Leps 550 Final Paper
Leps 550 Final Paper
Leps 550 Final Paper
LEPS 550
13 December 2019
Law enforcement throughout its evolution has looked for innovative concepts, ideas, and
practices when implementing police services to better serve communities effectively and efficiently.
With changes and advancements in technology and society, it is imperative that law enforcement
uses these changes and advancements in technology to assist in stopping and preventing crime.
These advancements in technology allowed for better data tracking and gathering. This new
information law enforcement received allowed for the creation of Intelligence-led policing. The
following is a look at the concept of Intelligence-led policing, how it allows for better efficient
policing, how the Buena Park Police Department has adopted and utilizes intelligence-led policing
strategies such as Hot spot policing, Partnership model of policing, and community orientated
policing to better serve its community, how the Buena Park police departments utilization of
intelligence-led policing led to the decrease of its biggest property crime of motor vehicle theft, and
the efficacy/efficiency of the intelligence-led policing in the Buena Park Police Department.
Intelligence-led policing since the 1990’s has been a tool and concept for law enforcement
to prevent crime. With advances in technology and data gathering, ILP has become law
enforcements go to policing concept. ILP is defined as the strategic and collaborative approach to
that data, and the extraction of intelligence/data (Seals, 2015). Along with high-quality data and its
gathering, an enhanced collaboration with the community in the form of community policing and
cooperation with surrounding law enforcement agencies is vital. Community policing concerning ILP
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allows for citizens and surrounding agencies to be involved in reporting activities and open
dialogue. This in turn creates positive relations to allow for community mobilization to deal with
problems, issues, and crime trends. Partnerships and collaborations with surrounding agencies
ensure leveraging of resources that would not be accessible such as task force and joint agency
The information from better technology and community collaboration that becomes ILP
creates a clearer picture for law enforcement to more efficiently police because of the critical
information and intelligence the data bears. ILP intelligence shows an accurate picture of what
crimes and issues are occurring, the nature and extent of the crimes and issues, the trends
associated with the crimes and trends, and where the threats lie for these crimes and trends (DOJ,
2015). This, in turn, allows for strategic crime targeting, planning, resource allocation, and crime
prevention techniques to create and implement informed decisions to ultimately create a better
quality of life for the community being served and which creates trust for a police department.
The Buena Park police department has bought into the ILP concept and its philosophy.
Under the leadership of Chief Sianez and his command staff, the department has made a
commitment to ILP by utilizing technology to more efficiently police and protect, strengthen
community relations and engagement through a community orientated unit, and improving
community engagement through community involved programs (BJA,2008). The Buena Park Police
department in 2015 purchased and integrated the Spillman record management system and
Spillman computer-aided dispatch interface to increase data efficiency at every level of the
department, giving dispatchers, records staff, support staff, and officers access to the resources
needed to do their jobs safely and effectively. The integration of the Spillman system increased data
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accuracy and eliminated the need to enter information numerous times. This saves time and
enables personnel to make decisions more proactively. Information captured by this integrated
system allows officers and management access to crime-specific filters, pin maps, time-comparison
analytics, and more efficient data collection because of expanded circumstances and code entry
options.
The Chief and his command staff created a six officer unit known as the community impact
team whose goals and mission are to address quality of life issues, emerging crime trends, and
problem areas in the Community (BJA 2008). The philosophy of this unit is to address quality of life
issues and crime reduction through hot spot policing strategies which is the focus of resources and
crime prevention to a small geographic area where crime is concentrated to cause its deterrence,
predictive policing strategies, and problem orientated policing strategies to identify, analyze, and
prioritize specific problems such as offenders, victims, and repeat incidents (LIP, 2019).
With the implementation and integration of a new intelligence-led technology and unit
solely created to address quality of life issues and crime trends, the department hired a full-time
non-sworn crime analyst to turn data into intelligence. The department’s crime analyst works
directly with the community impact unit and detective bureau to further enhance/decipher the
intelligence these units have to better police (Weiss, 2019). Along with deciphering data, the
department’s crime analyst position was formed with the partnership model in mind. The
department’s analyst acts as the department’s mediator with other surrounding law enforcement
agencies to obtain pertinent information and leverage resources regarding potential threats,
crimes, and issues that could impact the city and quality of life issues.
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The department has made community engagement through the community orientated
policing strategy a priority when making intelligence-led decisions. The department with its
enhanced technology has created a crime stoppers program that is integrated into the Spillman
system. This integration allows residents to report suspicious activity and report crimes so that all
department personnel have real-time access to crucial informed first hand data and knowledge.
The department has also revamped its neighborhood watch program to enlist the active
participation and cooperation of its residents to obtain critical information concerning crime
matters in specific neighborhoods to reduce crime. The Buena Park police through other
community engagement events strive to connect with the community it serves to improve and build
Like all policing theories the emphasis and main questions regarding a police theory are
“Does it really work?” And “how was it effective?” Effective policing theories and styles are
considered efficient in their ability to be viable and practical in crime prevention, deterrence,
improving quality of life, and avoiding issues such as discrimination (LeCates, 2015). The following is
a case study of the Buena Park Police department’s effective adoption and adaption of Intelligence-
led policing strategies of Hot Spot policing, Partnership model of policing, and community-oriented
policing which led to an effective usage of Intelligence-led policing to better formulate plans and
ideas to combat the city’s biggest property crime of motor vehicle theft.
