National Intelligence Model in MPS

Report: 15
Date: 27 February 2003
By: Commissioner

Summary

The link between the National Intelligence Model (NIM) and operational performance is well established, and for this reason the Authority has requested an update on its implementation in the MPS.

A. Recommendations

That the report be noted.

B. Supporting information

1. This report is a basic introduction to the National Intelligence Model (NIM) and an outline of the current planning for implementation to the national deadline of April 2004. As this is work in progress, further reports to the MPA are anticipated to keep members fully appraised.

Background to NIM

2. The National Intelligence Model has been adopted by ACPO and the Home Office as the intelligence standard for all UK law enforcement agencies, and it must be in place by April 2004. It is part of the Government’s reform agenda and, being a strategic priority within the new National Policing Plan, will become a Ministerial objective. It is also an MPS objective. Both HMIC and the Policing Standards Unit have undertaken to oversee forces’ implementation of the model. A document outlining national minimum standards for implementation is under development and is due to go before ACPO Council in March 2003.

3. The NIM is quite simply a system for managing intelligence that will ensure uniform practices across the country. It means that different forces and diverse law enforcement agencies will be able to share intelligence and mount joint operations without encountering the problems that can currently hamper such activity, for example computer databases that are not compatible or information that is processed differently. It also demands that intelligence be shared properly within forces, for example between two MPS Boroughs, ensuring that cross border problems are always spotted early. It is also a blueprint for effective and efficient policing at any level because it specifies how intelligence should be progressed and linked into policing priorities. It intends to make all police activity focused and relevant, based on a much more scientific approach. It aims to ensure we understand our crime and our problems and that possible future threats can be identified at an early stage. If fully embraced, the NIM should help provide answers to all policing problems, from organised crime to road safety. The way that this is done is illustrated below. It is best explained in two parts. The first is how intelligence is formed into useful tools for decision-making. The NIM calls these tools ‘intelligence products’. The second is how theses are used to inform police activity. This is referred to as a ‘Tasking and Coordination’ process. In simple terms this is a framework for tasking or deploying resources to a problem and coordinating the police response.

Figure 1. NIM compliant Tasking and Co-ordination Groups (TCG)

Intelligence products

4. Intelligence products are a way of presenting analysed information to managers and will take the form of reports about specific problems and issues. The NIM describes four different products that should be compiled in the same way by each force or agency. The first report is called a Strategic Assessment (see Figure 1) and it is put together by specialists who will aim to give an overview of actual and emerging trends for policing on a long-term basis. This is the most innovative of the products because it forces police leaders to determine their priorities by thinking strategically. The other three products provide the intelligence picture at a more tactical level, offering detailed analysis of problems and people and making suggestions about the best course of action. The benefit of having such specific products is that they are uniform and can be shared or added together to recognise mutual problems and issues without having to account for different forces’ practices or techniques.

Tasking and co-ordination

5. This is a way of organising police resources and making it possible for joined up responses to shared problems. The cycle for decision making in Figure 1 is a generic one and designed to work at any level, for example within a Borough, for the MPS as a whole or to identify and manage regional or cross border issues. It shows how the Strategic Assessment is used at a strategic meeting to set priorities. The other intelligence products help the tactical meeting decide how to deal with those priorities. It means that all police activity is directed towards the identified priorities eliminating unfocused activity and improving efficiency.

Impact on management processes

6. The NIM helps managers to understand policing problems because they will have access to high quality intelligence and are obliged to formulate their strategy and tactics using it. Decisions will be documented and reviewed on a formal basis within the NIM Tasking and Coordination Structure thus ensuring accountability and transparency. Performance analysis is incorporated into the NIM intelligence products and this too helps to secure efficiency when determining police activity.

Operational benefits

7. The MPS Safer Streets initiative used the principles of the NIM at the core of its management processes with significant reductions in street crime illustrating the shift towards intelligence-led policing. These principles are currently being applied to burglary and gun crime. Rather than simply reacting to crime, policing will actively target resources against criminals and effectively prevent and disrupt crime on the basis of correctly managed intelligence. It will enable a better understanding of policing and in so doing improve effectiveness and efficiency.

Impact on partnership activity

8. The NIM contributes significantly to partnership activity. All law enforcement agencies are under the same obligation to implement the NIM and will enable those that handle intelligence to ‘speak the same language’. The NIM provides a rigorous and defensible basis for managing the challenges that the Human Rights and Freedom of Information Acts present for intelligence sharing. The presence of our Crime and Disorder Act Partners at strategic and tactical meetings will ensure better informed decision-making and a more accurate gauge of public opinion at a local and service level. The London Crime Director at Government Office for London, Ellie Roy, is currently considering how the principles of the NIM can be incorporated into all partnership activity through Project Lion.

Update on MPS implementation

9. There is no doubt that a comprehensive programme of work is needed in order for the MPS to develop in line with the NIM, working to the deadline of April 2004. To this end it has been assigned an ACPO lead and given command unit status within the Intelligence Directorate. This OCU has been formed by redeploying officers within the Directorate. The programme will progress intelligence-led policing in a way that incorporates the best of MPS practice whilst embracing the implementation of the NIM. It will build on the work undertaken under the MPS Policing Model, expanding it beyond TP (Territorial Policing) and taking it Service-wide. Full implementation of an MPS Intelligence Strategy that incorporates the NIM is still some way off. A baseline assessment has been conducted to establish ‘where we are now’, and national minimum standards are currently under development. The combination of these two products will provide a clear indication of the work necessary for successful implementation. An inaugural Programme Board is planned and a realistic MPS implementation plan should be in place in February 2003.

C. Equality and diversity implications

Any revised policies and processes will take full account of Human Rights, Equality and Fairness, The Race Relations Amendment Act 2000, The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act and Data Protection Acts.

The overriding objective of the NIM is the proportionate use of police resources through accurate analysis of problems. Assumptions that the NIM is about crime alone are ill founded. It is a process by which disorder and local problems are fed into the business planning cycle at an early stage and to which preventative measures can be applied. It will help to move the Service away from reactive policing, thereby protecting and supporting communities in a genuinely innovative way. By adopting the processes outlined in the NIM, the MPS will ensure that it serves London’s diverse communities in a way that is transparent and fully accountable. The effective use of intelligence should result in the proper targeting of resources and eliminate unfocused policing activity, something for which the MPS has at times been criticised.

D. Financial implications

The cost implications of NIM implementation have yet to fully unfold. No cost has been allocated to the NIM for 2003-4 at this stage. An Investment Appraisal is to be conducted in order to obtain an objective measure of the likely costs and impact of implementation. It is anticipated that there may be spending increases on Staff (notably increasing our analytical capability in order to produce quality intelligence products), Training and Information Technology. The IT spend should already be accounted for within the current MPS Information Strategy. The Home Office will be making money for the NIM available in the next financial year. Although the criteria have not yet been made clear, the intention is to make strong representations for a share of the national spend that reflects the size of the MPS and the level of its responsibilities.

E. Background papers

None.

F. Contact details

Report author: Detective Chief Superintendent Bob Youldon, NIM Implementation Team, MPS.

For more information contact:

MPA general: 020 7202 0202
Media enquiries: 020 7202 0217/18

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