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Author: Jerry Ratcliffe
ISBN No: 1843 923 394
Review date: 11/07/2026
No of pages: 264
Publisher: Willan
Year of publication: 11/09/2012
Brief:
Intelligence-led policing has a way to go in the UK, judging by a US academicโs book on the subject.
Intelligence-led policing is described as a tactic to reduce crime by being proactive and focusing on criminal intelligence. That would appear to require police to share data, locally and beyond each police force. The book mentions the UKโs Data Protection Act, and does note that โa greater understanding of the legal conditions for covert information gathering and storage is necessaryโ. Such policing by targets and with performance indicators brings its own problems – and the author lists them, such as ignoring whatโs most difficult, distorting data on purpose, looking only at the short term. This is hardly unique to the police or other public services. What do people want of the police? A reassuring sight of a beat bobby? Or cops moving in on targets, now and then? A difference between police and private security is the power of arrest. Even this as a measurement of performance is tricky. How to compare a few arrests of terror suspects with a mass of shoplifters? And who decides the priorities? In Northern Ireland, if communities feel happier about approaching the police, and reported crime rises, is that bad? Plenty of food for thought here for students.
