Question

Describe in detail the key elements of the Intelligence-Led Policing (ILP) Philosophy. Should police administration be driven by data-based intelligence, or experience/training-based instincts?

Answer 1

ILP refers to a business process within the law enforcement agency that systematically collects, organizes, analyzes and utilizes intelligence to help the law enforcement agency with the much needed operational and tactical decisions. Key elements of ILP are tasking, coordinating, collecting, planning and operation. In order to achieve this, one needs analytical capabilities, awareness about the society where one lives, education, training and reassessing the process.

In my opinion, police should use a holistic approach to policing because people constantly change and yesterday’s criminal might have been a victim of emotional outburst and today he could have turned his life around. If someone keeps visiting him as a prospective criminal, he would lose his morale. It has to be coupled with the experience and expertise of the police officers in order to apply the information provided by the ILP in order to make sure proper and timely action is taken. Most of the time, the data might be wrong but the officer in-charge should use their training and human instinct to understand the scenario completely with the help of the data provided by ILP.