Tragic story from CBS Canada about the death of a member of the public in a police operation involving crime-stoppers information.

While not commenting on the specifics of this tragic case there are lessons that need to be learned the main one being is that Crime Stoppers and similar tip lines provide information, not intelligence. Crimestoppers provide an easy wat for well-meaning citizens to provide information to police in a safe and secure way. There is nothing wrong with crime-stoppers or tip lines: the problem comes with how law enforcement uses that information.

Law enforcement should not take action unless they are acting on “intelligence.” They should not take action based on information. Knowing the difference between information and intelligence is very important.

Intelligence is information that has gone through an evaluation process and has been properly analyzed in relation to the reliability of the origin of that information and the validity of that information.

It is neither safe nor lawful to use information from crime -stoppers unless there is other intelligence to support the allegations contained in the information. That is why information received in this way must be analyzed and processed into intelligence and given appropriate grading for reliability and validity using an admiralty type system.

It is surprising how many police officers working with intelligence do not understand the basics. It is not their fault. The negligence lies with their management. Many agencies claim to be adopting intelligence-led policing but fail to provide staff with the training to understand the concept. Officers need to be trained properly and the law enforcement agency needs a proper intelligence management system. Take a look at our book on the subject or ask us about training.