NCJ Number
173764
Date Published
1995
Length
65 pages
Annotation
Certain elements of England's police service, including regional crime squads and specialist units, have long made good use of intelligence, surveillance, and informants to identify criminals and collect evidence, and this study looks at how the police service has approached the task of making greater use of proactive criminal investigation methods at the local level.
Abstract
The report illustrates practical difficulties faced by police departments in trying to move away from a predominantly reactive approach to crime and ways in which intelligence, surveillance, and informants can be incorporated into the work of command units to make a substantial contribution to policing at the local level. The report is based on a 12-month study covering eight police departments in England that included interviews with police officers of all ranks, surveys of criminal investigations, and analysis of files and illustrative cases. Study findings showed many police departments were convinced of the need for a shift to proactivity in criminal investigations. Not all police departments, however, had taken the calculated risk of investing in major organizational reforms to support a proactive approach. Consideration is paid to the need for police to recognize victim needs, the question of how to involve the public in decisions about policing priorities, dangers of malpractice associated with the use of informants, and civil liberties issues related to some forms of surveillance. The authors conclude major organizational reforms can be successfully implemented only if there is strong commitment to them by senior police officers, each police officer must understand the purpose of an integrated proactive system, possible negative influences of cultural factors must be considered, and key objectives and strategies of proactive policing must be reviewed regularly. 21 references, 3 tables, and 3 figures