Oscar Perez

LEPS 550

13 December 2019

Intelligence-Led Policing: Final Project Phase III-The Final Product

Law enforcement throughout its evolution has looked for innovative concepts, ideas, and

practices when implementing police services to better serve communities effectively and efficiently.

With changes and advancements in technology and society, it is imperative that law enforcement

uses these changes and advancements in technology to assist in stopping and preventing crime.

These advancements in technology allowed for better data tracking and gathering. This new

information law enforcement received allowed for the creation of Intelligence-led policing. The

following is a look at the concept of Intelligence-led policing, how it allows for better efficient

policing, how the Buena Park Police Department has adopted and utilizes intelligence-led policing

strategies such as Hot spot policing, Partnership model of policing, and community orientated

policing to better serve its community, how the Buena Park police departments utilization of

intelligence-led policing led to the decrease of its biggest property crime of motor vehicle theft, and

the efficacy/efficiency of the intelligence-led policing in the Buena Park Police Department.

Intelligence-led policing since the 1990’s has been a tool and concept for law enforcement

to prevent crime. With advances in technology and data gathering, ILP has become law

enforcements go to policing concept. ILP is defined as the strategic and collaborative approach to

crime control/prevention that is based on a sequence of data collection, high-quality analysis of

that data, and the extraction of intelligence/data (Seals, 2015). Along with high-quality data and its

gathering, an enhanced collaboration with the community in the form of community policing and

cooperation with surrounding law enforcement agencies is vital. Community policing concerning ILP

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allows for citizens and surrounding agencies to be involved in reporting activities and open

dialogue. This in turn creates positive relations to allow for community mobilization to deal with

problems, issues, and crime trends. Partnerships and collaborations with surrounding agencies

ensure leveraging of resources that would not be accessible such as task force and joint agency

stings (ILP, 2019).

The information from better technology and community collaboration that becomes ILP

creates a clearer picture for law enforcement to more efficiently police because of the critical

information and intelligence the data bears. ILP intelligence shows an accurate picture of what

crimes and issues are occurring, the nature and extent of the crimes and issues, the trends

associated with the crimes and trends, and where the threats lie for these crimes and trends (DOJ,

2015). This, in turn, allows for strategic crime targeting, planning, resource allocation, and crime

prevention techniques to create and implement informed decisions to ultimately create a better

quality of life for the community being served and which creates trust for a police department.

The Buena Park police department has bought into the ILP concept and its philosophy.

Under the leadership of Chief Sianez and his command staff, the department has made a

commitment to ILP by utilizing technology to more efficiently police and protect, strengthen

community relations and engagement through a community orientated unit, and improving

community engagement through community involved programs (BJA,2008). The Buena Park Police

department in 2015 purchased and integrated the Spillman record management system and

Spillman computer-aided dispatch interface to increase data efficiency at every level of the

department, giving dispatchers, records staff, support staff, and officers access to the resources

needed to do their jobs safely and effectively. The integration of the Spillman system increased data

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accuracy and eliminated the need to enter information numerous times. This saves time and

enables personnel to make decisions more proactively. Information captured by this integrated

system allows officers and management access to crime-specific filters, pin maps, time-comparison

analytics, and more efficient data collection because of expanded circumstances and code entry

options.

The Chief and his command staff created a six officer unit known as the community impact

team whose goals and mission are to address quality of life issues, emerging crime trends, and

problem areas in the Community (BJA 2008). The philosophy of this unit is to address quality of life

issues and crime reduction through hot spot policing strategies which is the focus of resources and

crime prevention to a small geographic area where crime is concentrated to cause its deterrence,

predictive policing strategies, and problem orientated policing strategies to identify, analyze, and

prioritize specific problems such as offenders, victims, and repeat incidents (LIP, 2019).

