8 1 discussion reflection 1

What do you think are the purposes of creating and submitting a final intelligence report? Was it difficult to separate the surveillance legalities and/or the reconnaissance legalities in order to present the final report accurately? What difficulties did you encounter as you worked to finalize your report? How did you overcome these hurdles? What did you find was the most interesting part in developing the final intelligence report?

In responding to your peers’ posts, offer advice regarding methods or approaches that you found make this process easier.

Peer post 1

I found separating reconnaissance from surveillance to be more difficult then other things. Finding the right legal codes that apply is challenging, there is a lot of jargon behind the laws that effects my and perhaps other people’s understanding of what they mean. So, I think the purpose of submitting these reports is to better understand both a plan of action and what relevant laws are in place to guide those actions. More than anything there has to be a paper trail for the agency or department and documentation to supply to court during prosecution. Every little detail will be looked at through a case process, this how things were planned, how the operation went all matter. I overcame these hurdles with a lot of coffee and research. Every action in my plan equaled some kind of law that either allowed it, limited or or prohibited it. So I search every law by keywords on databases for federal and state until I could paint a good picture about what would need to be done. What I learned was, if I work for an agency where these kinds of reports are required, a legal team would be a great source to slice through legal jargon.

I would say the most interesting part would be how free developing a plan really is. There wasn’t any real formal procedure or department policy to follow of “this is how the operation is generally conducted.” Which means that law enforcement writing these plans really need to be trained and knowledgeable of the resources available, what they can obtain, what man power is available, how much the operation would cost as well as the laws. If someone less knowledgeable was in the situation of writing both a plan and a legal brief there could be a lot of room for error.

Peer post 2

What do you think are the purposes of creating and submitting a final intelligence report?

-The purposed behind creating and submitting a final intelligence report are quite crucial to an investigation. By doing such request, it not only allows for an extra set of eyes to review the document, but allows for it to be reviewed by multiple different levels of authority to ensure that every approach to the operation is covered. The intelligence report contains all movements, requests, operations, and contingencies that may arise during the course of the investigation. If an intelligence report was not created and submitted, then it could cause major issues for department if ones’ rights are infringed or property is damaged.

Was it difficult to separate the surveillance legalities and/or the reconnaissance legalities in order to present the final report accurately?

-When I was compiling all of the information gathered from my surveillance and reconnaissance requests, I did find it difficult to combine it all into one massive document. I know, in a real life scenario, there would be no page limit. As we learned, some reports could be hundreds of pages depending on the length of the investigation. There was a lot of repetitive information such as the backstory that carried over from each report.

What difficulties did you encounter as you worked to finalize your report?

-The difficulties I encountered was determining which information was deemed “important.” At the end of the day, all of the information is important, but determining which takes priority over others are the most difficult part. I am sure, over time, and doing them on a constant basis would increase proficiency. I believe that is true with anything. Since it is a new realm of expertise to dive into, it was difficult to understand the big picture at first.

How did you overcome these hurdles?

-Once I truly understood the why behind creating such an extensive report, I was able to get my mind in the right mode to create it. It took me a while, no lies. It took many times of reading and rereading examples, supporting documentation and resources to understand what the final product was supposed to be. With something that is so unfamiliar to me (like I am sure others), I wanted what I created to be the best possible. There may have been times I over thought things, but in the end, I believe I gained an ample amount of insight as to what an intelligence report really is.

What did you find was the most interesting part in developing the final intelligence report?

-The most interesting part to me was the fact that an intelligence report, in all its’ entirety, is drafted for a wide variety of operations conducted. At the end, right before submitting my final product, I observed the shear size of the document. For something like that to be created and submitted for operations happening everyday more or less blew my mind. The amount of effort and energy takes a significant amount of time, when sometimes time is of the essence.