Implementing Intelligence-Led Policing: An Application of Loose-Coupling Theory

Abstract

Purpose: This research is intended to inform a knowledge gap in the literature and present the first national findings related to intelligence-led policing adoption among state and local agencies. Specific practices are identified to inform scholars and practitioners regarding intelligence-led policing behaviors. Methods: Original survey research from a federally-funded project is gleaned to explore intelligence-led policing adoption through a loose-coupling theoretical perspective. Negative binomial and logistic regression models are employed to identify predictive relationships. Results: Agencies nationwide appear to be closely following the National Criminal Intelligence Sharing Plan recommendations to enhance information sharing. Consistent with the Department of Homeland Security's Target Capabilities List is also observed. Agency size appears to have a significant effect on key organizational information sharing behaviors. The findings are tempered due to limitations in the research design. Conclusions: Local agencies appear to be tightly-coupled with the recommendations put forth in the National Criminal Intelligence Sharing Plan in their efforts to adopt intelligence-led policing. Agency size appears to enhance adoption across most dependent metrics. This research progresses the limited evidence base and progress regarding this emerging policing philosophy. • National data of local law enforcement agencies is utilized.• Local agencies appear to be closely following federal recommendations for ILP.• Agencies appear to model their ILP capacity after the DHS target capabilities list.• Larger agencies have more relationships with organizations and create more products.• Training specific to ILP enhances the likelihood of adoption.

Institutional Pressures and Isomorphism

“…DiMaggio and Powell (1983) coined this phenomenon isomorphism and defined it as the "constraining process that forces one unit in a population to resemble other units that face the same set of environment conditions" (p. 149). Isomorphism has been employed to explain community policing Phillips & Gayadeen, 2014), homeland security (Burruss et al, 2012), and crime analysis (Giblin, 2006 (Crank & Langworthy, 1996). Crank and Langworthy (1992) noted the impact of the Miranda v. Arizona decision on police arrest practices while others contend that funding provides agencies with incentives to adopt community policing (Oliver, 2000) and crime analysis (Giblin, 2006).…”

“…This issue pertains to the use of intelligence-related explanatory variables to draw inferences regarding ILP dependent variables (Carter et al, 2014); a necessity given ILP requires a more nuanced set of variables to target specific practices. Since ILP has been argued to more closely resemble a strategic modification to existing policing practices (Ratcliffe, 2008), agencies may not change as much as they adjust practices (Carter et al, 2014). The operational focal point of ILP is collecting, analyzing, and sharing information to inform decisions.…”

The role of people in information-sharing: perceptions from an analytic unit of a regional fusion center

“…A lack of information sharing across various levels and locales of law enforcement has been suggested as a major contributor in the failure to prevent the events that occurred on 9/11 (Zegart, 2007). Full implementation of ILP requires sharing information within and across organizations (Carter, Phillips & Gayadeen, 2014); without such sharing, data collection is impoverished and so is information and intelligence dissemination (Ratcliffe, 2008;Ratcliffe, Strang, & Taylor, 2013). 4 Yet full adoption of ILP is by no means a simple process (Carter, 2016;Ratcliffe, 2002).…”

Role of ICT in Community-Oriented Policing in South Asia: Challenges and Opportunities

“…The police is considered the most visible and interactive face of government authority [1]. Over the past decades, a number of innovative and interesting policing models, such as smart policing [2], hot spots policing [3], evidence-based policing [4], problem-oriented policing [5], intelligence-led policing [6], and Community-oriented policing (COP) [7,8] have been introduced. COP is one of the most widely discussed initiatives that has gained popularity in various parts of the world [9,10].…”