ABSTRACT

As will become evident in this chapter, information is arguably the most valued commodity in the world. No matter what the business or industry, information may be more vital than any product or resource. The same can be said about the importance of information in a criminal investigation. When investigators arrive on the scene of a crime, some information will be available to them. For instance, the first responders to the scene—typically patrol officers—will have secured that scene helping to prevent contamination of the evidence and locating and identifying witnesses and suspects. Normally, that will mean that the criminal investigators will have access to a number of sources of information. Those sources will include the victim, any evidence left behind by the perpetrator(s), witnesses to the crime, and, perhaps, even one or more suspects. In addition to federal, state and local databases, there are hundreds of social network sites that contain personal profiles and often valuable personal details about where people live, work, and go on vacation, along with information about friends, associates, and love interests.

As suggested in this chapter, the intelligence analyst must be familiar with many sources of useful data in order to be of the most help to their law enforcement partners.