Intelligence support for tactical policing: Intelligence preparation of the battlespace

This study examined the extent to which police intelligence units evolve through adopting and adapting processes from other disciplines, testing the assertion that intelligence preparation of the battlespace (IPB) doctrine offered a model for enhancing intelligence support provided to police tactical groups. The study makes an original contribution to knowledge by highlighting IPB as a militaristic process which could be adapted to realise an enhancement to current praxis within applied police settings, and contributes to the body of knowledge in an area of emerging interest within the field of police intelligence practice.
The study’s literature review identified that IPB continues to evolve as a framework for collection, collation, and analysis. Further review affirmed the continued suitability of the IPB framework as a process disposed toward adaptation to analogous fields, to enhance intelligence outputs in those domains.
The research method employed allowed for the collection of primary data from a multinational panel of experts. This then permitted analysis of the findings against both the core research question, and associated fields of secondary questioning centred on implications for practice in an applied setting.
The results of the study supported the notion that the IPB framework offers the potential to enhance the utility of police tactical group intelligence given certain conditions. The study’s results show that an adapted manifestation of IPB within police tactical group (PTG) contexts offers the opportunity to enhance intelligence support in a number of areas, principally in relation to factors of completeness and detail, most likely in areas of intelligence support which see interoperability with the military (such as counter-terrorism, joint operations, or peacekeeping/stability operations), and within longer-term, sustained operations.