Metaphorically Speaking: Engineering

"Engineering is the discipline, art and profession of acquiring and applying technical, scientific, and mathematical knowledge to design and implement materials, structures, machines, devices, systems, and processes that safely realize a desired objective or invention." ~Wikipedia 

What could the field crime and intelligence analysis learn from engineering? As I listened to the radio last week (not sure what show), there was a discussion about the difference between science and engineering. The speaker stated that scientists observe phenomena in order to create new knowledge, whereas engineers seek to solve problems in the real-world. Maybe we should take a step back from the science approach often used in crime analysis and our social sciences, and think more about taking an engineering mindset to our work. In fact, that is one of my pet peeves about the discipline of criminal justice. We stress understanding above action. Studying crime and criminal justice systems is not enough. Designing workable systems and new ways to prevent crime in the real world to help people appeals to me much more.

How can we build a better structure to support the work of law enforcement analysts?