Dear Editor,

If the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) is to reduce the spiralling murder rate, proper intelligence must become the foundation for all decisions influencing law enforcement. The major categories of intelligence in need of immediate attention are knowledge, organisation, activity and product.

The knowledge category entails all information which is already known or developed such as the identifiers of individuals/organisation and their activities. It is the foundation upon which police investigations are built and expanded.

The organisation category is the specialised unit within the JCF which has the function to collect, analyse and disseminate intelligence information.

The activity category is the physical collection, analysing and disseminating of information.

And the product category is the final intelligence produced as a result of collection and analysis. This final product can either be strategic for long-term planning, operational, or tactical for everyday use.

Criminal intelligence analysis is the most essential pillar of effective policing within all law enforcement organisations at the strategic and operational levels. But, the JCF, from empirical evidence, is lacking in the development of relevant intelligence products for dealing with the country’s spiralling murder rate. It is lacking of insights from known and knowable facts related to criminals, crime suspects, criminal incidents and crime trends and patterns, and this prevents predictive judgements. This therefore hinders proactive policing which is essential for eliminating gang activities.

More importantly, there is an abundance of evidence showing that when analysts study data related to different crimes, they correctly identify individuals, relationships or connections and gang activities thereby providing timely warning of criminal threats. Currently, the JCF is not getting neither relevant strategic nor operational intelligence. This has the potential for the wasting of scarce resources in deployment due to wrong focus and ineffective planning.

Operational intelligence analysis allows the JCF to achieve specific outcomes. The JCF’s weakness in strategic intelligence products must be improved. However, what seems to be at the heart of the JCF intelligence failures over the last 25 years is research, development and analysis of collected data.

Modern intelligence for law enforcement was developed by Detective Petrosino of the New York City Police Department where he collected and processed information into intelligence. This intelligence was used to take down different Italian criminal organisations.

In the JCF, intelligence activities are often confused with that of investigations where great similarities exist. The principal difference is that intelligence is to alert, warn and provide advance information, while investigations are for evidentiary purposes. Operation KingFish, an intelligence-driven multi-agency task force, has shown that the JCF has the capacity to bring criminals to justice when the need arises. They must now be given all necessary resources to go after those involved in the marauding murders who are killing at will. Intelligence must lead the way, and not investigation, in order to get desired results.

Ian Haughton

ianhaughton46@gmail.com