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Marine Corps Law Enforcement Intelligence Led Policing

Jeremy L. French

LEPS 550

August 22, 2016

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Marine Corps Law Enforcement Intelligence Led Policing

Intelligence-led policing is an integral part of modern law enforcement. Analysis and data

collection has led to the development of unique strategies for crime enforcement and prevention.

The Marine Corps has developed its own intelligence-led policing initiative to evaluate and

analyze key police information and intelligence towards establishing priorities used to execute

operations focused on generating effects that address most relevant criminal threats to Marine

Corps installations.

Installation Overview

Marine Corps Recruit Depot (MCRD) San Diego is a United States Marine Corps

military installation in San Diego, California. It is located in the Midway District between San

Diego Bay and Interstate 5, adjacent to San Diego International Airport and Liberty Station, the

former Naval Training Center occupying 388 acres. MCRD San Diego's main mission is the

initial training of enlisted male recruits living west of the Mississippi River. Over 21,000 male

recruits are trained at MCRD annually (MCRDSD Public Affairs Office, 2012). Three major

subordinate organizations make-up MCRD; Headquarters and Service Battalion (H&S), Recruit

Training Regiment (RTR), and Weapons and Field Training Battalion (WFTB). In addition to

recruit training, MCRD San Diego is also home to the Drill Instructor's School for RTR and the

Recruiter's School for the entire Marine Corps. The Coast Guard also has a presence on MCRD

with the Pacific Area Tactical Law Enforcement Team. MCRD employs approximately 900

civilian employees, 1,300 Marines and Sailors and 220 Coast Guardsman (MCRDSD Public

Affairs Office, 2012).

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MCRD impacts the economy of San Diego through the salaries of its employees,

operating expenses, and by encouraging tourism. The Depot is one of the largest employers in

San Diego county. The local economy benefits as newly graduated Marines attract nearly 90,000

visitors to San Diego as friends and families come to see them graduate. The Depot is also home

to one of the three official Marine Corps command museums. Open to the public, the museum

greets approximately 172,000 visitors a year. More than 50,000 retired military members entitled

to use MCRD San Diego facilities reside within a 50-mile radius of the depot (MCRDSD Public

Affairs Office, 2012).

Provost Marshals Office Organization

The mission of the MCRD Provost Marshals Office (PMO) is to provide law

enforcement and criminal investigative support to the installation in order to enforce laws, rules,

and regulations while maintaining a safe and secure environment. PMO is prepared to provide

the initial response to and rapid escalation of high risk incidents aboard the installation in order

to protect lives and property. The department employs just over one hundred law enforcement

officers and is made up of patrol, investigations, military working dogs, services, training and

physical security sections along with a full time special response team.

Three Dimensional Policing

Military and civilian manpower reductions, increasing security and law enforcement

requirements, and fiscal restraints require a policing strategy which optimizes force deployment

based on demand. Intelligence-led policing is a collaborative process based on improved

criminal intelligence operations with integrated community-oriented and problem-oriented

policing. Engaging and collaborating with the community at all levels is essential. The Marine

Corps law enforcement community has coined the term Three Dimensional Policing (3DPM) to
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describe the process of using ILP, POP and COP to collate and analyze key police information

and intelligence towards establishing priorities used to execute operations focused on generating

effects that address most relevant criminal threats to Marine Corps mission assurance and force

readiness across the enterprise (U.S. Marine Corps, 2015). 3DPM is a dynamic, multifaceted,

proactive policing and management strategy designed to apply a diversity of approaches to

conducting Law Enforcement Operations (LEO) by synchronizing the principles of Intelligence

Led Policing (ILP), Community Oriented Policing (COP), and Problem Oriented Policing (POP).

ILP is a management strategy used to collect, analyze, and prioritize information

producing actionable intelligence to enable a proactive application of diverse police and

community approaches, supporting the prioritization of resources while focusing on deterrence

of crime in specific, targeted areas. COP is a policing concept that supports the use of

partnerships between law enforcement agencies and individuals and the organizations they serve

in order to address and prevent conditions that give rise to public safety issues such as crime,

social disorder, and fear of crime. POP is a policing strategy designed to identify and examine

incidents or clusters of incidents using crime analysis, police experience, and community

partners to develop new, more effective strategies in an attempt to cure the underlying causes of

crime, disorder, and community problems (U.S. Marine Corps, 2015).

