ABSTRACT
There are three primary types of information that can be gathered in order to develop intelligence. First, there is the store of information within the agency or elsewhere in the law enforcement community. Given efficient means of handling the internal information flow, the former is immediately accessible, gaining access to the latter may be more difficult. Second, there are a variety of more or less ‘open’ sources including the records of other state and private sector agencies for investigative purposes and an infinite variety of wide-ranging social and economic data if the objective is strategic intelligence. Third, there is the information that can be collected only by covert means, either technical (for example, interception of communi cations) or human (informants or physical surveillance). Human sources are discussed in chapter eight; the others are considered in this chapter.