Intelligence-led policing and its dependence on crime tracking and data is an important tool
for law enforcement leaders as they can utilize this information to effectively deter and solve
crimes. When conducting an inquiry of crimes impacting the city of Buena Park in 2008 through the
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UCR and in-house Spillman data gathering system there was an alarmingly high rate of motor
vehicle thefts. Motor vehicle theft is defined as the unlawful taking or driving of a vehicle not their
own, without consent, with the intent to deprive the owner of their vehicle in the Buena Park
community had shown a higher rate of occurrence compared to any other Orange County City,
similar rates to the state average, and a higher rate than the national average from the years of
2008(FBI, 2019/See appendix A-C). In 2008, motor vehicle thefts in Buena Park were estimated at
500 reported incidents within the year. The department at this point began to implement the three
Hot spot policing to more intelligently and effectively combat and deter this alarming high crime.
The department seeing that surrounding cities had lower rates of this specific crime utilized
the partnership policing model by joining the Orange County Vehicle Auto theft task force. This was
a county-funded program which allowed for county-wide Intel, knowledge, and a unit to combat
this specific crime with the shared information, knowledge, and county funded resources such as
officers, databases, and grant allocations at the city and county level. The department also
participated in a mutual aid agreement with every orange county department to process all
recovered stolen vehicles for DNA to create a watch list/profile on motor vehicle thief’s/trends to
assist investigations and obtain convictions. These watch lists helped all Orange County
departments create a strategic subject list to identify possible suspects and victims as well as traits
of suspects and victims. This allowed Buena Park officers to have access to countywide knowledge
obtained the community’s involvement in reporting suspicious activity and reporting crimes/quality
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of life issues through technological means such as the crime stoppers tip program, neighborhood
watch meetings, and crime reporting allowed officers and the department access to first-hand data
to extract intelligence. Through community outreach/engagement the department was able to give
its residents tips on how to prevent themselves from being victims of this crime through strategic
lists that had been created and disseminated via neighborhood watch meetings, social media, and
other community involved events which decreased their likelihood of being victims.
Information and intelligence data gathered from the Spillman system which consisted of
information allowed for the Buena Park Police department's implementation of hot spot policing
from the community impact team. The CIT unit was able to utilize the hot spot strategy information
surveillance to apprehend and identify suspects and conduct directed uniformed presence in high
crime concentrated areas to deter the crime from occurring (See appendix D). This also allowed CIT
officers to work collaboratively with patrol officers to inform them on how to better strategically
police this problem and specific data-driven things to look for regarding motor vehicle suspects and
stolen vehicles.
The integration and effective utilization of all three strategies of intelligence-led policing led
to a decrease of over 500 reported cases in 2008 to under 300 reported cases in 2018 which was
almost a 50 percent decrease in the city's highest crime (See Appendix A).
of Hot spot policing, Partnership Policing Model, and Community Orientated Policing have all been
effective and viable. The Buena Park police department has had successes with the utilization of
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Intelligence-led policing and strategies to impact other issues facing the city, law enforcement, and
will continue to practice this type of policing as it is an effective, efficient, and formidable policing
theory/strategy for law enforcement. Other examples of the efficiency and viability of ILP strategies
within the city of Buena Park are the decreases in all property crime categories of arson, burglary,
In conclusion, the Buena Park Police department has adopted the concept and theory of
intelligence-led policing to better serve its community. The Chief and his command staff have
utilized intelligence-led policing because of its utilization of evolving technology which gathers
efficient data and embraces community involvement/reporting to make educated decisions to deter
and solve crime. The Buena Park Police department utilized ILP by its integration of a Spillman data
gathering technology which increased data efficiency, the creation of a unit dedicated to address
quality of life issues and crime trends through ILP made decision and strategies, and the hiring of a
full-time crime analyst to turn the efficient data obtained through Spillman to intelligence to be
utilized by all sworn personnel to better serve their community. The utilization of Intelligence-led
policing strategies of Hot spot policing, Partnership Policing Model, and Community Orientated
Policing to address its highest crime issue/trend of motor vehicle theft was nearly cut in half in a ten
year span. The efficiency of Intelligence-led policing and its strategies assisted in the decrease of all
property crimes in the Buena Park community from 2008-2018. Intelligence led decisions positively
impacted and changed the way the department has been able to serve its community and improve
the quality of life for its residents. The Buena Park police department has had successes with the
utilization of Intelligence-led policing and strategies to impact other issues facing the city, law
enforcement, and will continue to practice this type of policing as it is an effective, efficient, and
formidable policing theory/strategy for law enforcement. Overall, Intelligence led-policing has
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improved policing in the city of Buena Park and the relationship between the community and its
police department.
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References
Justice, Department of. “Intelligence-Led Policing: The New Intelligence Architecture.” Intelligence-Led Policing,
2015, learn-us-east-1-prod-fleet01-xythos.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/5c2103143e6a3/980607?response-
content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%2A%3DUTF-8%27%27M5_Intelligence-
Led_Policing.pdf&response.
Justice, Bureau of. “Reducing Crime Through Intelligence-Led Policing.” Reducing Crime Through Intelligence-Led
Policing, 2008, learn-us-east-1-prod-fleet01-xythos.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/5c2103143e6a3/980608?
response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%2A%3DUTF-
8%27%27M5_Reducing_Crime.pdf&response-content-type
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Appendix A,B,andC
Appendix D
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Appendix E
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