Professional Intelligence Judgement Artistry: Some early observations

Intelligence analysis is critical national security and law enforcement function dependant on the intellectual capacity of individual analysts. The practice of intelligence is undertaken in an extremely complex environment often under a veil of secrecy, and where uncertain and deceptive information represents the norm. In order to develop as a profession appropriate constructs with which to explore and explain how analysts process intelligence, make decisions and reach judgements are needed. An improved understanding will offer opportunities to develop appropriate training and professional development for intelligence analysts. This paper introduces the construct of Professional Intelligence Judgement Artistry together with some very early findings to emerge from an initial series of interviews undertaken as part of a pilot study

The Contemporary Australian Intelligence Domain - A Multi Dimension Examination

In the complex and interconnected post 9/11 world the roles and functions of intelligence have evolved beyond being a secret capability of governments focused on national security needs. Intelligence has become recognised as a critical function necessary to support decision making across the full breadth of government and corporate activity. The concept of an intelligence community being purely national security centric and bounded by secrecy has become limited. Intelligence in support of decision making has become a far broader domain than previously believed. This paper investigates the degree of intelligence embedded‐ness across government agencies and departments at the federal, state and local levels. Findings reveal that in excess of 75 discrete intelligence capabilities were identified, categorized by theme before being stratified into a three tier hierarchal intelligence domain map. Many of these categories were not in support of national security per se, but rather in support of broader government decision making

Does a weak security discourse provide opportunity for security deviance to flourish?

In the years since the tragedy of 9/11 the term security has become a much used and abused term. As the war on terrorism has evolved, politicians of all persuasions played the security card to change law and legislation ostensibly to protect the community. Those whom provide the security assume that freedoms lost by the wider community in the name of security are in fact a fair price to pay for that security. In this environment the security discourse is diminished and this provides an opportunity for security deviance to emerge. This research used a selection of publically reported examples of security misconduct to examine and define the construct security deviance. Security deviance being the misuse and abuse of security policy, processes and mechanisms for unauthorised benefit or gratification

Defence in Depth, Protection in Depth and Security in Depth: A Comparative Analysis Towards a Common Usage Language

A common language with consistency of meaning is a critical step in the evolution of a profession. Whilst the debate as to whether or not security should be considered a profession is ongoing there is no doubt that the wider community of professionals operating in the security domain are working towards achieving recognition of security as a profession. The concepts of defence in depth, protection in depth and security in depth have been used synonymously by different groups across the domain. These concepts represent the very foundation of effective security architecture are hierarchical in nature and have specific meaning. This paper through comparative analysis clearly defines the difference between and establishes the hierarchy such that a common understanding can be achieved

An Exploratory Study of the Lived Experience of Being an Intelligence Analyst

Since the World Trade Centre terror attacks of 2001 the intelligence domain has grown rapidly. In keeping with this growth has been a significant increase of scholarly interest in the domain. The intelligence literature is dominated by research into the failures of the discipline, organisational structure and the politics of intelligence. The intelligence analyst is a critical component of the intelligence domain yet is remarkably absent from the intelligence literature. This research seeks to address that imbalance by examining the lived experience of the analyst operating in the law enforcement intelligence domain. To this end, interpretive phenomenology was employed to understand the meanings attributed to analysts’ subjective experiences in order to identify enablers and barriers that impact their crucial function in law enforcement. A purposive sample of eight analysts participated in in‐depth, semi structured interviews. Transcripts were subjected in interpretive phenomenological analysis, which revealed two superordinate themes: Self and Work/Home Divide. These referred to internal and external factors that impacted upon participants’ functioning, some of which may have a negative impact on psychological wellbeing while others are relevant to efficient functioning within the workplace. Two subthemes being communication and internal conflict are discussed in depth

National security: A propositional study to develop resilience indicators as an aid to personnel vetting

