A lot of smart people work for the Plant City Police Department (PCPD). In addition to them, somewhere deep within the Police Center sits a big brain—not by itself of course—it is carried around inside a human. We will call the brain “H.” In this case, we will say “H” stands for “her.” H is a Crime Intelligence Analyst. The definition of “intelligence” in this field is collecting and piecing together information valuable to law enforcement.
“We are more intelligence-led policing here.” H said. “In the criminal investigations unit, I work with seven detectives, and I assist them in the crime intelligence aspect of it. My goal is to solve the case, reduce future crime, and educate the public about crime prevention and crime trends.”
H has a bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice, and is certified by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement as a Crime and Intelligence Analyst, and is also certified by the Department of Homeland Security in Intelligence and Threat Analysis. She has 20 years of experience at this, and has worked for PCPD for 2 years. This PCPD mind receives all of the information gathered into the department, assimilates it, and processes it into a coherent picture. She looks into clues and data as a whole to tie together dispersed crime information to solve cases.
“I read every police report, every day, including our calls for service,” H said. “We need to look at all of our data to see if there is anything that we can case match. Not everyone breaks into a car the same way. Some people are opportunists and just try the door handles, where others will break a window or punch a lock. So, we are looking for a pattern and that allows me to share that information with patrol, to say, “There is a hot spot in an area that we might need to look at,’ as well as when we are looking within the detective bureau to solve a crime pattern.”
“Not one day is the same,” H said. “Depending on what type of crime is occurring, I identify hot spots. I utilize analytical reports and crime mapping. I create crime bulletins and summaries. I link crimes. All of that to prevent future crimes, be proactive, and direct and allocate our resources to the best places. I am the person who goes and looks outside of the box….and I can take the time to research the facts that we have already received, and maybe assist in an investigation.”
Vehicle burglaries in Plant City provide a real-world example. “A lot of times when people commit a crime somewhere that is easy, they have the possibility of coming back. There have been times that we have identified a hot spot, usually in a neighborhood, depending on how the individuals entered or left the neighborhood—or may not have left the neighborhood,” H said. “In one particular case, around spring break there were juveniles that had broken into a few vehicles, and we were able to identify that they lived locally.” PCPD caught the suspects. Forty-seven percent of vehicles in Plant City are unlocked when they are stolen, or have valuables taken from inside. If residents simply locked their cars, that would reduce a lot of crime.
Throughout the State of Florida and nationally, there are intelligence fusion centers, which house staff from multiple law enforcement and intelligence agencies. These fusion centers provide a means to exchange intelligence and crime information. PCPD is connected to the fusion centers, and also with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. H gets intelligence from every fusion center in the state, every day. She reads all of this intelligence, and sends intelligence she has gathered back to the fusion centers.
“Crime travels,” H said. “So anything that is occurring in Plant City is not just staying within our city. It is going to Lakeland. It is going to Tampa. And so we are connecting those crimes together. A lot of that is by networking. There’s no magic button. It is a lot of communication—a lot of research.”
H gets her satisfaction from, “Solving the case and catching the bad guy. There is a great sense of satisfaction that your work makes a difference. “
“We are very lucky—having our crime analyst,” said Captain Robert McLellan, who leads the Criminal Investigations Division, “Because when I was a detective 15 to 20 years ago, we didn’t have this ability to have somebody look outside the box. As a detective you go out and you gather all the information, and you are running from point A to point B. But now we have this analyst that can look over everything we are looking into, and can spread out that puzzle and put it together piece by piece. I know that what she has brought to us is to look at things from a different angle that has brought several cases to a close.”