With the implementation and integration of a new intelligence-led technology and unit

solely created to address quality of life issues and crime trends, the department hired a full-time

non-sworn crime analyst to turn data into intelligence. The department’s crime analyst works

directly with the community impact unit and detective bureau to further enhance/decipher the

intelligence these units have to better police (Weiss, 2019). Along with deciphering data, the

department’s crime analyst position was formed with the partnership model in mind. The

department’s analyst acts as the department’s mediator with other surrounding law enforcement

agencies to obtain pertinent information and leverage resources regarding potential threats,

crimes, and issues that could impact the city and quality of life issues.

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 The department has made community engagement through the community orientated

policing strategy a priority when making intelligence-led decisions. The department with its

enhanced technology has created a crime stoppers program that is integrated into the Spillman

system. This integration allows residents to report suspicious activity and report crimes so that all

department personnel have real-time access to crucial informed first hand data and knowledge.

The department has also revamped its neighborhood watch program to enlist the active

participation and cooperation of its residents to obtain critical information concerning crime

matters in specific neighborhoods to reduce crime. The Buena Park police through other

community engagement events strive to connect with the community it serves to improve and build

a stronger relationship and communication to empower the community to be able to identify,

influence, and implement solutions to issues impacting the community.

Like all policing theories the emphasis and main questions regarding a police theory are

“Does it really work?” And “how was it effective?” Effective policing theories and styles are

considered efficient in their ability to be viable and practical in crime prevention, deterrence,

improving quality of life, and avoiding issues such as discrimination (LeCates, 2015). The following is

a case study of the Buena Park Police department’s effective adoption and adaption of Intelligence-

led policing strategies of Hot Spot policing, Partnership model of policing, and community-oriented

policing which led to an effective usage of Intelligence-led policing to better formulate plans and

ideas to combat the city’s biggest property crime of motor vehicle theft.

Intelligence-led policing and its dependence on crime tracking and data is an important tool

for law enforcement leaders as they can utilize this information to effectively deter and solve

crimes. When conducting an inquiry of crimes impacting the city of Buena Park in 2008 through the

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UCR and in-house Spillman data gathering system there was an alarmingly high rate of motor

vehicle thefts. Motor vehicle theft is defined as the unlawful taking or driving of a vehicle not their

own, without consent, with the intent to deprive the owner of their vehicle in the Buena Park

community had shown a higher rate of occurrence compared to any other Orange County City,

similar rates to the state average, and a higher rate than the national average from the years of

2008(FBI, 2019/See appendix A-C). In 2008, motor vehicle thefts in Buena Park were estimated at

500 reported incidents within the year. The department at this point began to implement the three

Intelligence-led policing strategies of Community-oriented policing, Partnership policing model, and

Hot spot policing to more intelligently and effectively combat and deter this alarming high crime.

The department seeing that surrounding cities had lower rates of this specific crime utilized

the partnership policing model by joining the Orange County Vehicle Auto theft task force. This was

a county-funded program which allowed for county-wide Intel, knowledge, and a unit to combat

this specific crime with the shared information, knowledge, and county funded resources such as

officers, databases, and grant allocations at the city and county level. The department also

participated in a mutual aid agreement with every orange county department to process all

recovered stolen vehicles for DNA to create a watch list/profile on motor vehicle thief’s/trends to

assist investigations and obtain convictions. These watch lists helped all Orange County

departments create a strategic subject list to identify possible suspects and victims as well as traits

of suspects and victims. This allowed Buena Park officers to have access to countywide knowledge

and resources to deter this crime from occurring.

The department made a dedication to community orientated policing. The department

obtained the community’s involvement in reporting suspicious activity and reporting crimes/quality

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of life issues through technological means such as the crime stoppers tip program, neighborhood

watch meetings, and crime reporting allowed officers and the department access to first-hand data

to extract intelligence. Through community outreach/engagement the department was able to give

its residents tips on how to prevent themselves from being victims of this crime through strategic

lists that had been created and disseminated via neighborhood watch meetings, social media, and

other community involved events which decreased their likelihood of being victims.

