A critical analysis of the use of community intelligence in local neighbourhood policing in south Wales

Abstract

This research critically analyses the use of community intelligence in the delivery of local neighbourhood policing in South Wales and the police service in general. It examines in detail the development of policing and intelligence, particularly neighbourhood policing and community intelligence from its early beginnings and evaluates the contemporary definitions and police officer and staff perceptions of neighbourhood policing and community intelligence. This research also proposes a new definition of community intelligence and analyses how community intelligence is gathered, recorded and processed, and its relationship to the Intelligence Cycle and the National Intelligence
Model. It further examines the operational application of community intelligence, including in counter terrorism and tackling organised crime, and the competing priorities, tensions and contradictions between performance management, neighbourhood policing, problem-oriented policing and intelligence-led policing. This research also evaluates the decision making process and how that may be affected by organisational issues such as, organisational culture, behaviour, management, leadership, information and knowledge. It examines the importance of community engagement in developing community
intelligence and providing cohesive policing services to the public. Furthermore, this research considers the future directions of community intelligence and research on policing. The findings from this research indicate that some community intelligence is
used to direct policing patrols and operations. However, there is some confusion by police officers and staff as to what constitutes community information and intelligence and thus it is not always recorded correctly limiting its use in the delivery of local
neighbourhood policing and resulting in the loss of intelligence. This serves to highlight some of the areas for improvement in the policies, procedures, systems and management of intelligence. The findings also indicate the potential use of community
intelligence in counter terrorism and in the provision of improved policing services to the public.

Date of Award	Oct 2014
Original language	English
Supervisor	Frederick Blakemore (Supervisor), David Hillier (Supervisor) & James Gravelle (Supervisor)