Crime Analysis, Intelligence, and Investigative Reporting
Crime Analysis, Intelligence, and Investigative Reporting
The exam tests how raw information becomes actionable analysis and a report that decision-makers can use. Know the intelligence cycle, analysis methods, oversight limits, and the reporting channels from CID to higher headquarters.
Analysis and intelligence
Crime analysis is tactical, strategic, or administrative. Tactical analysis supports an ongoing case; strategic analysis identifies patterns; administrative analysis supports resource decisions. The intelligence cycle is planning, collection, processing, analysis, dissemination, and evaluation. Link analysis maps associations; telephone toll analysis maps calls; financial analysis maps money; geospatial analysis maps time and place.
Oversight and civil liberties
Army intelligence oversight under AR 381-10 and DoD 5240.1-R limits collection, retention, and dissemination of information about U.S. persons. First Amendment activity is protected. Information must be relevant to an authorized mission, retained only as long as necessary, and shared on a need-to-know basis. Classified information is handled in approved channels.
Reporting
Reports must be timely, accurate, and concise. The basic questions are who, what, when, where, why, and how. A Serious Incident Report goes to higher headquarters for events meeting command criteria. A Report of Investigation is the CID case record; a Military Police Report, DA Form 3975, records the initial response. ALERTS and DSAID are reporting systems for law enforcement and sexual assault data. Distinguish fact from opinion and identify the source.
Worked example
Three burglaries occur in the same barracks over two weeks. The analyst builds a matrix of time, point of entry, stolen items, and suspect descriptions. Link analysis shows a common associate. The agent submits a report that states the pattern as an inference, not a conclusion, and requests additional patrols. If the incidents meet the serious-incident threshold, the SIR goes out promptly.
Traps that cost marks
Treating intelligence as evidence. Retaining U.S. person information without authorization. Late or speculative reports. Mixing opinion with fact. Failing to identify source reliability. Ignoring dissemination restrictions.