Information gathering is a fundamental and essential element for all police agencies. The

collection of information and development of criminal intelligence is used to prevent crime,

pursue and apprehend offenders, and obtain evidence necessary for conviction. When there is

reasonable suspicion that individuals or organizations may either be planning or are engaging in

criminal activity, it is Marine Corps policy to gather information for analysis and potential use in

prosecution. This information is gathered with due respect for the rights of those involved, and
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can only be disseminated to authorized personnel. While criminal intelligence may be assigned

to specific personnel within the PMO, all members of the organization are responsible for

reporting information that may help identify criminals.

The crime analysis function includes collecting, organizing, analyzing and interpreting

crime and incident data to evaluate past performance and identify criminal activity patterns and

trends for operational deployment, tactical intervention, strategic planning and management

analysis. Crime analysis is indispensable to PMO efficiency, productivity and effectiveness.

Therefore, it is imperative that all personnel aboard the installation provide complete and

consistent reports of crime, incidents and related information to support this function.

Crime Data Analysis and Evaluation

The Provost Marshals Office does not utilize UCR and NIBRS data in any significant

way. Marine Corps installations use criminal statistics developed by their own internal crime

analysts and data reported by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS). NIBRS and UCR

data are of limited use for on the installation because the military community we serve is very

different from the general public. I am a proponent for using UCR and NIBRS data to analyze

the crime that is occurring just outside of our installations. Having an accurate picture of the

types and rates of crimes occurring around us helps to identify potential threats to the force and

predict the types of crime that are likely to spill over into the military community.

The Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office (SAPRO) within the Office of the

Secretary of Defense (OSD) co-opts with the Rand Corporation to conduct an independent

Congressionally mandated study of sexual assault in the military every two years.

Approximately 170,000 service members, or 30 percent of the 560,000 invited, answered

questions for the study, one of the largest of its kind (Rand Corporation, 2014). In the 2014
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survey, RAND estimates that approximately 20,000 of the military's 1.3 million active duty

service members reported being sexually assaulted one or more times in the past year. This figure

equates to 4.9 percent of active duty women and 1 percent of active duty men.

We find the victimization data useful to conduct sexual assault response training in our

department. Other studies have suggested that fifty-eight percent of sexual assaults are ultimately

not reported to law enforcement. The Rand survey gives a better idea of the victimization rates

and types of crime that are most likely occurring in the barracks.

Attempts to locate studies involving members of the military who self-reported

committing rape and/or sexual assault were met with negative results. A group closely related to

that of the military is college students living on campus. Several colleges have conducted some

degree of research to capture data from the anonymous self-reporting of sex offenders on

campus. Although there are obvious issues with obtaining potentially incriminating information

from individuals, there is some validity to this method of reporting.

Colleges and the military both suffer from the perception of having a significant sexual

assault problem. They have similarities in age group, living arrangements and alcohol

consumption. I believe that it is reasonable to conclude that the attitudes and patterns of behavior

as self-reported by college men would be similar to that of military men. The military could

benefit from implementing some of the sexual assault mitigation training that is currently being

used on college campuses across the country.

Assessment

The 3DPM methodology straightforwardly nests within the Marine Corps intelligence

cycle. Information is derived from a number of sources, compiled and analyzed to determine the

most effective courses of action, and used to implement preventive or reactive plans to address a
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crime or security problem. The process moves beyond simply eliminating crime to understanding

what drives criminals, the conditions that promote and support their efforts, and the most

effective way to halt their success. The Marine Corps intelligence process is the means to

incorporate these effective intelligence strategies in the fight against crime and security threats.

In addition to the typical measures of police performance (arrests, response

times, tickets issued, and crime rates) 3DPM calls for a broadening of police outcome measures

to include such things as greater community satisfaction, less fear of crime, the alleviation of

problems, and improvement in quality of life. 3DPM also calls for a more sophisticated

approach to evaluation, one that looks at how feedback information is used, not only how

outcomes are measured. Assessment attempts to determine if the response strategies were

successful by understanding if the problem declined and if the response contributed to the

decline. This information not only assists the current effort but also gathers data that build

knowledge for the future. Strategies and programs can be assessed for process, outcomes, or

both. If the responses implemented are not effective, the information gathered during analysis

should be reviewed. New information may have to be collected before new solutions can be

developed and tested. The entire process should be viewed as circular rather than linear, meaning

that additional scanning, analysis, or responses may be required (U.S. Army Training and

Doctrine Command, 2015).

