A significant portion of a crime and intelligence analyst's work involves creativity, yet, creativity is seldom discussed in the world of law enforcement.
"Creativity refers to the phenomenon whereby a person creates something new (a product, a solution, a work of art etc.) that has some kind of value." Wikipedia definition.
A link chart, a map, a report... so many analytical "products" involve creativity if they are to be truly useful to law enforcers. In fact, it may be, in the not-too-distant future, that the only truly valuable analytical products will be those that involve creativity. Merely summarizing information, condensing it, reformatting it, and spitting it out in another format is not creative. Simply looking things up for those who do not have access to certain information is not creative. In fact, analysts who do not go beyond this basic benchmark - the summarizers, condensers, reformatters, looker-uppers - will be obsolete once information technology advances enough to bring these tools to front-line law enforcement.
Edward De Bono states: "If we make no effort to develop the skill of creativity, it can only be a matter of talent and personality."
What value can you add as an analyst? Can you develop creativity? What does creativity look like in the field of LE analysis? I will explore these questions in future posts.
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