Information and intelligence data gathered from the Spillman system which consisted of

community engagement information, officer input information, and task force/multi-agency

information allowed for the Buena Park Police department's implementation of hot spot policing

from the community impact team. The CIT unit was able to utilize the hot spot strategy information

provided by the department crime analyst to conduct intelligence-led undercover time-specific

surveillance to apprehend and identify suspects and conduct directed uniformed presence in high

crime concentrated areas to deter the crime from occurring (See appendix D). This also allowed CIT

officers to work collaboratively with patrol officers to inform them on how to better strategically

police this problem and specific data-driven things to look for regarding motor vehicle suspects and

stolen vehicles.

The integration and effective utilization of all three strategies of intelligence-led policing led

to a decrease of over 500 reported cases in 2008 to under 300 reported cases in 2018 which was

almost a 50 percent decrease in the city's highest crime (See Appendix A).

The Buena Park Police department’s implementation of Intelligence-Led Policing strategies

of Hot spot policing, Partnership Policing Model, and Community Orientated Policing have all been

effective and viable. The Buena Park police department has had successes with the utilization of

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Intelligence-led policing and strategies to impact other issues facing the city, law enforcement, and

will continue to practice this type of policing as it is an effective, efficient, and formidable policing

theory/strategy for law enforcement. Other examples of the efficiency and viability of ILP strategies

within the city of Buena Park are the decreases in all property crime categories of arson, burglary,

robbery, and larceny from 2008-2018 (See Appendix E)(FBI, 2019).

In conclusion, the Buena Park Police department has adopted the concept and theory of

intelligence-led policing to better serve its community. The Chief and his command staff have

utilized intelligence-led policing because of its utilization of evolving technology which gathers

efficient data and embraces community involvement/reporting to make educated decisions to deter

and solve crime. The Buena Park Police department utilized ILP by its integration of a Spillman data

gathering technology which increased data efficiency, the creation of a unit dedicated to address

quality of life issues and crime trends through ILP made decision and strategies, and the hiring of a

full-time crime analyst to turn the efficient data obtained through Spillman to intelligence to be

utilized by all sworn personnel to better serve their community. The utilization of Intelligence-led

policing strategies of Hot spot policing, Partnership Policing Model, and Community Orientated

Policing to address its highest crime issue/trend of motor vehicle theft was nearly cut in half in a ten

year span. The efficiency of Intelligence-led policing and its strategies assisted in the decrease of all

property crimes in the Buena Park community from 2008-2018. Intelligence led decisions positively

impacted and changed the way the department has been able to serve its community and improve

the quality of life for its residents. The Buena Park police department has had successes with the

utilization of Intelligence-led policing and strategies to impact other issues facing the city, law

enforcement, and will continue to practice this type of policing as it is an effective, efficient, and

formidable policing theory/strategy for law enforcement. Overall, Intelligence led-policing has

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improved policing in the city of Buena Park and the relationship between the community and its

police department.

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 References

Justice, Department of. “Intelligence-Led Policing: The New Intelligence Architecture.” Intelligence-Led Policing,
2015, learn-us-east-1-prod-fleet01-xythos.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/5c2103143e6a3/980607?response-
content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%2A%3DUTF-8%27%27M5_Intelligence-
Led_Policing.pdf&response.

Justice, Bureau of. “Reducing Crime Through Intelligence-Led Policing.” Reducing Crime Through Intelligence-Led
Policing, 2008, learn-us-east-1-prod-fleet01-xythos.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/5c2103143e6a3/980608?
response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%2A%3DUTF-
8%27%27M5_Reducing_Crime.pdf&response-content-type

Seals, D.(2015) Intelligence-Led Policing: Retrieved From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiEFWLb8PZM

What Law Enforcement Leaders Should Know About Intelligence-Led Policing 

(ILP) 2019. Retrieved from https://ole.sandiego.edu/ultra/courses/_58894_1/cl/outline
Signature=d14e92d7fdbff814afd81c3d119249a47f9577aa78a1025f6d8257978bf70dc

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Appendix A,B,andC

Appendix D

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Appendix E

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