main thing is to collect the data needed, this is done when the direction is agreed, the collection stages give in detail a bigger picture of the scene and what crime has been committed.
The Collation - this stage focuses on the organisation of the case, it ensures all information and evidence given is organised well with a summary. Flow charts and graphs may be produced through this stage.
The Evaluation - this stage ensures all information given is evaluated and linked to the objective of the case, it ensure that all of the information is important (there is no unnecessary information) and documented in the case.
The Analysis - this is the analysis of both the case itself and the information, one the information has been analysed it will either be granted more important or least important this can mean evidence and witness statements. This comes like reports with a conclusion, prediction and estimation.
And The Dissemination - this is the spread of information; once the report has been written it will be delivered to the police from the analyst and researcher.
This procedure can give a bigger impact to the case depending on what the case is, for example if there are no known suspects to a case by researching and analysing the evidence it can open up more than one suspect which they are able to question. Within some cases it may not be seen as to important as they may have identified there specific suspect within the investigating leads procedure and this may not give them any more useful information that they already have.
There is six sections within a intelligence cycle that needs to be focused on by the researcher and analyst these are:
The Direction - this focuses on setting actions and tasks that need to be dealt with throughout this procedure, it helps to outline the objectives of the task itself.
The Collection - throughout the collection stage the main thing is to collect the data needed, this is done when the direction is agreed, the collection stages give in detail a bigger picture of the scene and what crime has been committed.
The Collation - this stage focuses on the organisation of the case, it ensures all information and evidence given is organised well with a summary. Flow charts and graphs may be produced through this stage.
The Evaluation - this stage ensures all information given is evaluated and linked to the objective of the case, it ensure that all of the information is important (there is no unnecessary information) and documented in the case.
The Analysis - this is the analysis of both the case itself and the information, one the information has been analysed it will either be granted more important or least important this can mean evidence and witness statements. This comes like reports with a conclusion, prediction and estimation.
And The Dissemination - this is the spread of information; once the report has been written it will be delivered to the police from the analyst and researcher.
This procedure can give a bigger impact to the case depending on what the case is, for example if there are no known suspects to a case by researching and analysing the evidence it can open up more than one suspect which they are able to question. Within some cases it may not be seen as to important as they may have identified there specific suspect within the investigating leads procedure and this may not give them any more useful information that they already have.
The Soham Murders and Researching and Analysing
Within the Soham Murders when researching and analysing intelligence the police had an idea of what had happened before even collecting evidence and witnesses statements. They believed the children had been abducted by a man who had already done this a few years before, they set out to search for this man appealing to the News, TV Programmes (Crime Watch) and also asking witnesses to come forward if they had seen him. This shows they had analysed the crimes within the local community in the past years but didn’t correctly match any evidence/ similarities to either. This procedure was carried out at the beginning of the case not long after the police had been informed of the two missing girls, there was no sufficient evidence to tie both cases together although the police believed there was. Due to not carrying out this stage right and at the appropriate time the police went off track with the investigation which may have resulted in them not finding the girls sooner. They believed there second protocol was to act upon Ian Webster’s statement where he had made allegations; he believed he had seen Jessica and Holly in a car located on the motor way. Above is a picture of Ian Webster who was a current taxi driver at the time. He descried that he had seen "motorist struggling with two children as he swerved across the A142" (Ian Webster 2002) this suggested to the police the girls had been abducted and it was most probably them. He recorded the sightings as being on the 4th of August 2002 at approximately 7pm, there was evidence to prove this wasn’t the girls and the police stopped looking into this query straight away.