The application of the “discipline of intelligence” to law enforcement assists executives, managers, investigators, analysts, and first responders “reduce uncertainty by collecting information, overtly and covertly,” analyzing this information, and providing this “new knowledge” (actionable intelligence) to law enforcement decision makers to meet mission requirements.¹

Law enforcement intelligence has paralleled political and social crises in the United States since 1870. Prior to the 9/11 attacks on the United States, many large urban police departments had well-established intelligence units that utilized analysts and investigators to conduct both criminal intelligence analysis and crime analysis to control crime and violence. However, despite efforts since the 1970s to establish law enforcement training and education standards and guidelines, it took the 9/11 terrorist attacks to convince law enforcement executives, the U.S. Congress, and the public that law enforcement agencies needed to have an intelligence capability to detect, deter, prevent, respond to, and mitigate crime and terrorist activities. The 9/11 attacks “served as a catalyst for dramatic changes to the United States national security enterprise…Among those changes is the recognition that our local, state, and tribal law enforcement agencies make critical contributions not only to the protection of our communities, but to the security of the United States at large…The progress we have made to improve coordination between the intelligence community and law enforcement since 9/11 has been phenomenal.”²