ABSTRACT
Beginning with the theme of “facts” and Huxley’s quote, we will state a few more simple facts: First, if you are a member of a law enforcement agency (LEA), you are likely to have an interest in how well your agency is managing intelligence; second, if you take a long hard look, you will probably find it is not doing that well; and finally, the failings are probably being ignored. The reader may ask “On what evidence are such judgmental statements made?” To which the reply would be “Observation, experience, and the researching of stories that appear in the media on a daily basis, where law enforcement has made often serious errors in managing intelligence.” Looking at their own agency, the reader may already be aware of many failings in regard to intelligence management. Alternatively, the reader may be sure that their agency is managing intelligence as effectively as any agency could do, which would then beg the question: “If one agency can do it right, then why are so many getting it wrong and often so badly wrong?” The reasons are many and include a lack of understanding, a lack of knowledge, but probably most often blindness (sometimes willful) to the fact that there may be problems. If we don’t look, we won’t see and if we do look, our eyes are often clouded by self-delusion. There are often powerful motivators within law enforcement to ignore what we know to be there, including a lack of sufficient power to change things for many, a reluctance to enter into the inevitable conflict that merely suggesting change brings, or quite simply a belief that there is insufficient finance to make the necessary changes. Of course, the reader may just be reading this book without any personal involvement in law enforcement and they will have the benefit of perusing the content with an unbiased eye, as getting rid of one’s historic “baggage” is often a significant part in looking at anything afresh. And just in case the reader is from the military or the intelligence community seeking the opportunity to gloat over how badly their colleagues in law enforcement do things-similar problems are present in their agencies. So now that we are all suitably annoyed, depressed, or whatever, we can start to move forward.
