ABSTRACT
Increasingly, law enforcement agencies are looking to develop ways in which they can improve on decision making both from the standpoint of the leadership of these organization and from the perspective of line officers. This change is being encouraged by the emphasis that is being placed on intelligence-led policing, supporting the integration of wide ranging information sources into the strategic planning of the organization that can then be used for tactical purposes. There is, in addition, a realization that information or “intelligence” that is collected but not properly managed is not of much use to decision making. This is particularly important in the deliberations around resource management and prioritization of programs. In looking at ways to assist in their decisions, security agencies, including the police, have begun to discuss how they might incorporate risk assessment and risk management into their operations (Van Brunschot and Kennedy 2008). While this approach has been widely used throughout the private sector, labeled enterprise risk management, in managing corporate assets and insuring security for employees, it has been slow to catch on in the public sector. While it is not uncommon for law enforcement or security agencies to talk about doing threat analysis, the broader issues around risk assessment appear to be underdeveloped. It appears, as well, that while this approach has become much more the operational modus operandi of national security agencies (see the Department of Homeland Security and, in particular, the reports from the US Coast Guard’s embracing of risk assessment), it is less likely to be identified as an integral part of the management strategies used in local and regional law enforcement.
