Adrian James - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Adrian James

Understanding Police Intelligence Work

This submission is based on evidence derived from three empirical studies of police intelligence ... more This submission is based on evidence derived from three empirical studies of police intelligence practice carried out over the last 10 years (see James, 2013, 2016 and 2017). Those studies suggest that even if the amelioration of some long-standing problems in that milieu can be discerned, structural and cultural barriers to the effectiveness of the work remain. Too often in mainstream policing, intelligence practice is seen as ancillary to the business of ‘real’ policing; co-existing in parallel with the operational world but not routinely influencing it in sufficiently meaningful ways. In the last three years, meaningful efforts have been made to professionalise the intelligence function but the extent to which those efforts have yet borne fruit is debatable. Beyond the higher policing units (whose raison d’être is the conversion of intelligence into action against serious and organised crime), there seems to be limited understanding of the value of intelligence and a propensity t...

Operation Fortress is a multi-agency initiative to tackle drugs and violence in Southampton. The ... more Operation Fortress is a multi-agency initiative to tackle drugs and violence in Southampton. The researchers examined similar initiatives to identify 'what works' in reducing the harms associated with drug trafficking and use in communities and critically evaluated Fortress in the light of that analysis. It was found that the initiative had incorporated much of the learning from similar partnership projects and had built on their successes. The purposively chosen research sample was relatively small. Nevertheless, the researchers are satisfied that the findings are representative of the wider population. Research respondents highlighted as key: the expertise of the operation's police leaders; their focus on reducing harm in communities rather than on performance targets; their effective communication with partners and with their communities; and, particularly, the marketing of the operation which firmly established the positive value of the 'Fortress' brand. Fortress should be celebrated as an example of good practice in partnership working. The study also suggests the need for more effective national and regional support for local efforts if successes like this are in future to represent partnership norms.

I have been studying police intelligence practice for about 16 years (see James, 2016, 2014, 2012... more I have been studying police intelligence practice for about 16 years (see James, 2016, 2014, 2012, and 2003). It has been a fascinating, intriguing, and frustrating journey in almost equal measure. Perhaps the thing I have found most frustrating is that after more than 40 years of scholarly research, police-led research and ‘official’ inquiries into criminal intelligence work, that practice looks very much the same today as it did in 1975.

Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice, 2018

Threats to modern nation states from organized crime and terrorism create environments in which i... more Threats to modern nation states from organized crime and terrorism create environments in which intelligence becomes a vital component of policing and security plans but the increasing use of personal data for law enforcement purposes can alter the normative relationships between stakeholders and law enforcement agencies and between agencies and citizens. For that reason, police intelligence practice demands critical examination. This paper presents a narrative inquiry, based on the authors’ experiential knowledge and empirical research, into Europol’s Crime Analysis System (ECAS). The study explains Europol’s efforts to develop data collection and analysis systems that meet the needs of EU Member States (MS). Through ECAS, it has created powerful tools intended to deliver intelligence products that help MS identify, localize, and neutralize transnational threats to a degree not witnessed before in Europe. Nevertheless, Europol’s performance in this context seems sub-optimal. Shortc...

Policing, 2017

Intelligence-led policing's (ILP) promise to reform policing has attracted many to its cause. Bas... more Intelligence-led policing's (ILP) promise to reform policing has attracted many to its cause. Based on empirical research, this paper challenges the validity of some of its claims and explains the ways that ILP may most fruitfully be employed. The research found that the success or failure of ILP depends on people and not on the ILP technologies, organizational structures, or processes that routinely receive attention. ILP may make perfect business sense in principle but human factors will always mitigate its prospects. Justifiably, ILP is the preferred strategy for combating organized crime or 'professional' criminals; the cost of investigations and intrusions into privacy can more readily be warranted. In the policing mainstream, an acceptable return on investment in those same methods is unlikely because the professional skills and specialist resources required to service them are in such short supply. Moreover, in liberal democracies their use is much more difficult to justify in social worlds that, properly, lie largely beyond the institutions' control.

