Ask Me Anything: Criminal Intelligence Investigator (sworn law enforcement)
Homeland Humanity is proud to bring you our Ask Me Anything series. Each week, we’ll feature a member of our team answering your most pressing questions about their work in the Homeland Security Enterprise. Missed the question asking party? Don’t worry! Check out the bottom of the post for contact details.
Who am I?
Criminal Intelligence Investigator/Detective for a large Midwestern police agency, motorcyclist, bassist, football fan, and returning graduate student who is behind in his thesis work.
What do you do as a detective within the Criminal Intelligence Section?
In short, the criminal intelligence section (CIS) investigates, infiltrates, and disseminates. CIS conducts numerous on-going intelligence investigations and maintains databases on numerous criminal and extremist organizations across the region. This office supports police agencies across the state by conducting surveillance and counter-surveillance field operations and by recruiting and coordinating human intelligence sources. Additionally, this office is responsible for networking with other law enforcement agencies for intelligence sharing, conducting threat assessments on events and facilities, assisting federal partners, and coordinating dignitary protection duties within the state.
Is there a case that you were not able to make an arrest or identify a suspect that still haunts you?
Called to investigate a noise disturbance, we found a female fatally shot in the area of the living room of a small one-bedroom home. We discovered the female’s three children had miraculously slept through the incident despite their shared bedroom being only five feet away from where their mother was murdered. While tragic, what haunts me is having to watch fellow officers wake three newly-orphaned children from their sleep and then past the body of their mother while I held up a wool-blanket as a make-shift wall so they would not have to see the crime scene. The look of wide-eyed confusion, worry, and fear on their faces and my knowing how much their lives were about to change in one of the most horrific ways made for an especially dark day professionally.
What is your dream assignment within the force?
I am not trying to be short here, but I am actually working my dream assignment. Earning a position within the criminal intelligence section is where I’ve wanted to be since my days in the police academy. Thank you for asking me. It helps to be reminded of this fact from time to time.
What do you think of the idea of wearing a body camera while on duty? Do you think it’s an invasion of privacy or a protection for the officer and the citizen?
This is a tough question with many legal and moral components to it. In full disclosure, my office is a covert/undercover unit and we do not wear uniforms, so we likely would not fall under a policy requiring body cameras. I will give you my personal opinion though. I can see both sides of the coin. One positive side is that cameras may strengthen a police-community relationship through the establishment of greater transparency. A department equipping officers with body cameras may send the message that it has nothing to hide and that there is an unbiased accounting of police action. In contrast to these positives, there are several questions and problems with body cameras that challenge police departments across the country. If a camera cannot be turned off during the course of an officer’s duties, the camera would record victim and witness statements, images of underage victims, images of victims of sexual assault, private conversations between officers, as well as officers changing or using the restroom. These may eventually become public upon request. Additionally, incidents across the country have shown that body camera footage may not provide investigators, or the public, with all of the answers commonly believed they can deliver. These are issues that confront any department considering equipping their officers with body cameras. There are definite advantages to such a system, but the limitations should also be respected and anticipated. Personally, I would withhold my support for these cameras until these issues can be resolved for all parties involved.
Do you feel police officers should have physical fitness standards throughout their career?
Personally, I do. I say this assuming that any sworn employee may be returned to uniform status at the discretion of the Chief of Police and therefore should maintain a level of physical fitness needed to perform the job to save their own life, the lives of fellow officers, and a member of the public. Without touting the benefits of a healthy lifestyle, many police departments have faced legal challenges when instituting and applying a fitness standard to veteran officers that were hired at a time when one was not in place. Understanding these difficulties, departments may elect to establish a standard for all new officers as a part of their hiring agreement and before the start of the academy. Alternatively, my department has provided officers with gym facilities at district headquarters and has established a very popular (and voluntary) fitness program at the police academy. The law enforcement community across the nation has been proactive in encouraging officers to make healthy choices and fitness decisions through reduced health insurance rates and incentives to maintain a healthier lifestyle. Police culture is continuing to move in this direction with or without formalized fitness standards.