Within the National Security domain there is a convergence of security responsibility across the national security agencies, law enforcement and private security sectors. The sensitivity of this environment requires individuals operating in the domain to be honest, trustworthy and loyal. Personnel vetting is a formal process used to determine an individual’s suitability for access to this domain. Notwithstanding this process, significant breaches of trust, security, and corruption still occur. In psychology, resilience is a well researched phenomenon that is considered a multidimensional construct where individual attributes, family aspects and social environment interact in aiding individuals to deal with vulnerability. There are many understandings and definitions of resilience based on theorists’ different perspectives; however, most agree that resilience is represented by a minimum of two aspects. The first is adversity and second, how the individual deals with adversity that demonstrates situational adaptation in a positive manner. The study is a work in progress and proposes the use of a recently developed Lifespan Resilience Scale. This scale will use resilience markers as an aid to National Security by providing vetting agencies with an additional tool for proactive intervention. The Lifespan Resilience Scale is currently undergoing reliability and validity testing within a student population. Once validated within this population, the scale will be adjusted and tested within the vetting environment using cross validated cohorts and expert opinion. Such a tool will assist National Security through better personnel risk management

Efficacy of property marking as a situational crime prevention strategy

Burglary and stealing are crimes that have a significant impact and cost on its victims and society. To mitigate such crimes, property marking is a situational crime prevention strategy that attempts to prevent through dissuasion. There are many forms of property marking, yet there is limited research of its efficacy. Where there have been such studies, there has been some indications of success. Therefore, the study assessed the efficacy of property marking to reduce burglary and stealing crimes. The study undertook a quantitate approach using non-equivalent control groups to assess the geo-spatial impact of property marking when applied at a saturation level. Three housing groups were established (N878), comprising an experimental (n278), adjacent (n300) and control (n300) groups, with significance measured using a Wald Chi-square method. Results indicated that when property marking is applied at saturation levels (≥80%), both burglary and stealing crimes decreased significantly. Furthermore, that displacement for both burglary and stealing occurred in the adjacent area. Recommendations suggest that property marking should not be used in a sporadic manner; instead, targeted at an optimal saturation level. Such targeting should have the aim to target burglary and stealing hotspots and saturate these areas for property marking to work effectively

National Security: A Propositional Study to Develop Resilience Indicators as an Aid to Personnel Vetting

Within the National Security domain there is a convergence of security responsibility across the national security agencies, law enforcement and private security sectors. The sensitivity of this environment requires individuals operating in the domain to be honest, trustworthy and loyal. Personnel vetting is a formal process used to determine an individual’s suitability for access to this domain. Notwithstanding this process, significant breaches of trust, security, and corruption still occur. In psychology, resilience is a well researched phenomenon that is considered a multidimensional construct where individual attributes, family aspects and social environment interact in aiding individuals to deal with vulnerability. There are many understandings and definitions of resilience based on theorists’ different perspectives; however, most agree that resilience is represented by a minimum of two aspects. The first is adversity and second, how the individual deals with adversity that demonstrates situational adaptation in a positive manner. The study is a work in progress and proposes the use of a recently developed Lifespan Resilience Scale. This scale will use resilience markers as an aid to National Security by providing vetting agencies with an additional tool for proactive intervention. The Lifespan Resilience Scale is currently undergoing reliability and validity testing within a student population. Once validated within this population, the scale will be adjusted and tested within the vetting environment using cross validated cohorts and expert opinion. Such a tool will assist National Security through better personnel risk management

INFORMATION EVALUATION: HOW ONE GROUP OF INTELLIGENCE ANALYSTS GO ABOUT THE TASK

Source and information evaluation is identified as being a critical element of the analytical process and production of intelligence products. However there is concern that in reality evaluation is being carried out in a cursory fashion involving limited intellectual rigour. Poor evaluation is also thought to be a causal factor in the failure of intelligence. This study examined the process of information and source evaluation as understood and practiced by, six West Australian Police Force, (WAPOL) intelligence analysts. Data was gathered by use of a focus group with that data being compared against the current literature. It was discovered that formal training in evaluation methods was limited. The significance of evaluation was however clearly understood and the lack of sufficient training was recognised as a limitation to analysis. The study however identified that this group of analysts did practice evaluation through a process of ongoing information contextualisation