During 2014, the Criminal Intelligence & Crime Analysis Section (CICAS) continued to

improve data flow with adjacent agencies aboard Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego and off

the installation. The CICAS established new templates for bulletins, informational reports and

the quarterly and annual crime analysis reports. Under the Provost Marshals direction, the

implementation of 3DPM was successfully refined across PMO, increasing its effectiveness
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compared to the previous year. Larceny remained one of the most frequently reported crimes

aboard MCRD. For 2014, 41 larcenies were reported. That is down from 2013 with 46 reported

larcenies but, up from 2012 that had 36 reported larcenies. The CICAS determined that a

majority of stolen property was unsecured at the time it was stolen; analysis revealed most

larcenies were crimes of opportunity, not serial in nature, and could have been prevented with

simple security measures. Larcenies of government property included the theft of individual

equipment, commonly referred to as Individual Issue Facility (IIF) gear. Frequently, with zero

leads or suspects, these reported larcenies were closed as unresolved.

Larcenies of personal property followed a previously reported trend of having been

unsecured/unattended at the time of the theft. The trend implies the victims felt secure in their

quarters/barracks and wrongly assumed items left unsecure would be safe. The CICAS continued

working the Community-Oriented Policing Section (COPS) to educate depot residents about

ways to reduce crime and about various services and programs for crime victims. Special

operations are PMOs primary means to interrupt criminal behavior predicted by crime trends

aboard the Depot. During 2014 the CICAS, the Criminal Investigation Division (CID), PMO

Operations, Traffic and K-9 sections, and the Special Reaction Team (SRT) collaborated to

conduct focused operations on the Depot based on crime trends.

Stolen Gear Operation

Victim of IIF gear theft reported and identified her stolen IIF gear on military

BooKoo website

CID identified and met with a contact who provided information on the Suspect

and Suspects MO

CICAS provided intelligence support to ongoing investigation

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Conducted a review of all stolen IIF gear reports to match to the suspects

MO

Created target packages on suspect, contact, associated victims, and liaised

with law enforcement who had prior contact with the suspect

Monitored all communications between suspect and agents

Identified the suspect was potentially selling stolen IIF gear at other

locations throughout southern California

Created op plan for purchase of gear from suspect

CID Agents conducted a buy/bust like operation

CID Agents interrogated and obtained a confession from the Suspect

The top five incidents that occurred during 2014 aboard MCRD were: Possession of

narcotics, larceny, DUI, assault and weapons violations (Criminal Investigation Division, 2014).

Each of these incidents have many factors that led to PMO involvement. It is the goal of PMO to

assist tenant commands with the identification of these factors and assist with avenues to

mitigate them. The majority of property stolen from the installation is unsecured and unattended.

Multiple investigations and operations have identified the majority of larcenies are crimes of

opportunity and secured property being more difficult to target for most criminals. The CICAS

recommended that commands discuss the importance of securing property with the Marines and

Sailors.

Conclusion
3DPMisacollaborativeeffortbasedonintelligenceledoperationsinvolving

communityorientedpolicingandproblemorientedpolicing,whichindividuallyhavebeen

proventobebeneficialincrimefighting.3DPM,forcedtheorganizationtoreevaluateour
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currenttactics,techniquesandproceduresandtoincorporateintelligenceintoourplanning

processtoaddressinstallationproblems.Informationsharingandintelligencecollectionand

disseminationhavebecomepracticeandnotjustameresuggestion.Thecollectionofdata

anditssubsequentanalysisisnowakeycomponentinthedevelopmentandexecutionofour

policeoperations.
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References

Criminal Investigation Division. (2014). MCRD criminal intelligence brief FY2014. San

Diego, CA.

MCRDSD Public Affairs Office. (2012, September 1). MCRDSD fact sheet. Retrieved from

http://www.mcrdsd.marines.mil/Portals/3/Documents/FACT%20SHEETS/Depot

%20Manpower.pdf

Rand Corporation. (2014, December 4). Initial results from major survey of U.S. military

sexual assault, harassment. Retrieved from

http://www.rand.org/news/press/2014/12/04.html

U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command. (2015). Military Police Force 2025

Strategic Plan. Washington, DC.

U.S. Marine Corps. (2015). Law enforcement manual (5580.2B W/CH 2). Washington, DC.