Profile: Detective Chief Inspector Brian Roberts – Deputy
Director of Intelligence
DCI Brian Roberts has been the deputy director of intelligence
since 2009. He previously worked as the Area Crime Manager for
Chester, Ellesmere Port and Vale Royal and as a neighbourhood
policing inspector in Winsford. Brian’s career has also involved
working as a detective in CID and on the on the Force Drugs
Unit.
He believes his background in community policing helps to keep
the law-abiding people of Cheshire at the forefront of his thoughts
while tackling major criminals.
He said: “I have worked in the local communities of Cheshire for
many years and understand what is important to them. I find that
really complements my work in intelligence. We map out areas where
there is a high level of crime affecting a community, and there is
often an organised crime gang linked to those local problems. My
job is to try and support the dismantling of those organised crime
groups.
”We can use our resources effectively so that we are giving a
police presence that gives confidence to the community and deters
crime at a local level while also gathering intelligence and
working on catching individuals who think they can operate outside
the law.”
“If we don’t tackle drug dealers, armed robbers and burglary
gangs then it has a massive impact on the individual.”
Although much of his department’s work is by its very nature
conducted away from the public eye, DCI Roberts is keen to reassure
Cheshire residents about their work.
He continued: “We take great care in ensuring that any
intrusiveness is proportionate and targeted against those
individuals who make life misery for others.
“The general public do not need to fear the investigative work
that we do because we work hard to target the right people.
“Quite rightly, we are under a lot of scrutiny to ensure the
tactics and equipment that we are using to look at the criminal
fraternity are proportionate. We have to justify what we are doing
under the law and those decisions are signed off by senior
officers.
“I am part of the community of Cheshire and it is important to
me that people can sleep soundly knowing that their police force is
doing everything possible to catch criminals in the county.”
The Force Intelligence Bureau is the hub of all information,
tip-offs and rumours about criminal activity which are received by
Cheshire Constabulary.
The department contains experts in a variety of fields whose
overall aim is to collate and make sense of intelligence before
providing the information to a policing team who can act upon
it.
The work they carry out targets people that commit very serious
crimes, often involving organised criminal gangs, but also work
alongside intelligence units in each area of the county, which deal
with information about local issues such as anti-social behaviour,
burglary and vehicle crime.
The bureau has a team of intelligence officers. They are
responsible for processing all intelligence that comes into the
force. That includes information provided by other police forces,
members of the public or highlighted by the force’s own
telecommunications experts.
The raw intelligence provided is graded by the officers based on
a number of criteria, including the reliability of the source. For
example, CCTV footage of an incident happening would be graded very
highly, whereas details provided by someone who has given false
information in the past would receive a much lower grading.
The intelligence also undergoes a process called sanitisation,
which removes details that could compromise the identity of the
informant. The department works hard to protect the identity of
anyone wishing to provide intelligence about criminal activity in
Cheshire.
If the intelligence can be acted upon immediately, the
intelligence officers will pass the information to the relevant
unit and make them aware of the potential to take urgent
action.
In other cases, the intelligence might simply be a snippet of
information that helps to build-up an overall picture of criminal
activity or provide useful background information for frontline
officers working in our communities.
The field intelligence officers are a group of police officers
who take-up intelligence which needs to be developed further before
action can be taken. A team consisting of a detective sergeant and
several detectives will conduct the surveillance and other
enquiries needed to develop the operation needed to take
action.
The intelligence unit also has a large input to major
investigations. This often involves a dedicated cell of analysts,
field intelligence officers and other staff operating as a
mini-intelligence unit on a specific investigation alongside the
Major Incident Team to work on murders and other .