OSCE launches Guidebook on Intelligence-Led Policing

VIENNA, 3 July 2017 – The OSCE today launched a guidebook on intelligence-led policing, an innovative approach to law enforcement that strengthens pro-active planning and decision-making. The guidebook is a practical tool for policymakers, law enforcement decision-makers and criminal analysts.

Intelligence-led policing is a modern law enforcement model aimed at facilitating the prevention, reduction and disruption of crime through pro-active and forward-looking police management, and operational enforcement. Information analysis and assessments results are used as a basis for informed and evidence-based planning, decision-making and resource allocation.

The Guidebook on Intelligence-Led Policing details the managerial and analytical skills, data and information, and strategic planning and tasking mechanisms that are required to successfully implement this pro-active policing approach. The Guidebook also explains how intelligence-led policing complements traditional reactive policing models.

“The publication of this Guidebook is an important milestone in the OSCE’s work on police-related activities,” said Ambassador Clemens Koja, Chairperson of the OSCE Permanent Council, representing the Austrian OSCE Chairmanship. “It presents methodologies and tools that can serve to improve law enforcement, with the broader goal of maintaining security and stability in the OSCE area. Participating States and Partners for Co-operation are invited to make use of the Guidebook and the numerous practical tools it presents,” he said.

Intelligence-led policing has already been implemented in a number of countries worldwide and interest in this approach has grown across the OSCE region as an answer to the search for law enforcement methods that enable the police to prevent crime, rather than just responding to it. It can be implemented with limited resources and ensures transparency and accountability.

“Intelligence-led policing is meant to improve decision-making and management in law enforcement. One of its aims is to improve transparency and accountability, which are among the fundamental principles of OSCE’s police-related activities,” said Ambassador Eberhard Pohl, Permanent Representative of Germany to the OSCE. “It is a pleasure to see that the 2016 German Chairmanship’s initiative to bring intelligence-led policing to the OSCE’s agenda has led to the publication of this useful tool for practitioners in the OSCE area.”

The OSCE Transnational Threats Department’s Strategic Police Matters Unit developed this guidebook in response to the need for a common OSCE-wide notion of the Intelligence-Led Policing concept, as expressed by participants in the OSCE’s 2016 Annual Police Experts Meeting. The Unit’s mandate is to provide assistance to participating States in building the capacity of police, improving their professionalism and supporting police development and reform.

“The development of this publication started more than a year ago, and over 30 experts from different backgrounds and with diverse views have participated in the drafting process. It is therefore very rewarding to hear that it has not only been positively accepted in general, but has a practical value for implementing intelligence-led policing and related support activities,” said Ambassador Paul Bekkers, Director of the Office of the OSCE Secretary General.

The Guidebook on Intelligence-Led Policing, currently available in English, can be found at: www.osce.org/chairmanship/327476

Regional presentations of the guidebook in the OSCE region are due to take place in the coming months, and the guidebook will be translated into several languages.