Cross-jurisdictional Analysis

Two recent articles on this topic:

Local police join forces on crime data analysis
Cushing Police Host County Intelligence Meeting

Prevention of WMD Proliferation and Terrorism Report Card

Prevention of WMD Proliferation and Terrorism Report Card January 26, 2010 from the Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism

Excerpt:
"Proposals like that of the Director of National Intelligence to establish an Intelligence Officer Training Corps, modeled on the military’s ROTC program, are critical to provide future scientific and engineering personnel as well as linguistic and area studies for developing capable analysts. While the use of contract personnel fills some vacancies, the practice is overly expensive, creates no lasting organizational expertise, and is, at best, a short-term solution to a long-term problem. What needs to be done is known and the national consequences of not hiring a sufficient number of qualified individuals are understood. Therefore, the decision of both the Administration and Congress to not adequately fund needed recruitment and retention programs, to include joint-duty assignments, is an inexcusable failure. To judge this situation as anything other than an abject failure, both the Administration and Congress must commit to spending what is required to recruit, hire, train, and
retrain a qualified, motivated national security workforce."

Intelligence Reform: The Lessons and Implications of the Christmas Day Attack

Intelligence Reform: The Lessons and Implications of the Christmas Day Attack
Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee
20 January 2010
Statement for the Record of Dennis C. Blair, Director of National Intelligence and Michael E. Leiter, Director of the National Counterterrorism Center

Crime drop linked to new police tactic

Crime drop linked to new police tactic

Very interesting crime prevention tactic!

Targeting guns to reduce violent crime

Targeting guns to reduce violent crime

Good article!

"Bealefeld's strategy is multipronged: He has created a gun-trace task force, coordinated more closely with parole officers, and has worked with city and court officials to develop a gun offender registry – one of the first in the country – that tracks his "bad guys" much the way sex offender registries do."

Summary of the White House Review of the Attempted Terrorist Attack

Summary of the White House Review of the December 25, 2009 Attempted Terrorist Attack

U.S. crime falls despite prolonged recession

U.S. crime falls despite prolonged recession

Interesting...

The Need for Analysis

As I watch the news, waiting for the President's speech, I cannot help think about this blog and my sincere desire that analysis become a real emphasis in public safety, including homeland security issues. Here is a quote from my 2006 book "Out of Bounds: Innovation and Change in Law Enforcement Intelligence Analysis:"

"Looking for the unknown threats that are hidden in the data requires the proactive and effective analysis of data — people with a proclivity to answer the unstated and unforeseen questions. There may be unknown elements existing in the data — hidden threats that we could uncover, if we had adequate resources dedicated to the task." p. 9

We know those hidden threats exist and that new threats will emerge.

What will be do about these threats? Information sharing is not enough. Collaboration is not enough. Collection is not enough. Co-location of resources (such as fusion centers and task forces) is not enough. We need individual people with initiative, with critical and creative thinking, with access to disparate data and with the authority to ask questions of the data. We need human brain-power to analyze and synthesize those pieces of information that will create the knowledge we need to protect the public - technology and policies are not enough.

The Evolution of Structured Analytic Techniques

The Evolution of Structured Analytic Techniques
By Richards J. Heuer, Jr.
Presentation to the National Academy of Science, National Research Council Committee on Behavioral and Social Science Research to Improve Intelligence Analysis for National Security, Washington, DC, December 8, 2009.

Pair suspected of stealing cavity fillings

Pair suspected of stealing cavity fillings - a crime series involving metal theft with a new twist....