International Journal of Police Science & Management, 2003

The International Journal of Intelligence, Security, and Public Affairs, 2017

To better understand police intelligence practice, we examined practitioners' views of their work... more To better understand police intelligence practice, we examined practitioners' views of their work and their relations with the wider law enforcement community. We surveyed intelligence staff (N=110), and interviewed a random sample of respondents (n=12). Our analysis suggested that traditionalism and the dominant action-oriented culture limit the organization's understanding of intelligence practice. Largely, the focus in that context has been on street cops' propensity to reject reflection in favour of action but intelligence practitioners need also look to themselves. Too often, the philosophy of 'need to know', is prioritized over its antithesis 'dare to share'. Though perceived by practitioners as low-risk and consistent with organisational norms, we argue that inappropriately applied, 'need to know' is the enemy of efficiency and real accountability, offering low levels of reward and discouraging the kinds of partnership, reciprocity and multi-directional knowledge transfer that policing needs, to be successful in the information age. We reconceptualised an interactivity/isolationism continuum, used in the natural sciences, to help interpret that phenomenon. We argue that isolationism is but one factor in a complex organisational dynamic but it is a significant one because it can subtly limit the influence and reach of the intelligence milieu in previously unacknowledged ways.

This paper analyses police intelligence practice in Britain. Initially, the aim was to assess int... more This paper analyses police intelligence practice in Britain. Initially, the aim was to assess intelligence practice through the lens of the ‘what works?’ concept. Dominating public sector policy making today, the idea that evidence-based practice (EBP) may provide the institution with the knowledge it needs to better manage its business, is now is akin to a mantra for British policing but this study suggests that there are limits to the explanatory power of ‘what works’?A review of relevant literature complemented a survey of a self-selected group of intelligence staff; a random sample of their number also was interviewed. Participants reflected on: their skills and abilities; their training; their successes and their failures; and the utility of the structures and processes within which they operated. Data were analysed using standard research tools. Respondents broadly agreed on what contributed to effective practice. Analysts,intelligence officers and managers ranked a skilled wo...

Comparative Policing from a Legal Perspective, 2018

The Police Journal, 2012

ABSTRACT

Examining Intelligence-Led Policing, 2013

This chapter continues the narrative up to the rediscovery of ILP strategies at the beginning of ... more This chapter continues the narrative up to the rediscovery of ILP strategies at the beginning of the 1990s. Specifically, it assesses the extent to which that iteration of ILP which emerged in the modern era, largely concentrated expertise and resources in the specialist detective squads. It examines the further development of a kind of class structure in policing that has undermined the single service vision for policing that has been advocated by many police leaders in modern times. Moreover, it examines the policing and policy contexts of criminal investigation and detective work in the modern era because their influence on ILP in the contemporary era is considerable.

Police Practice and Research, 2013

International Journal of Police Science & Management, 2005

This paper considers some of the challenges posed to law enforcement agencies in post-modernity b... more This paper considers some of the challenges posed to law enforcement agencies in post-modernity by the emergence of transnational criminal networks. Law enforcement, once very much local in character, must now reshape its structures and processes to meet the new and emerging risks presented. Though the paper uses the topic of illegal immigration to reveal something of the nature of such networks and the threat they pose, it also observes that fundamentally, transnational criminal networks are profit-driven and that, perhaps, it is misguided to think of these groups either as commodity-specific or process-specific. The paper concludes that law enforcement agencies need to meet the challenge that such networks present by managing their business with equal flexibility and resourcefulness. Though mechanisms to support that business are being developed, law enforcement agencies must not lose sight of the fact that it is successful outcomes, in the form of the dismantling and disruption of transnational criminal networks, rather than the new processes themselves (that simply underpin law enforcement's efforts) that are important.