POLICY

RECEIPT OF INTELLIGENCE INFORMATION

1. As a small organisation covering a very large area 24 hours a day, 7 days a week; the SWSFC relies upon receipt of accurate intelligence from a range of sources.  It uses this to prioritise actions and target limited resources. 
2. Accordingly all information is gratefully received, but to be useful it must be provided in a timely fashion and contribute to answering the questions: Who?  Is doing what?  Where?  When?  Why?  With whom?  How? How frequently?
   
   Be aware that in very many instances that activities reported in good faith transpire to be  quite legal.
3. Intelligence may be provided anonymously, but unfortunately our experience is that some sources of intelligence have malicious intent.
   
   Therefore we give more credence to information provided by direct contact with SWSFC enforcement staff where we can question the provider. Accordingly we prefer to identify the source and make contact with them to ascertain further details that add to the usefulness of the supplied information.
   
4. Treatment of Intelligence
   Paper records is made of salient information and (extracts) are passed in confidence to key enforcement staff who, with their local knowledge and contacts, are best able to interpret it.
   The sources of intelligence are not disclosed outside of the organisation as above, without the informant’s consent. In some cases we do  not even divulge sources to staff on the ground in order that both parties are protected.
   In acting upon intelligence officers exercise their best endeavors not to inadvertently disclose a local source of information.  However, in close-knit communities it is inevitable that people sometimes draw their own conclusions (rightly or wrongly) as to a possible disclosure and its source.
   The information provider must also take this into account.
   
5. In implementing the above Policy, Officers will naturally provide more weight to intelligence received which is not from anonymous sources; which contains details that can be verified by personal contact and which is consistent with other events/intelligence and our local knowledge.

June 2006