Intelligence-led policing against organized crime – a case study
Intelligence-led policing has been criticized for being mostly improved rhetoric describing traditional reactive police work, rather than something truly new and pro-active. In this paper, an in-depth case study is used in order to determine whether or not there are examples that real change has taken place. For example: among huge amounts of information, how do the police determine what intelligence that should be taken seriously and acted upon?
The paper will cover what resulted in the shoot-out between the Swedish National Counter-Terrorism Unit and heavily armed criminals targeting a cash depot in Umeå in May, 2009. The police operation was initiated and guided by intelligence material, and can be seen as an example of pro-active, intelligence-led police work against organized crime. Based on a rich materiel, and by applying case methodology it will be possible to gain a deeper knowledge about intelligence-led police work. By that, theories concerning how the police try to apply intelligence-based methods in order to deal with organized crime might be tested.
The paper will thus give a description of one of the most violent fire fights in Swedish police history; interesting given the restricted use of weapons by the Swedish police and the very rare case of stand-offs between the police and criminals. Thereby, the paper will provide a contribution to criminology research by doing a case study of one example of how the Swedish police deal with organized crime; in contrast to the more common macro/statistical methods within criminology.