This document was retired in July 2021. This was replaced by the wider Intelligence Management APP

Research and analysis are very important tools used in policing for intelligence purposes to understand crime and investigate criminal activity. It is a way of processing and analysing material and information presented to support decision-making. With this comes the intelligence cycle where a sequential process is undertaken to allow the information presented to be developed into intelligence. This involves the roles of the analyst, researcher, data sources, analytical techniques used, reports etc.

This guidance document helps to explain what the intelligence cycle is, the direction, collection and collation of relevant information, evaluation and analysis of the data. It goes into detail explaining the roles highlighted above as well crime theories and approaches, terms of reference, data sources, using statistics, and analytical techniques, output reports, dissemination of output report and on-going reviews.