It has become increasingly clear that the global spread of Organized Crime demands more than a policing approach. Indeed, what is required is a more comprehensive approach that involves a larger group of stakeholders, including policy and decision-makers.
Organized Crime is incredibly adept at adapting to and benefiting from societal changes. EUROPOL and the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime have emphasized how Organized Crime has capitalized on changes resulting from globalization, particularly with respect to technology and the financial sector. In addition, these institutions report that Organized Crime has moved to benefit from climate change, pandemics, global inequality, and migration. EUROPOL warns that trends towards increased virtual reality and societal preferences for more sustainable ways of living also generate opportunities for Organized Crime.
Opportunities and barriers for Organized Crime are largely influenced by policy and decision-makers whose priority concerns are not Organized Crime and who know little about this plague. The solution may be to expand the intelligence approach to the problem beyond its current law enforcement focus. Intelligence puts data and knowledge into the relevant operational context to facilitate informed decision-making.
Intelligence-Led Policing is one of the most important law enforcement advancements of the 21st century¹. Simply put, it is a management framework in which intelligence provides the foundations for defining strategic and operational objectives and rank priorities. Intelligence is generated by using knowledge and rigorous processes to interpret data and information. Based on promising results from its successful implementation, the model has been promoted by law enforcement agencies, academic researchers and international organizations as the modern approach to law enforcement.
Understanding the intelligence approach reveals its abilities and limitations for informing decisions that impact Organized Crime. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe’s 2017 guidebook on Intelligence-Led Policing outlines the framework. First, managers request intelligence to be produced to help make informed decisions. As such, intelligence is focused on matters within the manager’s area of responsibility and influence. Second, the intelligence cycle aims to identify and fulfill the manager’s intelligence needs by collecting, processing, and interpreting data. Consequently, the ability to identify considerations relevant to the decision-maker relies on the availability of data and the analysts’ knowledge. Finally, the impact of intelligence depends on it reaching and influencing the appropriate decision-makers.
An intelligence-led approach to Organized Crime must include the full range of decision-makers required to address this global scourge. The intelligence generated must enlighten these decision-makers about how their area of responsibility is affected by Organized Crime and their role in addressing the problem. Such intelligence must be specific enough to guide individual decisions while guided by a competent appreciation of the broader context and understanding of the phenomenon. Generating such intelligence will require extensive access to information from all areas of government that affect or are affected by Organized Crime. Furthermore, generating such intelligence will require an interdisciplinary focus across all levels of government.
Consequently, to realize the potentials of an intelligence-led approach to Organized Crime, we must move toward intelligence based on a more holistic understanding of the nature and extent of Organized Crime. Crucially, the approach must go well beyond simple law enforcement to include a larger group of stakeholders, including policy and decision-makers.
¹ Kelling, George L., and Bratton, William J. “Policing Terrorism.”
