Professionalising the use of human sources in the context of law enforcement intelligence management

This context statement demonstrates a contribution to professional practice knowledge of a body of work relating to the use of ‘human sources’ in the context of law enforcement intelligence management. This body of knowledge was produced in my role as an expert in this area which has been developed over several years. My expertise is the result of the integration of professional training, applied research, continuous professional development and practice. Beginning with the hypothesis that human sources (often referred to as ‘informants’) can be managed much more effectively and safely if a more structured and theoretically based approach is adopted, the statement explores through a critical reflexive lens how the research which produced the public works was carried out in a real world environment in order to identify and develop more effective methods that could be used by law enforcement professionals. In critically exploring my own works, a number of factors have been foregrounded that have the potential to influence this ‘high risk’ area of law enforcement. The statement has also given me the opportunity to make more explicit links between the various works and challenged me to pay attention to how practice that has become implicit needs to be articulated and examined so that it can be of use to the practitioners themselves and to the people and systems they seek to develop.

It has been particularly useful in identifying potential shortfalls in the research which I may have missed otherwise. The statement concludes by identifying how each submitted work adds to the body of knowledge that seeks to inform the progress towards a professionalization of law enforcement for the benefit of practitioners and the citizens they serve.
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