Intelligence Sharing
North Yorkshire Police (NYP) and the wider policing family is intelligence driven. They rely on intelligence from communities, partners and other law enforcement agencies. Intelligence can come from a range of sources such as a concerned member of the community worried about a neighbouring address, a local authority worker who has received disclosure from a person, or from police in another part of the world updating us with the possible whereabouts of a fugitive.
What is the difference between information and intelligence?
In simple terms, intelligence is where the information submitted has been through an evaluation process based on how the information has been given, who / what was he source of the information, how reliable is that information likely to be and who are they able to share that intelligence with. The process used to evaluate information in NYP is called 3x5x2.
So what is 3x5x2?
The 3x5x2 intelligence assessment is a process undertaken by the Police and is not something required of partners, however may be useful to understand the process. It critically assesses the information in three key areas:
Source: identifies who has supplied the information and how reliable they are deemed to be. This may be someone deemed to be reliable, but has not yet been proven, or is possibly an untrustworthy source.
Provenance: grades how reliable the information is likely to be given how it is known to the source and can fall into five categories, e.g. it may be first-hand information or have been passed on through someone else, or indeed not believed to be very reliable. This grade gives intelligence services an idea of how likely the intelligence is to be true.
Sharing: The final element requires an assessment of the information to ensure that if the information is shared, it wouldn’t put the source of the information at a risk of significant harm. For example, if the source is the only person who could have known something and this is acted upon, it will be obvious who provided this information to the authorities. This is assessed and split between lawful sharing permitted or lawful sharing permitted with conditions.
Through this process all intelligence is submitted to police in its raw form from the source and goes through this assessment process to be given a grade that informs the police how much value they can attribute to it and how they can use it.
What if I want to pass information about safeguarding concerns I have for someone?
A referral for safeguarding children, young people or adults is not the purpose of the Partnership Information Sharing Form.
To raise a safeguarding concern about a child or young person, please visit:
www.safeguardingchildren.co.uk/about-us/worried-about-a-child
To raise a safeguarding concern about an adult, please visit:
www.northyorks.gov.uk/safeguarding-vulnerable-adults
What if the source wants to remain anonymous?
On occasions people may provide information but ask to remain anonymous for a number of reasons. In these instances, their details should still be recorded on the form. This is sanitised and viewing it limited to a very small number of highly vetted officers and staff within NYP.
Please reassure your colleagues, people and the communities you work with that their name and personal information will be kept confidential, but it is crucial that this information is made part of the original submission.
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