Different Information Organizations to Produce the Same High Quality Intelligence: An Overview of the Police Forces in the Netherlands

Intelligence-led policing has been an important concept for policing worldwide for more than a decade now. The concept has been implemented very differently by different police forces. In this research article, we describe the different implementations of the concept in the 25 regional police forces in the Netherlands. We focused on the way the information organization is hierarchically organized, the governance structure, the processes and products of the information organization, the organizational culture, the level of education, and the information technology tools used. We also identified a number of aspects that are perceived by the forces as key to the success of the information organization. These are: a centralized information organization with deconcentrated employees, the criminal informants unit and regional public order intelligence unit hierarchically part of the information organization, a close relation with information management, highly educated people and a clear vision. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]