Criminal Intelligence Program

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Organized Crime

Under the command of the Director General this branch co-ordinates, collects, analyzes and disseminates intelligence related to organized crime and serious criminal acts. It contributes to the overall mission of the Criminal Intelligence Program by providing tactical and strategic insights and it plays a key role in research and development for the overall program.

The Criminal Intelligence Program

The operational philosophy of the RCMP is founded on the principles of intelligence-led policing . For this reason, the strategic intelligence capability of the Criminal Intelligence Program (CIP) lies at the heart of all of its initiatives.

The CIP plays a critical role in the Criminal Operations decision-making process and in the implementation of the RCMP’s Criminal Operations Model with regard to organized crime and criminal extremism/terrorism. It identifies and updates both strategic and tactical enforcement priorities. This is done through an exhaustive and continuing process of threat assessment as well as by using the SLEIPNIR threat measurement methodology developed by CID.

As the RCMP’s institutional memory, the CIP’s role is to guide operational decision making at the strategic level through provision of criminal information and intelligence that is both relevant and forward-looking. It gives the organization the flexibility it needs to adjust to a constantly changing criminal milieu.

Strategic criminal intelligence provides a broad overview of the trends, changes, threats and opportunities which affect the RCMP’s law enforcement mandate. It exists in support of the overall decision-making process and is both policy relevant and forward looking. It forges a critical link between operations and management and provides guidance in the allocation of resources.

The Intelligence Cycle

Collection/Evaluation

Collection of criminal information and the analysis of this accumulating body of knowledge produces perspective and understanding. The capacity to understand the criminal environment provides police and law enforcement with a fact basis for strategic planning and resulting enforcement action. Information that is fully processed through the intelligence process, as opposed to raw data, provides intelligence relating to the capabilities, limitations, vulnerabilities and intentions of criminal organizations or individual criminals. This is essential knowledge that enhances law enforcement’s ability to accurately assess and effectively investigate, disrupt and prosecute criminal activity.

The Collection Plan

Initiating a collection plan clearly represents one of the most important steps in the collection/evaluation phase of the intelligence process. The collection plan details the information needed to develop tactical and strategic intelligence and provides intelligence personnel with parameters for their collection efforts.

The collection plan is a guide for collection activities. It addresses the issues of what has to be collected and why. It allows for better use of resources and confident planning by senior managers. There are five main components of the collection plan:

1. The objective(s)
2. The investigative questions
3. The information sources
4. The collection methods
5. The collection method details, including task, resources, schedule and cost.

The collection plan allows a systematic development of inferences which have a higher probability of being correct. It makes no distinction between “routinely” received or accessed information and that which must be “ferreted out”.

Type of Data to Collect

To assist in developing an information collection plan in the area of organized criminality, the following items, though not inclusive, are offered:

a) Membership of criminal organization: All members with biodata available. length of membership; criteria for membership; geographic range of their illegal activities: regional, interprovincial, national or international;

b) Geographic data on targets: Headquarters, home address, business address, locations targets frequent;

c) Hierarchy of the criminal organization: Is there a structure in place?

d) Criminal activities of group: All known or suspected illegal activities; dates of criminal activity occurrences should be included to show possible changes or trends;

e) “Legitimate” business activities: All known or suspected involvement with “legitimate” business including employment history, ownership of, or investments in, businesses, past and present; hidden ownership through fronts and paper corporations and possible trends or changes;

f ) Financial data: Any information that shows evidence of financial condition of targets: real estate, vehicles, travel or any other conspicuous consumption;

g) Connections to other criminal organizations: Associations/links between criminal organizations and individual targets.
Though the foregoing items are generalized suggestions, information collection planning is essential in developing quality intelligence assessments. Remember, you cannot afford an ad hoc approach to gathering criminal information. Such practices not only hinder the development of enforcement strategies, but are an ineffective utilization of scarce resources.

Collation

Collation is the indexing, cross referencing, storage and retrieval of information/ intelligence. Information should be processed in an electronic environment at all times.

Analysis

The core of the process, analysis is the conversion of basic information into finished intelligence. This includes the integration, evaluation and analysis of all available information and the preparation of a variety of intelligence products which may be presented as briefings, situation reports or lengthy assessments.

Definition:

Criminal Operations Model:

The process guiding intelligence-led policing in the RCMP. This model includes the production of intelligence, the use of this intelligence in setting priorities for resource allocation, and in carrying out project-based operations through the use of multi-disciplinary teams. This process is carried out in alignment with the RCMP Planning Cycle.

Intelligence-Led Policing:

Intelligence-led policing involves the collection, analysis and sharing of information to produce an intelligence end product designed to inform police decision-making on priorities for resource allocation at both the tactical and strategic levels. Intelligence is produced and used to guide operations.

Operational Planning Cycle:

The process of selecting, planning and executing intelligence-based operations. This framework guides the timing of the production of intelligence to recommend strategic and tactical operational priorities. This framework also guides the production of intelligence to support the development and execution of operational plans related to these priorities.

Sleipnir:

While no single, agreed-upon definition for organized crime is used in Canada, the RCMP does use a technique to determine the relative threat posed by organized criminal groups in Canada. Sleipnir is the name of a threat measurement technique developed within the Criminal Intelligence Program of the RCMP. It was adopted in October 1999 as the RCMP's threat measurement technique for organized crime. Sleipnir is used to assess the relative threat posed by organized criminal groups to Canadian society. The technique uses a set of 19 defined attributes (some being violence, corruption, sophistication, expertise, mobility, stability) often associated with criminal organizations. These attributes are defined, weighted and valued, and then used to compare two or more groups of organized criminals in an objective, comprehensive way to determine the relative threat posed.