How do you predicate for opening an intelligence investigation?
Insightful question. There are numerous differences between criminal and intelligence investigations. Criminal investigations are launched pursuant to the filing of criminal charges based upon a specific legal standard such as probable cause or reasonable doubt whereas an intelligence investigation seeks to inform decision makers at a strategic or tactical level. *
Federal rules describe Criminal Intelligence Section(s) as being responsible for investigating individuals and groups that a trained intelligence investigator can articulate a reasonable suspicion of their involvement in criminal activity. **,***
To the heart of your question, establishing a criminal predicate is not as confusing as the language describing it (see below). Numerous groups such as organized crime syndicates, outlaw motorcycle gangs, and street gangs that are engaged in criminal acts to sustain and advance these respective groups are designated as criminally predicated organizations. Many extremist groups may be found to be criminally predicated if a history of violence or criminal activity can be documented.
More information on this topic can be found at:
* http://www.rand.org/blog/2003/02/the-big-difference-between-intelligence-and-evidence.html
** https://it.ojp.gov/documents/28cfr_part_23.pdf
***https://www.iir.com/Documents/28CFR/28cfrpart23overviewbrochure2015.pdf
What happens to the information you obtain with the information from surveillance actions?
Federal rule requires intelligence records to have “relevancy and importance” and necessitates a review of these records for validity, accuracy, and compliance. The record’s “…retention period…[shall be no]…longer than five (5) years.” After five years of inactivity, records must be destroyed.*
More information on this topic can be found at:
*https://it.ojp.gov/documents/28cfr_part_23.pdf
Have you ever shot someone?
I have not been forced to exercise deadly force in the course of my official duties. Many firearms have a certain measure of travel in the trigger before the weapon discharges. Aside from moving the index finger from the frame of the weapon to the trigger, beginning the trigger press and disengaging the trigger safety (on a Glock 22), removing this slack is the last thing in an often-rapid sequence of events preceding the use of deadly force with a firearm. Being forced to remove this slack on my weapon before an armed suspect dropped his weapon and surrendered is, thankfully, the closest I’ve been to having to use deadly force.
How well do you work with state fusion center?
The criminal intelligence section works very well with the intelligence fusion center. Being the largest department in the state, we have been afforded the luxury of having members from our department assigned to “fusion” to facilitate intelligence sharing and requests. While departmental resources vary across the state and the country, our fusion center encourages and facilitates information sharing while providing access to databases and networks beyond our respective capabilities and professional contacts. Our fusion center not only acts as an intelligence conduit between federal, state, and local agencies, but also connects investigators with other stakeholders and detectives working toward the same objectives.
The fusion center’s team of analysts have proven themselves invaluable in conducting investigative research, link analysis, and intelligence sharing on a consistent and daily basis. In my professional opinion, they are some of the unsung heroes of the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice.
An interesting review of crime analyst’s AMA can be found at:
Do you eat donuts?
Donuts? As in, “light breakfast offerings?” Like most people, I do enjoy a quality donut from time to time.* As a profession, I’m not sure if it can be said that police officers partake in them more than any other group, but it is worth studying, perhaps over a bear claw or Bavarian crème. It may be the case that officers are probably more restricted in when (or if) they get to eat and donut shops may have historically been a place to get ready-made food before the popularity of fast food restaurants and much like the jelly-filled drippings on Officer Sloppy’s tie, the association stuck. Another possibility is that alleged affinity between the police and donuts may have started in local coffee shops from the perfect paring of the donut with the ubiquitous cup of Joe; a seemingly natural complement still portrayed in every “cop show” from Hill Street Blues to Super Troopers.
*I recommend a “twist” or the traditional glazed donuts, or one of each. Both are delicious and make for excellent dunking. Eating eleven of these on a dare is not recommended. Ask me how I know.
