Toward intelligence-led policing: A qualitative study and assessment of how the critical factors of intelligence-led policing are perceived by Chicago Police Department's Organized Crime Division (OCD)

The interest in the use and development of intelligence from information by law enforcement has escalated since the events of 9/11. This dissertation investigates the contemporary phenomenon of intelligence in police work from its real life context and explores the critical factors of the Intelligence-led policing model through an assessment of how these factors are perceived by supervisors and decision makers of the Chicago Police Department's Organized Crime Division. This is a case study which will use inductive qualitative analysis and assessment on themes derived from semi-structured interviews and observations of police supervisors who are involved in decision-making tasks that require the use of intelligence products.;The extant literature on the use of information in policing and the design of the Intelligence-led policing model is extensive. However, there is little research devoted to any interpretive study which seeks to understand the phenomenon of intelligence in police work through the meaning that practitioners, i.e., police, assign to them. This study presents the basis for further research on the relationship of the critical factors involved in the intelligence-led policing model and how those factors are perceived in a real-life context. The research presents a unique view of comparative factors focused on the complexity of human sense-making as situations emerge and will be developed during the course of this study, which can be of value to future researchers.