§ Mr. BradyTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what guidelines his Department has issued to police forces on the use of(a) criminal pattern analysis and (b) comparative case analysis. [1546351
§ Ms BlearsNo formal guidelines have been issued although research studies have been published relevant to this area.
The Department has supported the roll out of the National Intelligence Model and the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) has produced a set of minimum standards for the model. These were circulated to forces in 2003. The National Policing Plan expects forces to adopt the model to these minimum standards by April 2004. The standards include the creation of four intelligence products that inform the setting of local and force priorities and the making of tactical resourcing decisions. The four intelligence products are informed by nine analytical techniques, one of which is Crime Pattern Analysis (analysis of the criminal would form the basis of one of the model's intelligence products). The techniques are used by trained intelligence analysts operating at both Basic Commend Unit and force level.
372WCrime Pattern Analysis informs Comparative Case Analysis. Comparative Case Analysis is a standard analytical technique of the Serious Crime Analysis Section (SCAS) of the National Crime and Operations Faculty at CENTREX. The technique is predominantly utilised for, and suited to, serious crime and a code of practice on Serious Crime Analysis Compliance is nearing completion.