Intelligence Services Unit
In 2006, the Intelligence Services Unit (ISU) was established and shortly thereafter later utilized funds from a federal grant award and funding approved by the Burlington County Board of Chosen Freeholders to purchase the Infoshare Intelligence Management module, along with various other software programs, peripherals, and equipment. The intelligence module can support and enhance law enforcement efforts at the local, county and federal levels. With an intelligence management system in place, the Intelligence Services Unit satisfied the requirements of federal guidelines 28 CFR Part 23, as well as the New Jersey Attorney General Intelligence Guidelines.
In 2018, ISU was comprised of one detective sergeant and a trained analyst as a prosecutor’s agent. ISU is an active member of the Burlington County Gang Task Force and is responsible for coordinating the quarterly Gang Task Force meetings and administering the Annual Gang Seminar training. Its members teach blocks of instruction on intelligence and gang awareness. They provide training to municipal, county and state law enforcement, school administrators, students, and officials from Joint Base McGuire – Dix – Lakehurst. They also provide semi-annual training for the County’s Advanced Criminal Investigations Course, along with assisting and scheduling 28 CFR Part 23 training and Intelligence Module training. ISU produces intelligence products to include a bi-monthly intelligence brief, flow charts, timelines, link, telephone and GPS analysis, and continuous county-wide gang threat assessments. Part of ISU’s mission is to identify gangs, members, associates, trends, locations and potential hotspots for criminal activity, in addition to providing support in the courtroom with regards to gang identification and methods of communication. To date, 30 Burlington County municipal police agencies participate in the Infoshare Intelligence Sharing Program with a total of 64 police officers and detectives from the various agencies having access to the database.
ISU coordinates the bi-monthly Violent Enterprise Source Targeting (V.E.S.T.) meetings. The U.S. Attorney’s Office developed the program in an effort to coordinate, assist and prosecute local violent offenders at the federal level. The program’s target audience is command staff members from the local, state and federal law enforcement agencies. The meeting provides information on current crime data, trends, intelligence, significant arrest, and current investigations.
ISU is responsible for conducting deconfliction training to Burlington County municipal departments. Deconfliction is used on all investigations and is designed to make sure there are no parallel investigations on the same target by another law enforcement agency. This, in turn, ensures safety for officers who work in an uncover capacity. The deconfliction process is conducted through web-based access to the Philadelphia / Camden High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (H.I.D.T.A) and the NY/NJ H.I.D.T.A., which then connects with numerous other deconfliction systems.
ISU is also responsible for providing blocks of instruction on gang awareness to schools, to include students and school administrators.
In July 2014, the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office Intelligence Services Unit commenced tracking Naloxone deployments by law enforcement in Burlington County. In 2016, there were 195 Naloxone deployments by Burlington County law enforcement. In 2017, there were 346 Naloxone deployments resulting in 309 saves. In 2018 there were 571 Naloxone deployments resulting in 470 saves. These numbers do not include deployments by EMS personnel.